Medellin and its fallen cartel
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Medellin was home to the notorious Medellin Cartel, a drug syndicate headed by Pablo Escobar and responsible for approximately 80% of the world’s cocain supply. At his hight, Pablo was so powerful that he built an entire town to house the homeless of Medellin, flew in international soccer players to compete in private matches at his ranch, successfully ran for a national office, and then launched Colombia into a brutal civil war when the government dared to oppose him. In December, 1993, his reign came to an end when the National Police, supported by the CIA and a rival cocain cartel gunned him down on the roof of one of his Medellin safe houses.
Ironically enough, nearly 20 years after he helped transform Colombia into the ‘murder capital of the world,’ Pablo Escobar and his cartel cartel have become something of a tourist attraction, with several tour companies and hostels offering ‘Escobar Tours.’ Although all the tours visit the druglord’s grave and various properties of the cartel, one has managed to push the envelop thoroughly into the absurd by offering a chance to visit one of Pablo’s safe houses and speak with his brother Roberto, formerly the cartel’s accountant. Roberto, who has been half deaf and blind since a letter bomb failed to kill him years ago shows backpackers around his fortress of a house. The highlights include several bullet holes (the result of a botched kidnapping attempt 2 years ago) and a demonstration of one of the house’s secret hide-aways.
At the end of the tour, Roberto Escobar, a man who once had a $10,000,000 reward over his head and handled the accounting for a cartel that allegedly spent $2500 a month just on rubber bands to wrap its cash in, sits down and offers to autograph posters of himself and Pablo for $6 apiece.
(Source: travelingtye-blog)
