Pablo Escobar's Rise To Power

Discuss how Escobar was able to rise to power and his eventual downfall. In your discussion, consider the following, are his methods still used today? How was he able to obtain so much power and money? How does the government play into the discussion?

Pablo Escobar, also known as “The King of Cocaine”, was a notorious Colombian drug lord, who at the height of his career supplied about 80% of the cocaine, which was smuggled into the U.S. (Wikipedia web). In the 1970’s, Pablo Escobar rose to power when began to take control over drug trafficking and the selling of cocaine. He was known to be a very violent and ruthless person, who showed no mercy that did not follow his simple commands. He became wealthy because no one stood in his way,

and there wasn’t a single government official, or personnel he feared. In fact, he portrayed as the “Robin Hood” for the people of Medellin, so that this keeps the people of his town on his side, and do favors for him. According to the one of agents on the YouTube video called, the killing of Pablo Escobar, His power also rose because of the fear which he instilled into everyone around him, “if you followed his simple chain of commands, you lived, and if you didn’t you died, your wife, your kids, your parents, and even your parents pets” (you tube web). After years of Pablo Escobar’s control over the Colombian government, the government finally decided to declare war on him, and put an end to him terrorizing the people of Colombia. Despite many attempts, the eventual downfall of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel, and his life came an end December 2, 1993, a day after his birthday when the Colombian police traced him to his hiding place during a phone call with his done. Pablo Escobar cheated, bribed, mislead, and threatened his way to power and money, methods which are still used today in the drug trafficking industry. The government plays a role, so people like Pablo Escobar can’t have all the power, unfortunately, the government of Colombia feared losing not only there own life, but there loved ones, if they got in the way of one the largest drug cartel lords. A government is set in place to ensure that the people of there community are safe from drug trafficking and to also prevent drug lords to gain any sort of power.