On December 2, 1993, the body of Pablo Escobar, one of the most infamous drug kingpins the world has ever seen, was finally laid to rest in a small private ceremony in Medellín, Colombia. Over 25,000 people flooded the streets for a glimpse of Escobar’s coffin while under heavy police guard. The chaotic scenes highlighted the polarizing nature of Escobar’s legacy that continues to divide Colombia.
Escobar‘s Rise from Small-Time Thief to Billionaire Kingpin
Born in 1949, Pablo Escobar came from modest beginnings growing up in Rionegro, Colombia with his mother, a school teacher, and his father, a farmer. As a teenager, he began his criminal career reselling contraband cigarettes and organizing fake lottery tickets.
In the 1970s, Escobar entered the cocaine trade just as it was exploding. He worked with other criminals like Carlos Lehder and Jose Rodrigo Orejula to develop the first cocaine trafficking routes into the United States. Leveraging bribery, intimidation and violence, his Medellín Cartel took control of the global cocaine market, with smuggling routes and distribution networks across the Americas.
At his peak, it was estimated that 70-80% of the cocaine being sold in the U.S. was supplied by Escobar‘s cartel who were earning estimated annual profits of $70 million per day. Escobar‘s personal wealth grew to over $30 billion by the 1980s, making him one of the richest criminals in history.
Escobar Cultivated Image as Robin Hood for the Poor
While known internationally as the demonized head of the Medellín drug cartel, within Colombia, Pablo Escobar carefully cultivated his public image as a self-made man of the people providing for the poor. He donated to housing and public works projects, building football fields and community centers. He even distributed cash to residents who attended his political rallies.
These acts bought him the loyalty and support of Colombia‘s poor and working class. Many were willing to serve as mules for his trafficking operations or otherwise aid Escobar‘s operation in exchange for his patronage. At the height of his power, Escobar effectively ran an alternative government challenging the legitimacy of Colombia‘s actual state authorities.
Violence and Terror Marked Escobar‘s Rise
However, Pablo Escobar‘s road to becoming one of Colombia’s most beloved yet infamous sons was paved by violence, intimidation and terror from his Medellín Cartel. Officials who refused to work with him were targeted by assassination squads or decimated by car bombs. Escobar ordered the destruction of Avianca Flight 203 in 1989, killing 110 innocent people in an attempt to assassinate his cartel‘s opposition.
In all, over 4,000 people including police, judges, ministers and civilians were killed in the war between Escobar’s drug militia against Colombia’s government authorities. The violence culminated in Escobar’s gun battle death with security forces on a Medellín rooftop in 1993 after 16 years reigning over his billion-dollar cocaine empire.
His death was both celebrated as the demise of a mass murderer who compromised authority and also mourned by his network – the poor communities who saw him as Colombia‘s Robin Hood coming to redistribute the riches of the elites.
25,000 Mourners Cause Havoc as they Pay Respects
Given Escobar’s high-profile persona, passage to the afterlife was similarly supersized when it came time for Pablo Escobar’s funeral and burial. Over 25,000 supporters swarmed into the streets of Medellín blocking roads and disrupting traffic to catch a glimpse of their deceased benefactor.
The crowds were so massive that Escobar’s family was trapped inside their vehicles, unable to drive or even open their doors through the hordes packed tightly around. They were forced to abandon a planned procession to carry Pablo’s coffin through Medellin‘s Aranjuez neighborhood where he grew up. Instead, the hearse traveled straight to Paradise Memorial Cemetery for the private burial attended only by his inner circle of family and friends.
Maria Henao, Escobar’s widow, later recounted the experience to a journalist:
“Every second was intense…From the initial bulletin on radio announcing Pablo’s death, to the violent return of his body, the wake, standing beside his body with thousands of people filing past to pay tribute, the funeral was even worse. We were unable to step out of the car once we entered the cemetery thanks to the crowd.”
Why Did So Many Mourn One of History‘s Most Notorious Criminals?
The sheer number of Escobar’s supporters that mobbed his funeral highlights his complicated and enduring legacy in Colombia. While known globally as one of the most successful drug kingpins ever, within his home nation opinions diverged between those who saw Escobar as the devil reincarnate and those who upheld him as a beloved local leader.
In the poverty-stricken slums and shanty towns, Pablo Escobar was hailed as a hero of the people. His networks supplied jobs, protection and public works. He donated time, money and gifts generating admiration in communities largely ignored by legitimate political leadership. By providing support, he bought loyalty on the streets that lasted even after death.
"To the poor people, Pablo was the only hope they ever had,” explained Father Garcia, a priest who ran community programs in Medellín at the time. “He was the one who helped when no else would. So when he died, they lost their defender."
However, Escobar’s terror campaigns also victimized thousands of ordinary Colombians killed in the crossfire between state forces against his cartel militia. Many saw his lavish funeral as condoning his abhorrent violence by excusing the terror he bought down upon the nation.
“It was shameful for Colombia to see so many celebrating that criminal‘s life," wrote Adriana Vanegas who lost two cousins killed by cartel car bombs in Bogota. "Some called him Robin Hood but he was a also mass murderer."
Escobar‘s Family Mourned Privately as the Violence Continued
While throngs paid public tribute on the streets, Pablo Escobar’s intimate inner circle were forced to grieve silently and secretly due to pervasive threats against their safety. Escobar’s widow, 7 year old son and 4 year old daughter watched their patriarch’s coffin surrounded by security, only able to truly mourn once his remains were underground.
Escobar‘s family struggled to return to normal life after Pablo‘s death. They were pursued by enemies and embroiled in legal issues around his hidden assets seized by governments. Escobar‘s wife eventually fled to Argentina in 1995 after an attempt was made on her life at their Medellín home.
Pablo’s only son, Juan Pablo Escobar, changed his name to Sebastián Marroquín once in hiding. He later returned to Colombia hoping to reconcile his father’s blood-stained past by apologizing to victims of his cartel violence before becoming an architect. Marroquín also went public as the legal owner of many properties once belonging clandestinely to his father in order to transfer ownership to the state.
While Pablo Escobar’s family have tried moving forward, violence in Colombia associated with the drug trade has never dissipated. Sebastián Marroquín spends much of his time in Argentina out of fears for his safety when in Colombia the organization his father founded continues waging war over control of the still thriving cocaine smuggling networks.
Funeral Marked the End of Escobar‘s Cartel But Not His Legacy
In many ways, Pablo Escobar’s headline-grabbing funeral in 1993 marked the definitive end of his cartel‘s reign over Colombia‘s cocaine industry. Attention shifted to the rival Cali Cartel prospering while the hunt for Escobar left his networks vulnerable.
Internal struggles over succession plans also fractured what remained of the Medellín leadership structure. Escobar‘s death sparked a classic mob war for control over remnants in Medellín. By 1998, 90% of those active in the top ranks around Pablo were dead or imprisoned from execution-style hits and military raids aided by his rivals.
However, while Pablo Escobar‘s funeral was the goodbye to the original cartel, his playbook and influence is felt even decades later. Splinter groups and emerging trafficking gangs still battle over control in Colombia‘s continuing drug wars. New juvenile gangs known as combos took over Pablo’s role providing welfare and patronage in poor neighborhoods creating roots in communities to enable access to trafficking corridors, just as Escobar first did.
Many of these splinter gangs continue using Escobar‘s “plata o plomo” tactics – accepting bribes to allow open cocaine smuggling or facing violent reprisals. Some still reference their original godfather as inspiration with leaders known by street names like “El Señor” (The Master) seen as the inheritor‘s of Pablo‘s first throne overseeing mass distribution of cocaine from production in Colombia outward through Latin America and the world.
Long Division Over Escobar‘s Ultimate Legacy as Hero or Villain
The epic street scenes witnessed during Pablo Escobar’s farewell showed the moral complexity around his ultimate life story – was he good or evil for Colombia? The lavish gangster funeral seemed to offend moral decency yet also gave a martyr’s celebration to a criminal who bought so much pain but also progress to overlooked neighborhoods.
Even decades later, Pablo Escobar‘s influence and legacy still sparks division among Colombians. His name means very different things depending on whom you ask. In June 2021, debate erupted in the country when footage surfaced showing soldiers pictured in front of a mural honoring Escobar prompting outrage. The army insisted the photos were taken in order to cover over tribute art to the infamous cocaine trafficker not to glorify him. Yet it shows his ghost has not yet been exorcised in the land he once ruled and terrorized.
For his apologists, Escobar‘s violence is defended as a reaction to an unfair system, a means the oppressed use to claw back power and legitimacy taken by ruling classes. They reference his donations to the poor as proof of his good intentions that then justify his wicked strategies. But for victims of Escobar’s attacks, no amount of community football pitches or cash giveaways can ever outweigh destroying thousands of innocent lives.
“He has been dead nearly thirty years yet still the debate goes on – was Pablo a saint or a sinner?” wrote historian Luis Javier Ortiz in Medellín newspaper El Colombiano after the latest furor. “The truth is, he was both. For Colombia to move forward we must understand how truth and myth blend in our history.”
Until the country fully reconciles the trauma of his actions balanced against the hope he inspired, the dividing lines around Pablo Escobar’s rule over Colombia will never fade, like the scars his violent legacy has permanently etched.
So while Pablo Escobar‘s send-off was fit for a beloved leader, for many it was good riddance to a merciless criminal. Yet in the crowds chanting his name, the drug lord turned anti-hero found admiration even beyond the grave among supporters who benefited from his lethal climb and saw him as one of their own.