Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw 
asked by formula on November 20, 2006 5:57 PM
Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting story about as well as any writer at work today. Killing Pablo is further proof. It describes the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, a notorious Colombian drug lord who became one of the narcotic trade's first billionaires. Pablo--Bowden refers to him by his first name throughout the book--started out as a petty thief and wound up running a massive smuggling empire. At his height in the 1980s, he owned fleets of boats and planes, plus 19 separate residences in Medellin, each with its own helipad. Violence marked everything he did: "He wasn't an entrepreneur, and he wasn't even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless." He bought off police, politicians, and judges throughout his country, and killed many others who wouldn't cooperate. The Colombian government tried to capture him, but without much luck; he evaded them time after time. "Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, literally, with his pants down. In [1988], about one thousand national police raided one of his mansions," writes Bowden. "Pablo fled in his underwear, avoiding the police cordon on foot." He got away, again, but his days were numbered. He was making powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo's men murdered a popular politician and, three months later, planted a bomb on a plane, killing 110 people, including two Americans.
The bulk of Killing Pablo describes what happened when the U.S. government put its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-surveillance effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial journalism, too: in the epilogue, Bowden drops tantalizing hints that it was an American--not a Colombian--who delivered the killing shot to Pablo in 1993. Readers looking for a real-life thriller--or any kind of thriller, for that matter--won't do much better than Killing Pablo.
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I LOVED THIS BOOK. I TYPICALLY READ HISTORICAL FICTION BUT THIS CAUGHT MY ATTENTION. I HAD TO READ IT AFTER SEEING THE DOCUMENTARY ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL. I FOUND IT INTERESTING TO READ ABOUT HOW THE U.S. PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN PABLO'S EXECUTION.
reviewed by nat on November 29, 2006 5:28 AM
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Yes, this book is a detailed account of law enforcement and of how Pablo Escobar was tracked down and assassinated by an international hit squad. And, yes, Escobar was most certainly un mal hombre who deserved to die. But the author never questions the methods of cops, soldiers and agents (like Colonel Hugo Martinez, for one) who debase themselves and the concept of justice by believing they are not only above the law but above humanity. The real story to me is how someone like Escobar, a diabolical and degenerate human being, can so easily drag society down to his level, and how so willingly law enforcment will adopt the "any means necessary" approach.
This book is important to read if your interest is how they caught a famous outlaw, but for a more thoughtful and knowing presentation of the phenomenon of Escobar, how he became so powerful and effected the course of Colombian and U.S. history, you will need to look elsewhere. The opening chapters on Colombian history in this book are perfunctory and mostly cribbed from other, better sources.
Hopefully, someone will one day write an intelligent biography of Escobar and his era. Believe it or not (contrary to this book and "Black Hawk Down," another by Bowden) there is more to history than cops and soldiers taking the law into their own hands and blowing people away. Maybe if Americans had more "intelligence" -- both in a binary and military sense -- about places like Colombia, Mogadishu, Vietnam and, for that matter, Iraq, we wouldn't need to send our citizens (ie, soldiers and agents) out into the world to act like cowboys and sometimes die.
This book is important to read if your interest is how they caught a famous outlaw, but for a more thoughtful and knowing presentation of the phenomenon of Escobar, how he became so powerful and effected the course of Colombian and U.S. history, you will need to look elsewhere. The opening chapters on Colombian history in this book are perfunctory and mostly cribbed from other, better sources.
Hopefully, someone will one day write an intelligent biography of Escobar and his era. Believe it or not (contrary to this book and "Black Hawk Down," another by Bowden) there is more to history than cops and soldiers taking the law into their own hands and blowing people away. Maybe if Americans had more "intelligence" -- both in a binary and military sense -- about places like Colombia, Mogadishu, Vietnam and, for that matter, Iraq, we wouldn't need to send our citizens (ie, soldiers and agents) out into the world to act like cowboys and sometimes die.
reviewed by alexis on November 29, 2006 9:33 AM
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You will not find the word "Narcoterrorócracy" in the dictionary. I made the word up and gave it my own meaning.
Narcoterrorocracy is the process of being a narcotics trafficker and kingpin of an illegal drug. The trafficker takes over the governmental functions of a county with terrorist acts, blackmailing, bribing, murder and corruption, against government officials as well as the general population.
Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) lets the reader know at the beginning of the story that Pablo was killed. However, as he tells the story on how difficult, dangerous, time-consuming and expensive the operation was the reader is, nonetheless, kept on the edge until the end.
Pablo and his gang got their start in criminal activity at a young age. From stealing headstones from cemeteries and reselling them after they were redone to running petty street swindles selling contraband cigarettes and false lottery tickets and swindling people out of their hard-earned cash. He became an accomplished car thief before he turned twenty.
No one had the slightest inkling Pablo Escobar would become not only the world's richest man but also the world's most wanted criminal. He had placed a people, a city, and a government, a country in manacles with terrorist's acts, blackmailing, bribing, corruption, fear and murder.
Pablo Escobar was the cocaine cartels kingpin; he built an empire by bringing a Country its government and its people to their knees by his terrorist acts. His terrorists tactics makes Osama ben Laden a Cinderella of terrorism.
The reader will feel disgusted with how the Colombian government gave in and negotiated with the kingpin of the Colombian cocaine cartel. The Colombian president and government officials amended the constitution of the country to accommodate the wishes and needs of Pablo Escobar.
The CIA, DEA, Delta Force, and Centra Spike from the United States, and Los Pepes (a Colombian homegrown vigilante group) made it possible to catch and kill the elusive and dangerous Pablo Escobar; however, not before millions of dollars were spent and more than seven years had gone by.
I highly recommend Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo." It is a story that will astonish, surprise, amaze and overwhelm the reader.
Narcoterrorocracy is the process of being a narcotics trafficker and kingpin of an illegal drug. The trafficker takes over the governmental functions of a county with terrorist acts, blackmailing, bribing, murder and corruption, against government officials as well as the general population.
Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) lets the reader know at the beginning of the story that Pablo was killed. However, as he tells the story on how difficult, dangerous, time-consuming and expensive the operation was the reader is, nonetheless, kept on the edge until the end.
Pablo and his gang got their start in criminal activity at a young age. From stealing headstones from cemeteries and reselling them after they were redone to running petty street swindles selling contraband cigarettes and false lottery tickets and swindling people out of their hard-earned cash. He became an accomplished car thief before he turned twenty.
No one had the slightest inkling Pablo Escobar would become not only the world's richest man but also the world's most wanted criminal. He had placed a people, a city, and a government, a country in manacles with terrorist's acts, blackmailing, bribing, corruption, fear and murder.
Pablo Escobar was the cocaine cartels kingpin; he built an empire by bringing a Country its government and its people to their knees by his terrorist acts. His terrorists tactics makes Osama ben Laden a Cinderella of terrorism.
The reader will feel disgusted with how the Colombian government gave in and negotiated with the kingpin of the Colombian cocaine cartel. The Colombian president and government officials amended the constitution of the country to accommodate the wishes and needs of Pablo Escobar.
The CIA, DEA, Delta Force, and Centra Spike from the United States, and Los Pepes (a Colombian homegrown vigilante group) made it possible to catch and kill the elusive and dangerous Pablo Escobar; however, not before millions of dollars were spent and more than seven years had gone by.
I highly recommend Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo." It is a story that will astonish, surprise, amaze and overwhelm the reader.
reviewed by vladi on November 29, 2006 7:27 PM