The Sacrifice Of Pablo Escobar

It has been thirty years this month since Pablo Escobar was killed in Medellin, Colombia. He was the most wanted fugitive in the world, having made many billions of dollars shipping cocaine into the U.S.

The Government of Colombia knew that he was hiding in Medellin, and formed a special unit to track him down. There were a lot of people in Medellin who might support Escobar but his weak point was that he cared about his family, and the authorities closely monitored their communications.

One day Escobar called his son, using a radio telephone, and the unit was able to triangulate approximately where the call was coming from. The special unit, the Search Bloc, was quickly dispatched. This didn't mean that they were sure to find him. The call could be triangulated to a location of a couple of hundred meters, but it was a densely populated urban neighborhood and he might have been in a car.

But when they arrived they saw Escobar looking at them through a large window. Then he tried to escape across a rooftop, where the Search Bloc had a clear shot at him. Although Escobar had only a pistol, and the Search Bloc had assault rifles, he fired first at them and they returned fire which killed him.

This is the one story building. Escobar was shot on it's roof. Image from Google Street View.

The following two images, from Google Street View, are of the front of the building complex.

While I am not about to claim that Pablo Escobar was a nice person, he did care about his family. I believe the theory that he sacrificed himself for them. 

The rival Cali Cartel had previously tried to kill Escobar's family with a bomb, as well as unsuccessful plots to kill him. Escobar was now isolated and couldn't show in public. He had just celebrated his 44th birthday. The less murderous Cali Cartel drew less government attention and now controlled most of the cocaine trade.

The only sure way for Escobar to protect his family, giving no one any reason to harm them, was to sacrifice himself.

Escobar was anything but dumb. He knew that the government would be monitoring his family's communication and that the Search Bloc had the equipment to triangulate approximately where the call was coming from. He made the call to his son, who reportedly didn't want to take the call because it could be tracked, knowing that the Search Bloc would be on their way.

They didn't know exactly where he was but when they pulled up on the street they saw him looking out of a window at them. If you were the most wanted fugitive in the world, and you heard vehicles pulling up outside, would you go and stand in front of a picture window so that they could see you?

Then Escobar ran across the rooftop, where the Search Bloc had a clear shot at him, and fired first at them. They fired back and now no one had any reason to harm his family.