DRUGS 17
1-3bp Role in the Palace of Justice siege
Among Escobar’s biographers, only Vallejo has given a detailed explanation of his role in the 1985
Palace of Justice siege. The journalist stated that Escobar financed the operation, which was
committed by M-19. Vallejo would go on to blame the army for the killings of the Supreme Court judges
and the M-19 members detained after the coup. This prompted a reopening of the case in 2008, and
when Vallejo was asked to testify in the reopened Palace case, most of the events she had described
in her book and testimonial were confirmed by Colombia’s Commission of Truth. This saw further
investigation into the siege, which lead to a high-ranking former colonel and a former general being
sentenced to 30 and 35 years in prison respectively, for the forced disappearance of the detained after
the siege. Vallejo would subsequently testify in the case of Luis Carlos Galán’s assassination, which had
also been reopened. She would accuse several politicians, including Colombian presidents Alfonso
López Michelsen, Ernesto Samper, and Álvaro Uribe, of having links to drug cartels. Her cooperation in
the cases saw Vallejo being granted political asylum in the United States on June 3, 2010.
1-3bq Relatives
Escobar’s widow, María Henao (now María Isabel Santos Caballero), son, Juan Pablo (now Juan
Sebastián Marroquín Santos), and daughter, Manuela, fled Colombia in 1995 after failing to find a
country that would grant them asylum. Despite Escobar’s numerous and continual infidelities, Maria
remained supportive of her husband, though she urged him to eschew violence. Members of the Cali
Cartel even replayed their recordings of her conversations with Pablo for their wives to demonstrate
how a woman should behave. This attitude proved to be the reason the cartel did not kill her and her
children after Pablo’s death, although the group demanded (and received) millions of dollars in
reparations for Escobar’s war against them. Henao even successfully negotiated for her son’s life
by personally guaranteeing he would not seek revenge against the cartel or participate in the drug
trade. After escaping first to Mozambique, then to Brazil, the family were allowed to settle in Argentina.
Living under her assumed name, Henao became a successful real estate entrepreneur until one of her
business associates discovered her true identity and Henao absconded with her earnings. Local
media were alerted, and after being exposed as Escobar’s widow, Henao was imprisoned for
eighteen months while her finances were investigated. Ultimately unable to link her funds to illegal activity,
she was released. According to her son, Henao fell in love with Escobar “because of his naughty smile
and the way he looked at her. He was affectionate and sweet. A great lover. I fell in love with his desire
to help people and his compassion for their hardship. We would drive to places where he dreamed of
building schools for the poor. From the beginning, he was always a gentleman”.
Henao is now believed to be living under an alias in North Carolina. Argentinian filmmaker Nicolas
Entel’s documentary Sins of My Father (2009) chronicles Marroquín’s efforts to seek forgiveness, on
behalf of his father, from the sons of Rodrigo Lara, Colombia’s justice minister who was assassinated
in 1984, as well as from the sons of Luis Carlos Galán, the presidential candidate who was
assassinated in 1989. The film was shown at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and premiered in the
US on HBO, in October 2010. In 2014, Marroquín published Pablo Escobar, My Father under his birth
name. The book provides a firsthand insight into details of his father’s life and describes the
fundamentally disintegrating effect of his death upon the family. Marroquín aimed to publish the book
in hopes to resolve any inaccuracies regarding his father’s excursions during the 1990s.
Escobar’s sister, Luz Maria Escobar also made multiple gestures in attempts to make amends for the
drug baron’s crimes. These include making public statements in the press, leaving letters on the graves
of his victims, and on the 20th anniversary of his death, organizing a public memorial for Escobar’s victims.
Escobar’s body was exhumed on October 28, 2006, at the request of some of his relatives, in order
to take a DNA sample to confirm the alleged paternity of an illegitimate child and remove all doubt
about the identity of the body that had been buried next to his parents for 12 years. A video of the
exhumation was broadcast by RCN, angering Marroquín, who accused his uncle, Roberto Escobar,
and cousin, Nicolas Escobar, of being “merchants of death” by allowing for the video to air.
1-3br Hacienda Nápoles
After Pablo’s death, the ranch, the zoo, and the citadel were at Hacienda Nápoles were expropriated
by the government and given to low-income families under a law called Extinción de Dominio (Domain
Extinction). The property has been converted into a theme park surrounded by four luxury hotels
overlooking the zoo and the installation of a tropical park.
1-3c An article in one of our newspapers
A Farmer Found $600 Million That Apparently Belonged To Pablo Escobar
Jose Mariena Cartolos, a 65-year-old farmer from Colombia, got a lot more than he bargained for when
he opened up his new palm oil plantation.
Cartolos recently received a $3,000 grant from the Colombian government to help kickstart his new
farm on a plot of land that has reportedly been in his family for more than 200 years.
He allegedly made an astonishing discovery while digging a trench on the land for a new irrigation
system: $600 million in cold, hard cash.
The money was apparently buried on the land by none other than Pablo Escobar, the most successful
cocaine trafficker of all time.
Escobar, is said to have hidden parts of his $30 billion fortune in odd places around the country.
He was well-known for hiding his cash in furniture, in floorboards and on different plots of land around
the country, one of which apparently belongs to Cartolos.
Sadly, Cartolos is not allowed to keep his findings. Instead, the government will seize the money and
use it for “social and economic programs.”
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