GET PABLO

Journalist Mark Bowden Traces Drug Kingpin's Death

"KILLING PABLO: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw."

By Mark Bowden.

Atlantic Monthly Press, $25.

A public-radio report droned on recently about the problem of
out-of-control death squads in Colombia, and the average American could be
forgiven for just passing it off. After all, it seems the Colombians never
stop. Somebody is always killing somebody else in a new and brutish way.
It's about drug lords or rebels or corruption or all those things, all the
time.

Journalist Mark Bowden's Killing Pablo will give a reader pause to consider
how a country like Colombia can continue to repeat history and also to
consider the United States' part in dealing with "other people's problems."
The book is particularly of note since, as its publicists point out, the
United States has dedicated a $1.3 billion military package to Colombia and
since the U.S. military indisputably had a part in the 1993 killing of
cocaine overlord Pablo Escobar.

Even if you are bored by the politics, you will be absolutely captured by
this story. Bowden has many sources on record and manages to include many
personal stories of lives made and broken and remade during the saga.

The Story Is Escobar's

In the main, Killing Pablo is the story of the rise and fall of Escobar,
who built the cocaine export business in Colombia using clever intelligence
and ruthless style. He became so ridiculously rich and powerful that when
the Colombian government bowed to U.S. pressure to get a grip on the coke
business (most of it headed for the noses of supposedly rich Americans),
Escobar was able to negotiate his own "surrender" and force the government
to enact laws so he could not be extradited to the United States.

He then arranged to have himself placed in a prison he built, which
featured hidden escape passages. He was not confined to that prison, of
course, for he went shopping and to soccer games when he wanted. He also
continued to run his drug empire.

Complicated Relationships

Bowden does a brilliant job of explaining how the entire nation of Colombia
grew richer thanks to the drug industry and of how that resulted in
complicated relationships and conflicting emotions. As in Mexico, there is
a certain attitude among the populace in Colombia which holds that the
problem isn't the cocaine providers but the (wealthy U.S.) buyers.
Regardless, Escobar built this trade and rose to the top by a combination
of smarts and viciousness that made him a spectacular and terrible
character. When people did things he didn't like, he killed them, and often
killed their friends and families and lawyers, too. The dead included
elected officials, judges, police, editors, wealthy society figures and,
naturally, competitors in the cocaine business.

He pretty much held the country in his control by a reign of terror that
knew no limits. Those he didn't kill he bribed, again including the highest
authorities. He should have taken his jillions of dollars and fled the
country when the going was good, but he thought he was Colombia and might
even wind up president. He was so devoted to Medellin, the city where he
grew up, that he never really left, even hiding out there when he was being
sought in dozens of estates and houses he owned (always equipped with
lavish bathrooms).

When Escobar's luxury "prison" became fodder for the press, the Colombian
government was forced to act - or pretend to act. The order went out to
refence the place, put real guards in, etc. Escobar, naturally, took his
men and split.

Sticky U.S. Fingers

This is when the U.S. government got its sticky fingers all over the
Escobar case, sending in secret military teams to help out the Colombians.
The country's own search teams were badly hampered by the fact that so many
of the people in Colombia were on Escobar's payroll, from top to bottom,
that he knew within minutes about police plans. The hotshots from the
United States didn't trust anyone either but had to remain largely
inconspicuous, since the United States was not allowed to participate in
these covert actions, although we did.

While most of this was set up during George Bush's administration, the
newly elected Bill Clinton was the one left holding the bag when Escobar
was finally done in. Bowden notes that U.S. government and military folks
use the early months of a new administration to advance their (usually
illegal) covert activities. Both the Colombians and our military experts
came to the conclusion that they didn't want Pablo alive. He had
embarrassed the country long enough.

For every man of his that authorities killed, he killed in return. He began
to lose face as a "Robin Hood" figure when he bombed places where innocent
citizens were part of the body count. Bowden never suggests there is any
doubt the bombings were Escobar's work, though it certainly seems worth
asking in this age when nobody really believes the government.

Secret Death Squad

A secret-member death squad was formed that methodically wiped out hundreds
of Escobar's team - lawyers, friends, relatives and servants. It was
obvious to U.S. military advisers that the death squad was acting on
intelligence supplied by them, often within minutes of their reports. For a
few of these advisers - and Bowden has tracked them down for amazingly
straightforward interviews - it was a sour thing to realize that this
killer team was using U.S.-supplied information and, one might surmise,
some of those crack U.S. snipers.

But it worked. And by the time Escobar was finally caught and killed, his
empire had diminished to almost nothing. The Medellin drug cartel was
practically dead.

In its place, the rival Cali drug cartel grew to make sure the coke supply
was never cut off. The Colombians never stop. And Mark Bowden's fascinating
retelling of the Pablo Escobar story makes one conclude they never will.