A good, succinct (6 hours on audio) account of the life of Pablo Escobar - from his rise from small-time car crook to most notorious cartel leader of all time, to his subsequent downfall at the hands of a joint Colombian-US manhunt. What I found most interesting was the book's contextualisation of how Pablo took advantage of Colombia's troubled democracy, in which power still lay with whoever was willing to seize it or undermine it most violently. Thus when Escobar - a man later estimated to be responsible for 4,000 deaths - surrendered for the first time, he was able to set most of the terms of his incarceration, including a maximum term of five years, building and staffing his own luxury prison from which he could continue his cartel business, and even having extradition outlawed in the constitution. A fascinating read which examines why Escobar's character and story remain so compelling (“Anybody can be a criminal, but an outlaw needs a following”), without romanticising them or minimising the atrocities he committed.

3.50 Stars - Mark Bowden is an extremely talented fellow & this classic tale is no let down that's for sure. As someone whom has a fair knowledge of these events already, I was surprised at just how many details there where in here that took me deeper down the rabbit hole & helped fill in more of the ’how’ in a concentrated telling of events that built.towards that fateful rooftop chase. Those few outside if Medellin whom hold Escobar in any sort of esteem will rightly become more clear as to just what a dangerous narcissistic sociopath the man really was.

Well researched & a well structured easy read, Killing Pablo is a tense, thrilling & highly informative read for anyone looking for more detail in the events that lead to the eventual shooting of the worlds largest drug kingpin.

Mark Bowden first had me at Black Hawk Down. His mastery of narrative nonfiction, weaving hundreds of interviews and countless hours of research into an as-it-happens story is particularly useful in the stories he tells - the stories in the niches. Prior to this book I had last read his nearly 1000 page Guests of the Ayatollah, which told the story of the Iranian Hostage Crisis from start to finish.

Having visited Colombia, in particular Antioquia where Pablo was from, and Medellin, which was the seat of his reign of terror, I found it astonishing to read this story and find out what a dark, dark time Colombians lived in during 1989-1993 in particular.

The absolute destructiveness of the drug trade is probably never better illustrated than in these pages: the lives ruined in Miami and New York by cocaine, and then crack, and the thousands murdered in Colombia due to direct and indirect connections (and often, entirely random) to the drug trade. Worth a read, and it's short enough to finish in a couple leisurely afternoons of reading.

Everything about Pablo Escobar is fascinating and borderline unbelievable. This book follows the rise of Escobar’s drug empire and the massive hunt to find and kill him.

What a hot mess of chaos Pablo created and perpetuated in his country and for his countrymen. Fascinating how insecure he was as a man and how dysfunctional the search for him was.

A fascinating and harrowing chapter of history. Another fast paced cracker from Mark Bowden (although not quite as good as Black Hawk Down, still really enjoyable and recommended).

I think how interesting you find this will depend on your previous knowledge about Pablo Escobar and/or how he was ultimately caught/taken down. There’s a lot of details in here but if you’ve read another Escobar book or seen a documentary (or even the TV Show Narcos), this won’t be new information.

Колумбийският наркобос Пабло Ескобар е митологизирана личност. У нас кой знае защо за него се говори с почитание и уважение. Историческата истина е далеч по-тривиална - Пабло е престъпник, отговорен за смъртта на стотици. Възходът му е резултат от безскрупулност във времена на беззаконие и повсеместна корупция.

Пабло Ескобар създава наркокартела Меделин в едноименния колумбийски град. Бързо става основният "износител" на кокаин и марихуана за САЩ. В зенита на своята дейност богатството му е несметно, определен е за седмия най-богат човек в света. Освен за удоволствия, Пабло използва парите и за благотворителност. Съгражданите му го сравняват с Робин Худ. Но положителните качества свършват дотук. Наркобосът е безмилостен в своя бизнес. С мрежата си от наемни убийци (сикарио) Пабло изцяло доминира криминалния свят в Колумбия. Негови жертви стават журналисти, полицаи, съдии, политици, дори кандидат за президент. Противниците му бързо биват елиминирани чрез показни екзекуции.

Към края на осемдесетте години ситуацията в Колумбия коренно се променя след намесата на САЩ за прекъсване на наркотрафика. Учудващо, Пабло влиза в споразумение с правителството и доброволно влиза в затвора. Уловката е, че затворът La Catedral е пострен с негови средства и прилича по-скоро на петзвезден хотел. "Задържането" му не трае дълго. След като бива информиран, че се планира преместването му в истински затвор, Пабло решава да избяга. Укрива се в многобройните си тайни имоти и често сменя местоположението. Неговото отмъщение се проявява под формата на ежедневни атентати. Меделин става най-опасното място на Земята, където не се водят военни действия. Избухването на коли бомби става нещо обичайно. Загиват напълно невинни граждани.

С атентатите Пабло си спечелва многобройни и твърде разнородни врагове - колумбийската полиция, американските тайни служби и отдели за борба с наркотиците, конкурентния наркокартел Кали, както и незаконна паравоенна организация Los Pepes. Надпреварата кой първи ще стигне до Пабло е яростна и води до използване на свръхмодерни за времето си технологии. През декември 1993 г. правителствени агенти установяват локацията на беглеца след прихващане на телефонен разговор между него и сина му. Пабло е разстрелян върху покрива на сграда при опита си да избяга.

Поуката, ако въобще има такава, е, че всеки прекалено показен престъпник, рано или късно, получава заслуженото. Но на каква цена?

Последвайте ме в Инстаграм @fibroknigi за още ревюта на интересни книги.

The main story in this book is the hunt to find and kill Pablo, a Columbian drug billionaire. This is a true  story and interesting in itself.

But like so many good books there are other stories threaded through the book.
One story is about how the American embassey is a shadow government that directs the Colombian government.
How thousands of Americans from a score of different Federal agencies are involved in the hunt and in government policy.

The DEA, CIA, FBI, Rangers, Delta force, army, navy, air force and more.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the defense budget is shrinking and everyone wants to show that his agency is an important one for budget dollars during the next era.
Compitition is strong, cooperation is not.

It is also a story about technology.

Small 4 seat planes like the Beach Bonanza are outfitted with
50 million dollars of electronics and hover all day above a city.

Out of sight, out of sound to the people below, they scan cell phone calls and when they lock on to their target,
they can fly an arc around the signal and triangulate the
location of the cell phone so police/troups on the ground
can storm that building.

Also the American government has the technology to
"turn on" any cell phone in the world without the owner
knowing it.
When turned on the phone emits a silent signal that can
be tracked as long as wanted.
Or a cruise missile, smart bomb, drone rocket can be
sent to the phone location.
A present from uncle sugar.

Najpierw wydawała mi się nudna, ale potem wszystko nabrało tempa. Naprawdę przyjemna książka, pomijając dziwne upodobania Escobara do 14-latek.

‘Killing Pablo’ provides the reader with a high level of details of the years-long manhunt that eventually led to the killing of the drug kingpin shortly after his 44th birthday in December 1993. Written by an American author, with a knack for, and what seems like an interest in how US foreign- and security policy directly intervenes abroad, the book allows for insight into how American interests impacted the process as well as the outcome. Nevertheless, it also limits the perspectives of this narrative to a small group of men, be it politicians stretching from President Gaviria to Defense Minister Pardo, to police, military generals and coronels, DEA agents, CIA agents, Delta Force operators etc. I doubt that a book written today, more than 20 years after this publication, would survive such a narrow [albeit deep] approach.

However, in Bowden’s description the protagonist himself remains an almost one-dimensional character. The book, while dutifully mapping out timelines and actors, does not reveal or imagine what drives or enables Escobar to eventually become one of the “the world’s greatest outlaw”. The strongest literary moment in this documentary style text is when the relationships between Escobar and his son (Juan Pablo) is juxtaposed with the relationship between coronel Martinez, who heads the police unit tasked with hunting Escobar, and his son [Hugo], a police intelligence officer ultimately assigned to his father’s unit. In the end it was a call to Juan Pablo that enabled the police to reveal Escobar’s whereabouts and ultimately kill him.

This was a random read for me. Throughout the years I have consciously stayed away from anything ‘narcos’ related, not wanting to perpetuate an outdated stereotype. When my dad, who rarely reads, and who I don’t think ever shared a reading recommendation presented me with this book I took it on to show appreciation for the initiative, and out of curiosity in what he had learned about Pablo Escobar and Colombia.

Sensacja w czystym wydaniu. Skala korupcji i bezsilności biednej Kolumbii była porażająca. Niesamowita historia.