The book Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden retold the life story of Pablo Escobar or El Pàtron or El Doctor- the world's most powerful cocaine dealer. Pablo, as Bowden refers to him, was born and raised in a middle class Colombian family and through his disguised violent acts and public friendly attitude managed to become a very powerful, and wanted man. Bowden follows Escobar’s story while also following the American and Colombian governments that were after him after he escaped from prison. Overall Bowden was able to keep the reader interested in the story and produce a non-fiction book that, while full of facts, was not delivered in a dry manner. Instead he managed to make the story of Pablo Escobar exciting, he painted him as such an animated character that you could very easily grow confusing feelings for and want to know his story. By telling Pablo’s story and what he did Bowden tries to prove that Pablo’s ambition is what ultimately destroyed him.
Pablo grew up in a lower middle class family in Colombia in the late 1940’s. He never graduated high school as a teenager he started out his business as a cocaine dealer, he himself rarely doing it, mildly drinking and smoking marijuana. To assert his dominance Pablo used violence, he never let it trace back to him. Bowden explains this in a very interesting manner he says Pablo “was a vicious thug, but he had a social conscience. He was a brutal crime boss but also a politician with a genuinely high winning personal style” (Bowden 15). The way in which Bowden phrases this bring up the question: would we have fallen for Pablo’s charm? This obviously makes us want to keep reading. Later on we see Pablo’s image work on the Colombian people. While imprisoned Pablo admitted to planting dynamite in a city “The press always found out, of course, and the story would come across as a munificent gesture by the imprisoned, reformed Don Pablo” (Bowden 114). The message would not have come from the “reformed Don Pablo” if the people hated him it would have come from the ‘terrible Pablo’ if the people actually did feel as though he was a completely bad man. Pablo was able to make a very comfortable living and yet he wanted more from the public.
Pablo eventually turned himself in to the Colombian Government and acted as though it was his hotel. When Pablo entered the prison, that he had helped make, he became in charge of his imprisonment. “The prison guards were no more than Pablo’s employees, and the army checkpoints just waved Pablo’s trucks through” (Bowden 110) Here Bowden shows us the power that Pablo managed to possess. Bowden then says that “Pablo, for instance, did not feel obliged to actually stay” (Bowden 111). Pablo had enough power over his imprisonment that he didn’t really have to stay in the prison. Through all of this Bowden puts the idea in our heads that all Pablo was powerful but he was always pushing to see if he could do more (i.e. be a prisoner but not actually stay, instead go to a soccer match).
Throughout the story Bowden states that Pablo’s ambition is what ultimately held him back. Bowden says at the very start of the book, within the first chapter, “A man of lesser ambition might still be alive, rich, powerful, and living well and openly in Medellín. But Pablo wanted to be admired. He wanted to be respected. He wanted to be loved.” (Bowden 15) Bowden always brings up how Pablo tried to win the public over, that was his way of showing how Pablo stepped the line and got overwhelmed by his ambition. Pablo would not be able to be rich and powerful and loved by the public, especially in the way that he made his money. After Pablo escaped from prison he was still fairly pleased with himself. In fact Bowden thinks Pablo “also felt some pride…after so much carnage, so many millions spent to hunt him down, he was still alive, and still at large” (Bowden 237) Pablo liked that so much attention was being placed on him, and he wanted more which is why he continued to risk so much while on the run. One day he managed to risk too much and was shot.
Bowden is trying to prove throughout the whole book that Pablo Escobar let his ambition get in his way. The way in which Bowden proves this is very interesting he shows you the human side of Pablo and shows you how deep down he just wanted to be loved and respected. This different manner of approaching a criminal is what makes Killing Pablo unique and interesting.
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