Killing Pablo

Detailed and accurate account of the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar. The writing and presentation though seem cramped and rushed. The style is more journalistic than artistic. This story read like a series of newspaper articles. The author is more concerned with getting the facts over than entertaining the reader.
This is absolutely fine if you are reading just to educate oneself or to gain information: I do want to do that, but I also want a little suspense on the way and to feel more involved in the characters described.
Bottom line is that I finished the book wiser, but it was a bit of a slog getting through it. A little more “novel” approach would have been good.

This is a phenomenal story, and Mark Bowden does a great job telling it. He takes the reader into the fascinating and twisted world of Columbian drug lords and those fighting to bring them down in the 80’s and early 90’s.

As the U.S. government became increasingly involved in the effort to bring justice to Pablo Escobar, the Americans tasked with the mission were becoming increasingly frustrated by their rules of engagement and the rampant corruption of the local gov’t. At times, it seemed the only way to make progress was to break the rules.

In the end, there were a multitude of groups and government agencies involved with the hunt for Pablo. With politics, in-fighting, and corruption ever present, it is a small miracle they were ultimately successful.

Mark Bowden has successfully written an accurate account of the life and death of Pablo Escobar in a way that mesmerizes. It reads like a suspense novel and captures the reader’s attention from start to finish. One must frequently remind oneself that the violence and horror of the drug traffic trade in South America was, and is, both real and terrifying. Congratulations, Mr. Bowden, on your in-depth research and account of one of the most influential and corrupt individuals of the 20th century.

The book starts with a general narrative of the background of the Andean cocaine trafficking world which was at one point largely run by Pablo Escobar. That’s Part one which provides some very useful information. Part two goes into specific actions taken to bring Pablo Escobar in dead. We learn that some of what you see in Narcos is simply not true such as Escobar firing guns while much is confirmed. It’s an engrossing story and Bowden’s writing makes it easy reading. I enjoyed and would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the life and death of Pablo Escobar.

Mark Bowden, author of “Black Hawk Down”, delivers a tour de force account of the notorious leader of the Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Escobar. His sharp account details the rise of Escobar by examining the economic, political and social conditions underlying the sharp rise in cocaine production (and that of the rival Cali cartel) during the 1980s. Bowden details the deep involvement of the US in the attempted crackdown on drug shipments as cocaine, and then crack, consumption in the US soared.

Escobar was a terrorist of the first order and the fear he sowed within Columbia through the brutal tactics that eliminated of enemies in the drug trade, those in the government, police, military and judiciary and even those in his inner circle whom he believed had betrayed him. The extravagance and sophistication of his operations that at one point made him one of the richest people in the world allowed him to buy off any obstacle in such an impoverished nation and engender loyalty among the masses because he used his dirty money to build infrastructure to provide schools, clean water and the like that the government had not proved capable of doing.

The mass corruption his cartel undertook is staggering and the control and fear exerted on Columbian society is mind boggling to consider. Escobar’s original capture was done on his terms and his jail was lavishly built and run by his cronies so he could run his empire in luxury and surrounded by his closest confidants.

The final part of the book tracks the epic manhunt for Escobar by the Columbian military with strong clandestine and technological support from the US that culminated in the epic showdown and hail of gunfire that brought down the terrorist that traumatized Columbian society through the most pernicious, traumatic and violent means.

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