The last domicile of Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar is a quaint eight-story white log in the middle of a residential area. Just over a year ago, the authorities had decided to raze the very run-down property in Escobar's hometown of Medellin in recent years. Now it should be ready: On Friday, a good 25 years after Escobar's violent death, it should be blown up.
The demolition is also about the culture of remembrance around the drug lord, who is despised by some and still revered by others. Although Escobar was one of the most wanted criminals in South America for years, many saw in the head of the Medellín cartel known for cocaine business a benefactor for the people of Colombian slums. Many people also earned the criminal dealings of the drug cartel. And escobar supporters and tourists make regular pilgrimages to the striking building.
The authorities want to prevent this commemoration - according to Colombian television about 30 kilograms of explosives and several kilometers detonating cord. A renovation of the former luxury domicile would have cost the equivalent of just under ten million euros and the controversial symbol would remain. The city administration therefore wants to set up a 5000 square meter public park in honor of the tens of thousands of drug deaths and victims of Escobar's cartel at the place where the villa is still standing.
Bleachers for blasting
Another hundred-square-foot Escobar property in Miami Beach had already been demolished in early 2016. Buyer Christian de Berdouare was hoping to find cash, gold and jewelry in the demolition. Allegedly, at least one safe was found. Meanwhile, at a former ranch by the drug lord on the Rio Magdalena in Colombia, hippos spread.
Manuel Villa, who is taking care of the demolition of the city council, called the property called Mónaco a "anti-symbol" in December. The children in Medellín should no longer wish "that they want to become Pablo Escobar when they grow up," he said. Mayor Federico Gutiérrez had spoken of a "symbol of illegality". The white bunker-like building in the fashionable district of El Poblado still bears the traces of a car bomb attack by the Escobar-fearing Cali cartel in 1988.
Escobar and the Medellín cartel had controlled international cocaine smuggling in the 1980s and were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. From September to December 1989 alone, Escobar had hundreds of car bombs detonated. For years, the violence of his drug cartel has determined public life in Colombia.
Most recently, the criminal, who for years was on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, lived in Mónaco. Escobar was shot in December 1993 at the age of 44 by a Colombian special forces unit on the roof of a residential building in Medellín.
AP
Escobar with bodyguard 1983
In the weeks leading up to the demolition, the facade of the house was hung with numerous posters reminiscent of more than 46,000 victims from 1983 to 1994 with photos and texts. "Respect our pain, honor our victims (1983 to 1994)" was one of the slogans. The interest in blasting is correspondingly high. Tribunes were set up around the Mónaco so that spectators can watch them live.