When Germany won the World Cup in 2014, a reunified nation was finally able to celebrate national pride with confidence. Be respectful and behave as if a loved one of yours is at rest here. Sage Advice: As an active burial site, you may encounter funeral services at Montesacro Cemetery as well as people paying respect to their loved ones. And definitely don’t behave like Wiz Khalifa. If you visit Pablo Escobar’s grave at Montesacro Cemetery, learn the history, but don’t leave flowers, pose for photos, or take other actions that celebrate a monster. Today the vast majority of Colombians are eager to move past Pablo Escobar. Known as the Black Widow and the Godmother of Cocaine, she is said to have paved the way for Escobar to create his drug empire. And a short walk across the green grass away from the chapel is the grave of Griselda Blanco. Nearby, you’ll find the graves of two other Medellin Cartel henchmen. Įscobar is buried near the southwest corner of the cemetery chapel with several family members (including his mother) and a highly trusted bodyguard, “El Limon,” who died in the same shootout as Escobar. But large crowds of Colombians flocked to his wake and funeral, grieving over the loss of the man they saw as a folk hero. When Escobar was buried on a hill overlooking Sabaneta in early December 1993, most people around the world applauded his death. Our next stop was the Montesacro Cemetery, known locally as Cementerio Jardines Montesacro. Rather, you are learning from the past and paying your respects to all who helped take him down and put Colombia on its current path. Therefore, I believe that taking the right Pablo Escobar tour doesn’t mean you are condoning his actions or glorifying him. Just as there are tours, museums, and other experiences dedicated to teaching us about slavery and genocide, understanding the history of one of the world’s biggest drug lords helps reinforce that Escobar was a ruthless criminal who didn’t care who he killed - not someone to be idolized. So it’s easy to understand why Pablo Escobar is not a popular topic with most Colombians as they continue to move past that dark chapter in their nation’s history and focus on the future.īut as painful as it may be, it’s important that we not forget the dark chapters in human history. Whether they are Millennials or Gen Xers, every one of my Colombian coworkers has a tragic story tied to the Medellin drug cartel – missing uncles, murdered cousins, kidnapped grandmothers, and family farms taken over by guerillas. While some may find it a bit controversial, these are the three reasons I recommend taking a Pablo Escobar tour in Medellin. So it’s understandable that most Colombians do not like to talk about the “King of Cocaine.” Yet Pablo Escobar tours are very popular for foreigners visiting Medellin. Three decades is not enough time to easily forget that Medellin was once the most dangerous and murderous city on the planet.Īnd nearly all adult Colombians have a personal connection to one of the more than 46,000 people killed by the drug lord. And when he died in 1993, he was one of the wealthiest criminals in history, with a net worth of about $30 billion (roughly $61.5 billion today).Īlthough it’s been 30 years since Pablo Escobar was killed on a rooftop in Medellin, Colombians are still fighting outdated stereotypes applied to their entire country due to the actions of one man. In 1989, Forbes magazine listed Escobar as one of the richest people in the world, just two spots below Warren Buffett. Rather, Escobar was the head of one of the largest drug cartels in history, controlling roughly 80% of the cocaine in the US. Whether you remember horrific headlines from the late 1980s and early 1990s or you’ve binge-watched the Narcos series on Netflix, chances are you know that Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord.
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