What Type of Relationship Did Pablo Escobar Have With His Family?

How could you slumber with that monster?" ane of the victims of my married man, Pablo Escobar, asked me. " 'Why didn't you do annihilation? Why didn't you leave him? Why didn't you turn him in?"

Those questions are probably ones that thousands of people take wondered. The answer is because I loved him, and while many may detect that response inadequate, the truth is that'southward the reason I remained by his side till the finish of his life, fifty-fifty though I disagreed with his deportment and decisions innumerable times.

Every single day in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a life-or-death matter for all Colombians; all of united states were held hostage by my married man's war. I was very young, naive and blind to reality, so I succumbed; I was oftentimes quite comfortable, only information technology was always comfort born out of the ignorance that comes with having no right to look, retrieve, decide, choose or question.

I met Pablo when I was just 12 years erstwhile and he was 23. He was the first and simply love of my life. I married him in the church, believing that spousal relationship vows are to exist honoured. I was raised in a male chauvinist culture in which women were taught to follow their husbands without questioning.

I grew up beingness moulded by Pablo to exist his wife and the mother of his children, non to ask questions or challenge his choices, to look the other style.

He was the first and only beloved of my life.

I endured affairs, insults, humiliations, lies, loneliness, raids, death threats, terrorist attacks, kidnapping attempts on my children and even long periods of confinement and exile. All for dearest.

Simply I wasn't able to leave him, not just because of beloved merely likewise out of fear, powerlessness and uncertainty about what would become of my children and me without him. I was fifty-fifty agape that the nearly unsafe man in Colombia might hurt me if I left him.

Twenty-five years after his expiry, I have begun to review the memories of the people who suffered the horrors of the drug-trafficking war. I now feel immense sadness and shame for the enormous pain my husband caused, even as I mourn the agonising consequences his actions have had for my children and me.

How I became Mrs Escobar

On March 29, 1976 my grandmother took united states to the home of the bishop of Palmira, Monsignor Jesus Antonio Castro.

Our wedding was held at six o'clock in the Santisima Trinidad church in Palmira. My parents weren't in attendance, much less my siblings. Nobody from Pablo's family was in that location either.

My happiness was bittersweet because I was overwhelmed with fear at what would come afterwards: the disapproval of my parents, my siblings, the entire neighbourhood. I had my heart in my throat. At some point during the mass, Pablo, who looked very happy, gazed into my eyes, smiled and said, "We'll be together for ever, my love."

My married life began with me going to school in the morning and coming domicile in the afternoon to practise homework, cook, clean, launder the dishes and mend Pablo'due south clothes. It was zippo heady, but I was thrilled with my new office. What I did find hard was that almost immediately Pablo started going away oft, supposedly for piece of work. What kind of work? I didn't know. What I did know was that his efforts to brand a living were accompanied past womanising. The gossip about his diplomacy was constant and, I must admit, deeply painful for me.

My married life began with me going to school in the morning and coming abode in the afternoon to do homework, melt, clean, wash the dishes

The story I told myself to go through it was the erstwhile standby, "Men are all the same." So I'd think, "I'm not going to exit him over that." Indeed, when we got married, because his history suggested that cheating was a possibility, I'd decided not to follow him, track his phone calls, or bank check his shirts for lipstick. He who seeks shall find, as the saying goes, and I preferred not to discover annihilation.

Pablo, me — and his mistresses

On February 24, 1977, less than a yr subsequently nosotros married, I gave nascency to my start child. I was in my fourth year of secondary school, and I went to school that day because I had maths form and an English test with a fearsome teacher. When I got up that morn, I felt definite signs that the baby was on its mode, but I didn't want to miss the test and get a cipher. Information technology shows how immature I was, that I wasn't able to brand my own health a priority.

Somehow, I got a 6 for my English test, just plenty to pass. When the teacher gave me my grade, I struggled to my feet.

"Instructor," I said, my voice peachy with the continual contractions, "I have to go. My water broke."

"Y'all can't enquire for a pass yet, Victoria," he replied, failing to sympathize what I'd told him.

Finally, I was given permission and walked two blocks to my mother's house, merely I had to end every 10 seconds because of the agonising pain of the contractions.

Half an 60 minutes subsequently we arrived at the El Rosario Infirmary in downtown Medellin, the baby was born, and past 1 in the afternoon I was already calling my school friends to give them the news and tell them to come visit me and my new son, Juan Pablo.

Over the side by side decade, Pablo became fabulously wealthy,

The bonanza allowed me to end my education, travel to many places in Colombia and around the world, and attend the all-time interior design and fashion shows in Italy and French republic, since my dream, which alas I have never realised, was to be a well-known and well-respected professional person. Just the mix of money and ability pushed united states into a whirlwind that made it impossible for us to perceive the misfortune that was budgeted.

When we moved to Hacienda Napoles, a beautiful manor in the Antioquia region, it became the epicentre of Pablo'south new life. For good and for ill. From the very start, he ready out — and managed — to lead a sort of double life there: ane with his family unit and some other with his buddies and his mistresses of the moment. Of course, in addition he too had his business, which he always kept away from me.

To meet with his lovers, Pablo had the nervus to build an flat camouflaged behind the stables, very shut to the master business firm; he also built several cabins in more remote areas, which they used to escape to fifty-fifty when we were in that location.

He set out to pb a sort of double life – i with his family and another with his buddies and his mistresses

During that period of nightclubs and carousing, I now know that Pablo had numerous girlfriends with whom he enjoyed a week or two, fifty-fifty a calendar month or two, but never took them seriously. All of that would change one night in mid-1981, when he met Wendy Chavarriaga Gil. Their human relationship lasted several years, simply would eventually cease in tragedy [after Escobar subjected her to a forced abortion, she became an informant and he had her executed].

All of our lives, including those of the family, Pablo'south lovers, and indeed the entire country, would exist changed abruptly and for ever on the night of April xxx, 1984, when hitmen assassinated the minister of justice, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, in Bogota, plainly on my husband's orders.

The assassination marked the beginning of the narco war that dominated the country for the next decade. After this result, Pablo's political career stalled and somewhen a warrant was issued for his arrest as the government sought to extradite him to the U.s.a.. As a outcome, he was often on the run or in hiding, which had a huge impact on u.s.a. as a family.

The bump-off marked the start of the narco war that dominated the country for the next decade

By the fourth dimension I realised how far removed I'd become from the cruel reality around usa, it was too late.

Information technology was mid-August 1993, and Pablo and I, our children, Manuela and Juan Pablo, and Juan Pablo'south girlfriend, Andrea, were hunkered down in a hideout known every bit the blueish house in El Poblado. My husband and I knew that the last adieu had to come sooner rather than later: our electric current state of affairs was unsustainable. Death was peering at united states of america around the corner. The blue house was to be our concluding hideout.

On Sat, September eighteen, 1993, Pablo suddenly stood up and came over to me, proverb we should talk in private in 1 of the second-floor bedrooms. "Sweetheart, it'southward time to pack everybody's suitcases," he told me. "You lot are all going to live in the Altos building under regime protection."

I cried and cried. I was securely in dearest with Pablo. I knew that his egregious behaviour over the past few years had unleashed an unfathomable madness, but I was nevertheless enormously pained that I had to leave my children's male parent in order to salvage them. I understood there was no other choice. It was hither: the moment of separation, of our final goodbye. My tears weren't enough. Finally, at 11 at night, it was time for usa to get out.

He bid adieu to Juan Pablo with a heartfelt handshake and a kiss on the cheek. When he reached Manuela, he started crying. We'd never seen him weep before, and that made our farewell even more than heart-wrenching. That was the final fourth dimension I saw him. He had 75 days left to live.

Extracted from Mrs Escobar past Victoria Eugenia Henao (Ebury Press, £12.99) © Victoria Eugenia Henao 2019

Pablo Escobar: A life in criminal offense

• Escobar was built-in in 1949, and in 1976 founded the Medellin Cartel, which distributed cocaine.
• He was known as The King of Cocaine, and became i of the richest people in the world
• In 1982 he was elected to be a representative in Republic of colombia's Liberal Political party, where he was responsible for community projects such as the construction of houses and football game fields.
• In 1991, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment (within his ain self-built prison).
• In 1992, he escaped and went into hiding afterward authorities attempted to move him to a traditional prison. He was killed by police in 1993.

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Source: https://primer.com.au/widow-pablo-escobar-victoria-eugenia-henao/

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