Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw
Where to buy Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Bandit books online?
- ISBN13: 9780142000953
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A tour de force of investigative television journalism-this is the tale of the violent rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellin cocaine alliance. Escobar’s criminal empire held a nation of thirty million hostage in a reign of terror that would only end with his death. In an intense, up-close account, award-winning journalist Mark Bowden exposes details never before revealed about the U.S.-led covert sixteen-month manhunt. With unprecedented access to vital players-including Colombian president César Gaviria and the indestructible head of the special police unit that pursued Escobar, Colonel Hugo Martinez-as well as top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar’s intercepted phone conversations, Bowden has produced a gripping narrative that is a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.
“The tale of how the U.S. Army Intelligence and Delta Force commandos helped Colombian police track down and kill Pablo Escobar is a compelling, nearly Shakespearean tale.” (Los Angeles Times)
“Absolutely riveting. . . . Mark Bowden has a way of building modern nonfiction read like the best of novels.” (The Denver Post)Amazon.com Review
Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting tale about as well as any writer at work today. Killing Pablo is further proof. It describes the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, a notorious Colombian drug lord who became one of the narcotic trade’s first billionaires. Pablo–Bowden refers to him by his first name throughout the book–ongoing out as a petty thief and wound up running a massive smuggling empire. At his height in the 1980s, he owned fleets of boats and planes, plus 19 separate residences in Medellin, each with its own helipad. Violence marked everything he did: “He wasn’t an entrepreneur, and he wasn’t even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless.” He bought off police, politicians, and judges throughout his country, and killed many others who wouldn’t cooperate. The Colombian government tried to capture him, but lacking much luck; he evaded them time after time. “Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, factually, with his pants down. In [1988], about one thousand national police raided one of his mansions,” writes Bowden. “Pablo fled in his underwear, avoiding the police cordon on foot.” He got away, again, but his days were numbered. He was building powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo’s men murdered a well loved politician and, three months later, planted a bomb on a plane, killing 110 people, including two Americans.
The bulk of Killing Pablo describes what happened when the U.S. government place its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-scrutiny effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial television journalism, too: in the epilogue, Bowden drops tantalizing hints that it was an American–not a Colombian–who delivered the killing shot to Pablo in 1993. Readers looking for a real-life thriller–or any kind of thriller, for that matter–won’t do much better than Killing Pablo.
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As a native Colombian, it has been a horrible experience to listen to Mr. Bowden’s Spanish on the CD edition. It is painful. If he felt the need to read his own book, why not invest in learning the right pronunciation of basic words and names he uses? I have only listened to one CD so far, and am tempted to stop at this point. The level of ignorance in the right pronunciation of such basic names makes me marvel how accurate his research might be.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Yes, this book is a detailed account of law enforcement and of how Pablo Escobar was tracked down and assassinated by an international hit squad. And, yes, Escobar was most certainly un mal hombre who deserved to die. But the leader never questions the methods of cops, soldiers and agents (like Colonel Hugo Martinez, for one) who debase themselves and the concept of justice by believing they are not only above the law but above humanity. The real tale to me is how a name like Escobar, a diabolical and degenerate human being, can so easily drag society down to his level, and how so willingly law enforcment will adopt the “any means necessary” approach.
This book is vital to read if your interest is how they caught a legendary bandit, but for a more thoughtful and knowing presentation of the phenomenon of Escobar, how he became so powerful and effected the course of Colombian and U.S. history, you will need to look elsewhere. The opening chapters on Colombian history in this book are perfunctory and mostly cribbed from additional, better sources.
Hopefully, a name will one day write an intelligent biography of Escobar and his era. Judge it or not (contrary to this book and “Black Hawk Down,” another by Bowden) there is more to history than cops and soldiers taking the law into their own hands and blowing people away. Maybe if Americans had more “intelligence” — both in a double and military sense — about places like Colombia, Mogadishu, Vietnam and, for that matter, Iraq, we wouldn’t need to send our citizens (ie, soldiers and agents) out into the world to act like cowboys and sometimes die.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Killing Pablo was a fascinating book focusing primarily on the equipment and strategies involved in the killing of one of the world’s largest and most ruthless drug lords. The book is well written but becaomes a bit dull during the middle. This book is pretty detailed so I wouldnt reccoment it to anyone with a low attention span. If you fit in to that category, I would suggest just skimming through until the last section. (The Kill) I would reccoment it to anyone interested in CIA-type organizations and equipment. Maybe if America would place more of this power towards the hunt for Muslim terrorists as a replacement for of wasting their time and money in Iraq, the world would be a better place.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
For most of the reviewers: “Colombia is spelled with an O not a U ” !!!!!!!!!!!! And by the way.. please don’t refer to Colombia as merely a “Banana Republic” it’s much more complex, fascinating and gorgeous than that.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Once I start a book I usually end it, even if it’s not that excellent.
But I couldn’t end this book. I read about one third and then quit. It was so dull. It was more about politics than drugs. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of Doctor Dealer (a fantastic read!).
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5