Did This Horrific Moment Shape Pablo Escobar's Bloody Future?

Without doubt, Pablo Escobar is one of the bloodiest of all the criminals and terrorists in Colombia’s history. But he didn’t emerge from a vacuum, and his early life provides clues as to how he was able to live with the death and destruction he wreaked on his country.

Escobar grew up in the dark shadow of ‘La Violencia’ – the brutal Colombian civil war between the country’s Conservative and Liberal factions that saw an estimated 200,000 Colombians lose their lives from 1948-1958.

The brutal battles were fought largely in the picturesque Colombian countryside, where the young Escobar and his family lived for a time in a small village.

One day, the Escobars – a Liberal family – found themselves targeted by a Conservative mob. The family hunkered down in their home, trying desperately to protect the young Pablo and his older brother, Roberto.

The mob was on a rampage. They butchered the villagers and even set fire to the Escobars’ front door, trying to force the family out into the open.

The flames were extinguished in the nick of time, and the mob dispersed as the army arrived. But the damage was already done.

As the family came out of the house, they saw their neighbours hanging from lampposts. In Colombia at the time, life for many was this brutal. 

Pablo Escobar’s rise and fall is explored in depth in Real Narcos, which traces Escobar’s life as criminal career from childhood all the way through to his ultimate demise. Subscribe to Real Narcos to hear the full story from the perspective of the real DEA agents on Escobar’s tail.