Biography and personality of the narco Pablo Escobar

The Colombian Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria he was the leader of one of the most powerful criminal organizations that has ever existed.

During the 80s, he controlled the drug trafficking business and was the cause of numerous deaths around the globe. He sowed terror and ordered hundreds of murders and, along the way, made millions of dollars as a Medellín cartel. He came to own mansions, airplanes, a private zoo and even his own army of criminals.

Pablo Escobar was, without a doubt, one of the best known and most feared criminal personalities; in part because of the interesting nature of his life, between 2009 and 2012, a series based on his life was broadcast, titled “Pablo Escobar, the patron of evil”.

But… What is the psychological profile of the so-called "King of Cocaine"? In this article we review the psychological characteristics of this character who died 20 years ago.

Biography of Pablo Escobar

Pablo Escobar was born on December 1, 1949 in Colombia. He grew up in a lower-middle-class family in the suburb of Envigado, in the Colombian city of Medellín. As a young man, he could already appreciate his great ambition, constantly repeating to those close to him that he wanted to be the president of Colombia one day. Obviously, his dream was never fulfilled, but his aspirations make it clear that he had a great desire to excel. Something that he did achieve, albeit illicitly.

Escobar's career as a criminal began on the streets, when he began stealing tombstones from cemeteries to sell marble and earn a few pesos. He also smuggled tobacco and alcohol, later bringing coca paste from Bolivia and Peru through Ecuador, hiding the merchandise in truck tires. After refining it, he transported it to the United States to sell it. There it would be consumed in the form of cocaine.

The jump to criminal power and his life as a politician

The jump to power in the criminal world of this notorious character happened in 1975, when he ordered the assassination of Fabio Restrepo, one of the great drug traffickers of the time. Escobar takes power in the latter's criminal organization, expanding his operations. After a while, he controls crime in Medellín and is responsible for 80% of the cocaine transported to the United States.

Despite the development of his illegal activities, he did not remain anonymous. Escobar took on the role of caring for the people, and financed improvement plans for the suburbs of Medellín. In this way, he rebuilt a neighborhood of 780 homes for underprivileged people, and got votes to become deputy mayor of the Medellín City Council.

His obsession with being part of the political scene, and of course for the benefit of drug trafficking, Escobar financed several parliamentary and presidential campaigns and tried to get involved in politics. He formed a political group called Civics on the Move, attached to training New Liberalism. In 1982 he managed to enter the congress when he was elected as an alternate deputy of the Antioquia parliamentarian. Now when the coalition leader New Liberalism, Luis Carlos Galán, had news of Escobar's illegal activities, decided to expel him.

"Plata o Plomo", a matter of life or death

Over the years, Escobar made enemies for himself, and his cruelty was evident hundreds of times. His rise in the criminal world was frowned upon by honest politicians, policemen or judges, who suffered his evil in their own flesh. Escobar became known for his phrase "silver or lead", which came to say: "either you pay or you die".

Generally, if a politician, policeman or judge crossed his path, he first tried to bribe him, and if this didn't work, he ordered his murder. The exact number of honest people who were victims of this perverse criminal is not known, but the hundred pass by, and there is even talk of thousands of people executed by Escobar's environment.

The end of Pablo Escobar

Pablo Escobar, who became one of the most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia by the United States, died on December 2, 1993 at the hands of Colombian security forces. The founder of the Medellín cartel, who was also called "el Patron", "el Capo", "el Duro" and "el Zar de la cocaine", was killed during a "commando-type" operation deployed by military and police officers when they located his hiding place.

The psychological profile of this famous criminal figure

Pablo is known to many, as his popularity was such that his name crossed the barriers of his native Colombia.

Andres Parra, the actor who played him in the series of his life, affirmed in an interview with eltiempo.com, that "few know the dimension of Pablo Escobar's evil." The actor explains to this portal "that his character took away his sleep and that he consulted a psychologist to understand it." But what was this character really like? What are the psychological keys to understanding his cruelty and desire for power?

The keys to your personality

According to a text from the Faculty of Psychology of the López Vallejo University published in 2014, Pablo Escobar was a professional criminal, so he dedicated his life to illicit acts and, therefore, was recidivist.

His personality leaned toward a social egocentric profile., so his behavior pattern was oriented towards ambition, arrogance or exhibitionism.

Related article: "Egocentric personality: 15 characteristic traits"

That is why Pablo Escobar, like other drug traffickers, when he was caught and given the opportunity to appear on social media, he was calm and defiant and he made a series of gestures that indicated to his followers that he was still at the foot of the canyon. Such was Pablo Escobar's desire for notoriety that he tried to appear as a business figure alongside politicians, according to the newspaper “Hoy Digital”.

In general, the results of the different investigations carried out on the personality profile of drug traffickers, emphasize that they tend to show a friendly appearance, social resentment, disloyalty, aggressive and violent behaviors, lack of feelings of guilt, tendency to lie and manipulation, great lust for power, in addition to being vindictive and calculators.

All these qualities are what Pablo Escobar displayed. In addition, the article published by the Lopez Vallejo University qualifies him as an antisocial person. The cause of this type of behavior was the result of both exogenous and endogenous factors. Among the exogenous factors that caused his personality pattern are: poverty, truncated education, the lifestyle in Colombia or the guerrillas. As endogenous factors, their addiction to drugs or their craving for wealth and power stand out..