Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Killing Pablo, Mark Bowden's intoxicating account of the turbulent life of Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar and his inevitable demise, relates in riveting detail the cataclysmic effect one man can have on the world economy. Finally tracked down and killed in 1992 after a 15-month intense manhunt that had resulted in hundreds of casualties on both sides, Escobar was, ironically, that archetypal American hero, the outlaw, siding with "ordinary people" against the ruling oligarchy (although at his peak Forbes magazine listed him as the seventh-richest person in the world). His break came when the American drug of choice changed from dope to cocaine, a golden, or perhaps powdered, egg exploited by Escobar with resourceful manipulation of officials and politicians--he would offer the classic choice of his silver or his lead. Even when incarcerated at La Catedral prison on a smuggling charge, he turned it into a state within a state. The guards, the army and the police all fell within his pay and he led his operation with a quiet, well-mannered ruthlessness. Until, that is, the Americans took an interest.

Bowden is well-equipped to describe the drawn-out campaign by the intelligence services to assassinate Escobar, having already covered similar territory in the superb Black Hawk Down, which chronicled the disastrous 1993 American operation in Mogadishu. His descriptions of the electronic surveillance that finally ensnared the hounded Don and the shady mutual interests of civilian militia group Los Pepes, the Colombian government forces and the US Delta unit that wore him down, are taut, dramatic and deeply thrilling. While he stops short of claiming that the Americans were present or active in the killing, he admits that Delta knew roughly where Escobar was and were dismissive of the electronic wizardry, pointing out that Escobar was eventually spotted by the naked eye. Though Escobar died, the circumstances he seized upon would be harder to expunge. The troubling, concluding lines of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui come to mind, referring to a character based on Al Capone and Hitler but who could have been Escobar, "The bastard son is dead but the bitch is still on heat". --David Vincent -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting story 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--started 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 without much luck; he evaded them time after time. "Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, literally, 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 making powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo's men murdered a popular 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 put its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-surveillance effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial 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. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Journalist Bowden, who uncovered the savage idiocy of the Battle of Mogadishu in the best-selling Black Hawk Down (1999) and the rage and the glory of professional football in Bringing the Heat (1994), delivers a gripping investigation into the U.S. government's role in bringing down Colombian cocaine kingpin and terrorist Pablo Escobar. Bowden's investigation relies on eyewitness accounts, interviews with soldiers and field operatives, and legal documents. He centers his story on the volatile world of drug trafficking and the equally volatile response of the U. S. government through its War on Drugs. Bowden's insights into Colombia, "a land that breeds outlaws" through a culture and a landscape that are both bandit-friendly, provide the context for the parallel stories of Escobar's rise to power and the U.S. government's frustration over its inability to staunch the torrent of drugs. That frustration led to the first Bush administration's launching of a covert military and espionage operation to assassinate Escobar--a project that resulted in the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars and the loss of hundreds of lives. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is Bowden's depiction of the small-scale, military-centered intelligence launched in Colombia--spy tactics that detail what parts of target buildings are vulnerable, for example, or the habits of the human target that might leave him alone and exposed. A harrowing investigation into the cost of both drug trafficking and the War on Drugs. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Bowden, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, presents a gripping saga of the search for and death of Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian drug czar. Bowden, whose Black Hawk Down was a National Book Award finalist, chronicles the horrendous crimes and terrorist acts perpetrated by Escobar and his cartel. Escobar's acts were so frightening he kidnapped, tortured, and killed all those (and their loved ones) who stood in his way that he held the entire country in fear. For many years, he eluded capture with his plata o plomo (silver or lead, bribes or bullets) approach. Finally, with the help of covert U.S. Army operatives and the CIA, the Colombian task force on the trail of Escobar was able to locate him. Along the way, as Bowden shows, a shadowy vigilante group was targeting Escobar's associates and family members. Recommended, especially in light of current cinematic interest in subject. Karen Saudlin Silverman, Ctr. for Applied Research, Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

The very first published account of how American Special Forces hunted down and assassinated Columbian drug baron, Pablo Escobar, who was the head of the world's biggest cocaine cartel. Charting the rise and fall of the man who was one of the wealthiest and most powerful criminals in history, the book also exposes the massive illegal covert operation to hunt down and eliminate Escobar, and is based on classified intelligence documents, surveillance footage, wiretrap transcripts and interviews with key players. A big campaign is already under way to support this title, and serialisation rights have been sold to a national newspaper. Expect a media blitz on publication. One to -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.