There are two
sides to every story. One side of the story of Pablo Escobar was that he was a
ruthless, cruel notorious drug trafficker. The other story of Pablo Escobar is
that he is a hero. Same could be said about Mexico’s very own Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán.
The two powerful
drug lords have plenty in common and seem almost identical. Pablo’s mafia was
from Medellín, Colombia, where the cartel de Medellín originated. He started
distributing drugs into the United States in the 1970’s. He started off trafficking
marijuana, which was at the time, better quality than Mexico’s. Soon in the
1980’s, cocaine boosted into the scene and “it dominated the drug trade”
(Chasteen, pp. 314). Towards the late 80’s, El Chapo was making a name for
himself. He started off slow and kept escalating the ladder of the Sinaloa
Cartel until he finally took over at some point in the 90’s. Funny how both men
were captured and sentenced, but escaped within the year. They both lived on
the run, viewed as prison escapees who was a danger to society. A danger to
society? Yes, but, that was certainly not the case.
Both Escobar and
Guzmán came from poverty areas where plenty struggle on a daily basis to eat
and survive. They both knew how hard it was growing up without money so when
they both started becoming successful in the drug world, they gave back. This
is the part that the United States and the books do not tell us about. Escobar
and Guzmán have done more to their communities than their countries government
has. “Escobar built numerous housing projects. Establishing and funding soccer
teams and leagues in Colombia and building countless number of churches,
hospitals, and schools across the country and advocating education for the
children (https://gameofroles.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/pablo-escobar-a-hero-or-a-villain/
)”.
Escobar seemed like a good man, and from personal experience El Chapo is as good of a person as Escobar ever was. Personal experience you ask? No I am not part of the Sinaloa Cartel or great buddies with him but he has done a lot to my town, my people, and has made me feel protected when I visit my town in Mexico. I am from Tepehuánes, Durango, a small town in the mountains of Durango. Also what is known as the Nest of the Narcos. The geography makes it easy for drug traffickers to hide and take deserted roads up the mountains in order to avoid the Mexican authorities, which most are scared of the power that is there. Back in
the years of 2007-2009 Tepehuánes was full of Zeta Cartel leaders. There were
plenty of kidnappings and murderers until El Chapo came in with his people to
clean and protect Durango. "His people" were Sinaloa Cartel members that included a lot of ex- military personal. Most of which did not like how their own goverment can be so currupted, along with the hard cash you get paid. A lot of what most people consider "normal" people were also in the cartel like teachers and restaurant owners He did whatever was possible to get the real threats
out. If that was by killings, making threats or by paying Mexican authorities
to arrest the real bad guys. El Chapo is all about peace. He wanted his people
to have no worries and feel protected. He gave food to the poor, improved
schools, uniforms, bleachers and ball parks for kids to play. He goes into
restaurants, tells everybody to turn in their phones, while he eats in a
private room, leaves and all the tabs are paid for. In fact he is a religious
guy who has built churches, cemeteries and has bought many priests nice cars or
houses.
The two kingpins
are genially nice guys but with power. Are we wrong for judging them?
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