Violence in Colombia and the Two Escobars.

While there were many revolutionaries happening all over Latin America, the country of Colombia had different situations . Guerilla activity was taking over and expanding all through out the country. The violence began to happen after the assassination of the populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala . He was a former Education/Labor minister, was mayor of Bogotá at one point, and was the dominant leader of the Liberal Party. He was murdered during his second presidential campaign and was strictly against the use of violence within the government. He believed that the democratic path to reforms was the better option for the country and by doing so he gathered many urban workers and campesinos to gain his popularity. People knew that he would become the very next president. This caused a tremendous amount of outrage because around these times citizens believed that the revolutionary path was the right thing to do. This initially led to his life ending so soon.

Around these times political tensions between the liberal and conservative parties were very high. It became so severe that the elected administration at the time became repressive and dictatorial, which led to the military coups overthrowing the government. This caused so much hate for Gaitanism. After Gaitán was assassinated, immediately after this horrific scene there was a stampede of people who killed the assassin. Two thousand people were killed that day because of the riot that was produced. Portions of Bogotá were destroyed and it didn't stop there.

After these cruel occasions, the country of Colombia went hay wired. Death tolls sky rocketed to nearly 200,000 dead within a fifteen year mark. Chasteen says in his book that death rates began to set records for a country not at war. This meant that not only was their governmental crime happening but also street crime was developing quite quickly. People were creating unsafe atmospheres and it didn’t help that the drug problem was increasing as well. This led to Pablo Escobar’s rise in power.
Pablo Escobar was a very well known drug lord and leader of the most powerful criminal organizations that had ever been established. His roll in his life time was having power over a huge empire of drugs and was responsible for the death of hundreds to thousands of people. His drug empire was responsible for the almost 80% of cocaine transported into the United States and his cartels were centered in the Colombian city of Medellín. All of the money that he was creating influenced to the amount of violence happening in the country at that time. Not only was he responsible for the cocaine but also his establishments started to grow and sell higher qualities of marijuana. He ruled the people and the citizens of Colombia lived in fear. 

I decided to write about Colombia and its violence because awhile ago I had seen the documentary the Two Escobars. I was interested in watching because I am a soccer fan and at that time the Colombian national soccer team were on the path to the World Cup. Pablo Escobar loved to watch the team play and a lot of the drug money went into betting on these games between many other powerful drug lords. This put a lot of pressure on the team and to them soccer was the only thing that was bringing their country together. It was only until Andres Escobar, captain, scored a goal on his own team and eliminated them from the competition. They all knew that because of this mistake, his life would be over back at home. Eventually, Andres Escobar was murdered which many believe because of the lost bets of many of the drug lords. It is crazy how something so entertaining like soccer could be run by such a violent society.

Sources:

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colombia/la-violencia.htm

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/20thcenturylatinamerica/a/bioescobar.htm

http://www.the2escobars.com/