Death or Money

Death or Money

The word Drugs has been always related to my country, which is Colombia. Colombia was a country known for being associated with drugs for many years. However, the country has changed since the Medellin Cartel ended in 1993. Colombia also had one of the biggest drug lords in the world. His name was Pablo Escobar, and he was the boss of the Medellin Cartel. The Medellin Cartel used to export large amounts of Cocaine every week all over the world. During that time, my grandfather was scared of what could happen to him. My grandfather was an exceptional person, who was always ready to help people. My grandfather experienced difficult times because of this drug dealer. My grandfather was a strong man, but each one of his choices in life taught our family how to survive in the drug world.

My grandfather moved to Bogota from Medellin, which is the major city in Colombia, because Medellin was a place of a lot of terrorism, the community were scared many years in Colombia. Moreover, people did not know what to expect from this drug dealer. An important senator lived in one of the richest neighborhoods in Medellin, and my grandfather lived there as well. Escobar wanted to kill that senator, because the senator did not collaborate with the Medellin Cartel. Therefore, Escobar placed a bomb in his building with the purpose of killing the senator. Moreover, Escobar was collecting people to work for him. He used to go to poor neighborhoods, where people needed the money. Therefore, Escobar would be able to do whatever he wanted to do with them, just because those people were limited of money.

Additionally, my grandfather lost his job after moving to Bogota. My grandfather was against drugs, violence and drug trafficking. He used to work in a newspaper in Bogota, and he loved writing books and articles about problems in the city. When my grandfather got the job, he wrote an article with one his friends about Escobar. Because of this, my grandfather and his friend were in danger. After the news came out, my grandfather and his friend hid themselves for weeks. Moreover, Escobar put another bomb inside the newspaper headquarters. Luckily my grandfather did not go to the newspaper that week because he was on vacation. However, the bomb was meant to kill my grandfather and his friend. In the end, the bomb killed more than three hundred people in the newspaper, and a friend of my grandfather that was there that day.

Not only did the drug war cause my grandfather to move to Bogota. He also had to leave the city after two years because his life was in danger. Escobar wanted to kill my grandfather when he discovered that my grandfather was writing a book, which was supposed to show the way the Medellin Cartel worked in the city. Escobar was offering a lot of money for my grandfather’s head, because he knew that if my grandfather published the book, the police were going to catch him. However, Escobar did not know that my grandfather left the city. My grandfather took a bus to go to Valledupar because at that time Escobar knew everything happening in the city. For that reason, my grandfather could not take a plane, so he traveled in a bus and he stopped in many towns on his way to Valledupar to leave no trace of his final destination.

On the whole, my grandfather was a good man, who did not agree with drug trafficking. My grandfather experienced a lot of death from people close to him died. He was with a lot of fear, and also a lot of moving from cities such as Bogota and Medellin. My grandfather would speak loudly and say what he believed or thought. All those experiences from my grandfather brought a lot of knowledge and union to my family. Escobar was a bloodthirsty person, and money or death were Pablo Escobar’s favorite sentence, because he would rather spend money killing people than helping them. My grandfather always thought about people around him, that is why he wanted to show how Escobar used people for his good.