For police officers and criminals around the world, Pablo Escobar is a legend, a myth. In the 1980s, this Colombian drug lord made his fortune by flooding the United States with cocaine. But for Maria-Isabel Santos Escobar he was a husband, a father for Juan and Manuela.
Eighteen years after the death of the drug trafficker, she decided to take up the pen to tell the twenty years spent by his side. A man, she assures, who is not the one described in the movies or the series. Passing through Paris for the promotion of The Secret Life of Pablo Escobar*, she confided in 20 minutes.
Why did you want to write this book? What prompted you to take up writing 18 years after your husband died?
I have wanted to write this book for 25 years! I had lost my strength, I no longer had a voice, I didn’t want to feel excluded from society. I needed to evacuate all that I had lived of heavy.
Let’s start from the beginning. When and how did you meet Pablo Escobar?
I met her when I was 12, in the neighborhood. That was in 1972. There were gangs of boys playing football in the streets, and he was one of them. He had a Vespa and he invited the girls to take a ride on it. He had some success. My parents didn’t want me to hang out with this 23-year-old. In 1973, he gave me a record by a Spanish singer. And that’s where I started dating him.
Subsequently, he became one of the most important drug traffickers in the world, a violent man. And you never realized anything?
I was a mother when I was 16. Pablo had no money and for our first six years together, we lived with a sister-in-law. He then began to prosper, he was considered a cattle breeder. Everything was fine. We Colombians did not have access to the news, we did not ask ourselves where the money came from. Pablo had a very good image. When he brought back money, he told me he had done business, it didn’t go beyond that. I was happy with that. But I have never seen money hidden in the library, like in TV shows.
But you did eventually find out that you had a special relationship …
At first I didn’t see anything because his name was socially accepted, and he had connections with politicians. We do not see if there is a criminal side. When Pablo first became interested in politics, the then justice minister asked him about money that was used to fund campaigns. He replied that he did not understand, that his money was not dirty, that he was only an entrepreneur.
And he never told you where all that money was coming from?
No no… In Colombian society, women are at home, take care of the stewardship, the shopping, the children. But we do not participate in the management of the company. Men in Colombia are quite distant from their wives.
Obviously, you didn’t know him that well …
I was sad not to have a deep relationship with my husband, but the friends we had, worked the same, he made his life and I made mine. It weighed on me but I couldn’t do anything. Ultimately, we did not exist for him. Since her death, I have been carrying out an investigation for my second book, on the different types of violence against women.
Have you been naïve?
Yes, 100%. I did not understand the gravity of the situation, but for lack of information.
You were forced to flee after the death of the Colombian Minister of Justice in January 1994 who had been killed. For ten years you have been in hiding. Do you remember the last phone call from Pablo Escobar?
Pablo called me often. The last took place three minutes before his death was announced in December. I passed him my son Sébastien who asked him when he would return. He just told her everything was going to be okay. My son wrote a book about this. Pablo always said he wouldn’t let himself be killed, that he would rather kill himself if they caught him.
When he died, the government of Bogota offered to come to his grave. My son didn’t want to because he was afraid that we would be killed. But two days later, I said to myself that we had to go anyway. A military escort accompanied us to the cemetery where there were thousands of people.
His secret was his empathy, the sincerity he had for the humblest social classes in the country. He believed that Medellín [où était basé son cartel] could be a place for everyone to learn and develop through work. I don’t know if he was aware that what he was doing was wrong, but it is true that he wanted to make Medellín a place of prosperity.
Today, what feelings do you have for him?
I have mixed feelings. There were two Pablos. One was the only love of my life, the only man I have known. The other was violent. But he’s never been home, I can’t blame him. All this gives me inspiration because many men are like that, the new generation has realized that one should not get used to violence. My project is to give conferences and create a foundation so that women can reinvent themselves, because violence against women is everywhere in the world.
* “The secret life of Pablo Escobar” *, by Maria-Isabel Santos-Escobar, Albin Michel editions, 364 pages, 19.90 euros.