The anecdotes of Pablo Escobar told by his personal photographer

Pablo Escobar’s name echoes around the world. This character managed to gain relevance in the international press thanks to his multiple crimes in organizations dedicated to drug trafficking. However, his story has never been better told so far than it does. The Chinese, who photographed Escobar, his family and the events he attended, and was also an old schoolmate of the drug trafficker.

Although Escobar was one of the most wanted criminals in the late 20th century, he was also a man loved by his people due to social work. The drug lord became involved in Colombian politics and landed some public office, and as a kind of Robin Hood, built hospitals, schools and churches with whom he got the sympathy of the poor. This was commented by his photographer, Édgar Jiménez Mendoza.

“I have countless photos because I took the photos of the whole family, in all kinds of commitments,” confirmed Jiménez in an interview with Snail Radio.

political life

One of the photos he remembers most is one from his political life, when Escobar was expelled from the political party New Liberalism and supported by the Popular Alternative Movement, led by Alberto Santofimio Botero.

“That’s where Pablo Escobar’s relationship with Santofimio and Jairo Ortega begins. And Virginia Vallejo was already involved in the political campaign, because there was already a friendship between Vallejo and Escobar. She was quite involved in the political campaign; I have many photos of her in the campaign and with Santofimio, ”Jiménez said in the interview.

With regard to the aforementioned parties, according to the photographer, Patron Don Pablo was not a man who liked to drink a lot. “I have never seen him upset in my life; he had a beer and that was all, or some other drink, but very little, “he said.

Escobar and family

With regard to the family, the drug trafficker was a man who “loved his family.” Escobar was married to Victoria Eugenia Henao, with whom he had two children: his first-born, Juan Pablo Escobar Henao, and his daughter Manuela, whom Escobar Gaviria called “the toothless doll.” One of the photographs that El Chino remembers was after a party, when the capo’s employees remembered that it was the boss’s birthday, so they all went up to sing to him.

“One of the most iconic photos of Pablo Escobar: there he looks serene, placid, like a cherub without wings (…); totally harmless. Nobody assumed the monster he was going to become, “said Jiménez, who was also known as the” narcophotographer. “

In the photograph captured by Jiménez, alias El Patron looks submissive, docile and defenseless; However, Pablo Escobar was responsible for the death of 5,500 people, carried out 627 terrorist attacks in the main cities of the country and, although there is no official figure, he kidnapped 15 people.

His death

His wife, Victoria Eugenia Henao, had a feeling that August 15, 1993 would be the last time she would see Escobar Gaviria, according to a publication by Infobae.

This was the last hours of Pablo Escobar’s life

Death loomed around the corner. He hugged each of us and when it was his turn to say goodbye to our daughter Manuela, he couldn’t hold back his tears. He then followed us with his cart until he honked twice before turning left and getting lost in the dark. There I thought that we would never see each other again. As if the horn had sent us a message: ‘Goodbye forever, my love; goodbye forever, my children. ‘

“It was very painful to make the decision to separate and too risky as well. We were as dead next to him as we were in the hands of the Colombian State ”, Henao affirms in an interview with Infobae.

The whole story of Escobar is captured in images that El Chino took and that his boss’s family never asked not to be published. For this reason, the Colombian journalist Alfonso Buitrago decided to capture the life of the “narcophotographer” in the book The Chinese.

The photobook is curated by the American photographer Tom Griggs, the editing and design by the artist Santiago Rodas, and the experience and editorial care of the Universo Centro team. (I)