Pablo Escobar’s Unmatched Generosity, And His Crazy Lifestyle

Pablo Escobar is even today one of the most celebrated drug lords in the world thanks to the unrivaled legacy he created. As one of the richest men of his time, with a net worth of about $30 billion, according to Business Insider, he was loved by many mainly due to his generosity, which enabled him to successfully cut out a public Robin Hood image. It matched well with his endeavor to be the president of Colombia.

At the height of his success, Pablo is said to have built homes for the poor, paid school fees for children of the less privileged, financed the building of schools, and more. Going a bit into the basis for this trait, the following is a highlight from Gameofroles.

“He [Pablo Escobar] was always willing to give back to the people, and he did a lot more to better the lives of the poor and less privileged than the Colombian government ever has. Coming from a background of poverty, he knew how tough life was for the poor and always shared his money and wealth with the community.

Escobar made sure everyone in his community was taken care of, and he was able to accomplish the task of providing work and shelter for the ones that were in need of jobs or residence. Even to this day, Escobar is referred to as “The Godfather” or “Robin Hood” by his people because of the invaluable contributions he has made for the society.

In one instance, he is said to have felt so touched by the suffering of the poor in Moravia, Medellin, that he built 1,000 homes for them. Many of the people in the slum slept in dumping sites and lived by picking trash. Weeks after Pablo Escobar visited the area, the slum caught fire which ravished it to ashes.

While most of the country ignored the happenings in this poverty-stricken region, Pablo was empathetic to their suffering, consequently ordering the building of a housing complex with a thousand houses. The neighborhood is presently known as “Barrio Pablo Escobar” and has about 12,700 inhabitants.

That said, the following is Pablo Escobar’s statement in regards to his endeavor to make Colombia a better place.

“We have looked with pain upon children sitting on adobes, in ramshackle locales, and upon teachers living without protection before the indifference of the State. We love Colombia and now are capable of giving back some of what this beautiful nation has given us, we are doing it.”

Away from this, Pablo Escobar lived in lavish opulence. He and his family had numerous homes that had runways for his cocaine planes. He is said to have had entertainers and beauty queens flown in for his parties which featured fellow drug dealers, powerful politicians, and businessmen.

Looking specifically at his amazing Hacienda Napoles, he bought the land on which it sat for a reported $64 million and then spent a lot more building an estate that consisted of a zoo and maintained by as many as 700 workers. The following is an excerpt detailing this from Xpatnation.

“Eighty miles from the city of Medellin, Escobar owned a state on the shores of Magdalena river. He paid 63 million dollars only for the land, and spent a lot more building a pleasure palace. Since it was designed to be luxurious, an extravagant zoo also had to be included. Pablo flew hundreds of animal species from all over the world: gazelles, rhinoceroses, elephants, buffalos, camels, ostriches, etc.

Escobar named this place “The Hacienda Napoles” and employed 700 servants to keep it running. The Hacienda Napoles had enough suites to hold more than 100 guests, and it was equipped with billiard tables, pinball machines, bars, TVs, and jukeboxes. It also had a bullfighting ring, tennis courts, and more than six lakes suited for Jet Skying.

To date, it is hard to find anyone who has an estate that could match the drug lord’s.

[Featured Image by Luis Benavides/AP Photo]