Jeff Zimbalist's film, The Two Escobars, focuses on two of Colombia's most important people from the 1980s to the early 90s. One of these men was Andres Escobar, who was the most famous footballer in all of Colombia at the time and helped lead the national team to the World Cup in 1994 (the first time they had qualified in 28 years). However, due to his “own goal” which eliminated the country from the World Cup, he was assassinated when he returned to Colombia. The other man is Pablo Escobar, who was the leader of the Medellin Cartel and helped cocaine trafficking boom during the time period, as well as spread it to the United States and other parts of the world. After watching the movie The Two Escobars, I believe that Pablo Escobar was indeed a criminal mastermind whose horrible crimes gave the country of Colombia a bad image. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Part of Pablo Escobar's "infamy" has to do with his involvement in the cocaine trafficking business. In 1975, after years of committing many minor crimes as a teenager/young adult, Escobar began his involvement in the cocaine trafficking business. Escobar's involvement in this activity led to the creation of one of the most famous organizations in the world, the Medellin Cartel. As the head of the cartel, Escobar was involved in numerous negotiations with mafias around the world over the buying and selling of drugs (such as the Italian, Russian and US mafias). As a result of these talks with mafias around the world, the cartel exported millions of tons of cocaine around the world, to places such as the United States, the Caribbean and even Asia. Thanks to the millions of tons of cocaine exported by the cartel, Escobar and the Medellin cartel managed to make profits of over $3 billion. An Internet source states that "At the height of his empire, Escobar was estimated by Forbes magazine as the seventh richest man in the world along with his organization, the Medellin Cartel..." (Pablo Escobar Tour- The Medellin Cartel). However, this high level of cocaine trafficking led many nations to want Escobar arrested, but it wasn't until NBA rookie sensation Len Bias died of a cocaine-induced heart attack that the United States began its involvement. with the world to free it from Pablo. Escobar and the Medeliin cartel. Pablo Escobar's involvement with Colombian soccer clubs Atletico Nacional and Medellin helped make Escobar "infamous." Due to the large sums of money that Escobar and the cartel were receiving, they had to find a way to be able to legalize the money they earned so they could continue to finance their business. It was then that they decided to dedicate themselves to football. With football, millions of dollars in cash were transferred in transactions between teams making player trades and people buying tickets to attend games. So a team owner could say he made $3 million from ticket sales when in reality he only made $1 million to legalize the two million dollars earned by the cartel which can now be used freely by the cartel and the squad. This method of lying about how much money a person or team has received is called money laundering and is a serious crime. According to Jeff Zimbalist's film The Two Escobars, due to the ability of people to earn millions of dollars from money laundering, Escobar collaborated with the Atletico Nacional and Medellin teams tocommit money laundering. Although following these crimes both clubs managed to improve thanks to all this money coming into the organization, they (as well as Escobar and the country of Colombia) came under scrutiny for their partnership. When the cartel finally collapsed and the money for the teams stopped coming, people associated with crimes were arrested and accused of money laundering and the clubs began to decline due to the inability to keep their star players. While Pablo Escobar headed the Medellin Cartel, he plotted and committed many gruesome acts of violence in his country. One of the reasons he committed these acts of violence was because he wanted to eliminate people who posed a serious threat to the cartel. One such crime was the assassination of Justice Minister Lara Bonilla, who was killed due to Escobar's removal from the House of Representatives for attempting to lower the nation's morals. According to the film The Two Escobars by Jeff Zimbalist, after the murder of the Minister of Justice, Luis Carlos Galan was also murdered for speaking openly about how he supported the former Minister of Justice's belief on extradition. Another violent act committed by Escobar was the massive bombing of the DAS building in Bogota in 1989 which killed hundreds of people. The reason he committed this crime is because the DAS is the American version of the FBI and this organization was one of the main groups trying to take down not only Pablo Escobar, but the entire cartel. Another reason why he committed these acts was to take revenge on the people who had betrayed the cartel. The most common crime committed by Escobar for these people was the Colombian tie. What happens is that the person's neck is cut with a machete and then their tongue is pulled down their throat and out of the open wound to resemble a "tie." This was done to people as a warning to others as a way of saying "This is what will happen to you if you betray the cartel". Pablo Escobar was able to use his money and the influential power of the cartel to gain power in the Colombian government. When the cartel became famous throughout the world, the United States began to use the extradition policy of bringing someone from another country to be tried for the crime committed in the United States. When this happened, Pablo knew he had to find a way to get Colombia to ban the extradition because he knew that if they didn't, the United States would extradite Pablo to the United States to stand trial if he were caught. Escobar expressed his point of view with this famous quote on the issue: “Sooner a grave in Colombia, than a prison in the United States.” To ban extradition, Escobar began bribing judges and ministers with money to convince them to vote to abolish the extradition treaty. In the film The Two Escobars by Jeff Zimbalist, Pablo Escobar used a very interesting quote to describe this time: "Plata o plomo". This means “Silver or Lead” in English. What the quote means is that either you take the money and vote to end the extradition or you choose the initiative, which symbolizes the bullets, and you will be killed like the other politicians before you who have said so. In the end, the majority of politicians chose “silver” and the government voted to abolish extradition. This allows Pablo Escobar to continue committing crimes against most of the world without the fear of being shipped to the United States to face trial and most likely face the death penalty. Please note: this is just an example..