6 He Killed 107 People Aboard A Plane
In 1989, 101 passengers and a crew of six were all killed during an explosion on Avianca Flight 203, which was bound for Cali.[5] The Boeing 727 crashed near Bogota, and the event was the deadliest single criminal attack to occur in Colombia for decades. Escobar had planned the explosion in the hope that it would kill the presidential candidate, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo. However, Trujillo was not on the flight and went on to become president of Colombia. The bombing also resulted in the deaths of two Americans, which led the Bush administration to begin their hunt for Escobar to bring him to justice.
A witness who called Radio Caracol shortly after the crash detailed, “I heard explosions and I thought there was some problem with transformers in the electrical station, but I looked up and saw a plane explode in the air, and bodies and pieces of luggage were falling.”
5 His Bombing Trail Also Killed Children
In early 1993, another one of Pablo Escobar’s bombs killed 20 shoppers—including four children—and injured around 70 other victims. During peak time at Northern Bogota’s Center 93 mall, a remote-controlled bomb placed in a stolen van was detonated outside a bookstore where young children were shopping for school supplies. A presidential spokesperson said, “We have now had confirmation from military intelligence that Escobar planned and carried out the bombing.”
Escobar, who was a fugitive at the time, had warned the Colombian government that he would cause mass panic unless he was granted the same political rights as the country’s left-wing guerrillas. President Gaviria said of the attack, “Intelligence information indicates that the narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar and what is left of his murderous organization are responsible for this murderous act. But the government and the citizenry will not let themselves be intimidated.”
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