Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302280072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: E3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA LENGTH: Medium
VIGILANTES TAKE AIM AT KING OF COCAINE SECRET `PEPES' KEEP ESCOBAR DUCKING
Pablo Escobar, the king of Colombia's drug traffickers, was used to exploding bombs and then going to parties to celebrate. Now he's on the run and getting what he dishes out.Vigilantes have been blowing up or torching Escobar properties, including his mother's million-dollar mansion, private country club Escobar facilities and the most valuable collection of antique cars in Colombia.
The vigilantes call themselves People Persecuted by Escobar, shortened to Pepes (pep-ees). So far the Pepes have struck 10 times in the last two months.
The government and security forces claim they don't know who the Pepes are, and their identity may never be known. In rising from a street thug to a billionaire drug trafficker, Escobar created thousands of enemies in a country where violence is a way of life for drug cartels, right-wing death squads and leftist rebels alike.
But officials say privately the Pepes likely consist of surviving relatives of rival traffickers murdered under Escobar's orders while he was still in jail.
Medellin police also carry a grudge against Escobar. The drug lord's private army of assassins has killed more than 400 policemen in this city of 2 million people in the last three years.
While security forces regularly find explosives and guns belonging to Escobar's drug cartel and arrest cartel gunmen, the Pepes roam around town and countryside, eluding detection at scores of military checkpoints.
The vigilantes don't operate like ordinary drug traffickers. They politely inform anyone inside target buildings that they are going to blow it up or burn it down. Inhabitants are led to safety before the nasty work begins.
In contrast, drug traffickers torture and maim victims, kill them and blow up their houses. Sometimes they kill the family dog for good measure.
Escobar escaped from a Medellin jail in July 1992. The vigilante attacks started after his henchmen exploded a bomb in early January in Bogota that killed 21 people, including five children.
The next day three bombs exploded at the homes of Escobar family members, including one at his mother's country retreat outside Medellin, causing some damage but no deaths.
The Pepes issued their first communique announcing their formation, claiming responsibility for the bombings and vowing to retaliate for each of Escobar's attacks by targeting anyone associated with him.
A week later, a young man's body appeared on a Medellin street with a sign next to it that read: "For Working For The Child-killing Narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar. For Colombia. The Pepes."
The vigilantes' actions and thousands of house searches by 2,000 policemen and soldiers have led to widespread speculation that Escobar's days are numbered. Actually catching him is another story.
With billions of dollars and a drug empire that stretches around the world, Escobar could be anywhere. Yet police insist he is in Medellin.
Army and police say privately they suspect that Escobar is tipped off any time security forces get close to him.
Escobar has shown no signs of giving in. In the last two months, six car bombs that police say Escobar ordered have killed 46 people and injured more than 540.
In the latest attack, 40 people were injured when a bomb went off Thursday in downtown Medellin.