Killing Pablo

Starred review from May 7, 2001
The author of the bestseller Black Hawk Down, which depicted the U.S. military's involvement in Somalia, Bowden hits another home run with his chronicle of the manhunt for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He traces the prevalence of violence in Colombian history as background, then launches into the tale of the dramatic rise and fall of "Don Pablo," as he was known. Packed with detail, the book shows how Escobar, a pudgy, uneducated man who smoked marijuana daily, ruthlessly built the infamous Medellin cartel, a drug machine that eventually controlled much of Colombian life. As Bowden shows, the impotence of the Colombian government left a void readily filled by Escobar's mafia. While not ignoring the larger picture—e.g., the terrible drug-related murders that wracked the South American country in the late 1980s and early 1990s—Bowden never loses sight of the human story behind the search for Escobar, who was finally assassinated in 1993, and the terrible toll the hunt took on many of its main players.. There's a smoking gun here: Bowden charges that U.S. special forces were likely involved in helping some of Colombia's other drug lords assassinate perhaps more than a hundred people linked to Escobar. There's no doubt, according to Bowden, that the U.S. government was involved in the search for Escobar after a 1989 airplane bombing that killed 100 and made him, in Bowden's words, "Public Enemy Number One in the world." This revelation highlights one of Bowden's many journalistic accomplishments here: he shows how the search for Escobar became an end in itself. (May 8)Forecast: Bowden will go on a monster tour (about two dozen cities) to promote this BOMC selection, which also has its own Web site (www.killingpablo.com). Expect healthy sales.

November 15, 2000
This "nonfiction technothriller" by the author of Black Hawk Down recounts the manhunt for Colombian cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. With a 150,000-copy first printing and a 23-city author tour.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2001
Journalist Bowden, who uncovered the savage idiocy of the Battle of Mogadishu in the best-selling "Black Hawk Down" (1999) and the rage and the glory of professional football in "Bringing the Heat" (1994), delivers a gripping investigation into the U.S. government's role in bringing down Colombian cocaine kingpin and terrorist Pablo Escobar. Bowden's investigation relies on eyewitness accounts, interviews with soldiers and field operatives, and legal documents. He centers his story on the volatile world of drug trafficking and the equally volatile response of the U. S. government through its War on Drugs. Bowden's insights into Colombia, "a land that breeds outlaws" through a culture and a landscape that are both bandit-friendly, provide the context for the parallel stories of Escobar's rise to power and the U.S. government's frustration over its inability to staunch the torrent of drugs. That frustration led to the first Bush administration's launching of a covert military and espionage operation to assassinate Escobar--a project that resulted in the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars and the loss of hundreds of lives. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is Bowden's depiction of the small-scale, military-centered intelligence launched in Colombia--spy tactics that detail what parts of target buildings are vulnerable, for example, or the habits of the human target that might leave him alone and exposed. A harrowing investigation into the cost of both drug trafficking and the War on Drugs. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)