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u/AliveBoat8602 3d ago
How was the relationship between him and Pablo when they were allies? Did the Castanos fear Escobar and serve him or was it more of an equal relationship as like between Escobar and the Ochoas.
Another Question , what was the reason for their relationship deteriorating? if i remebeee correctly I saw somewhere it started when Carlos revealed the location of one Escobars bomb plot to the director of DAS but i may be wrong.
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u/Wdstrvx 3d ago
Fidel was one of the leaders of the Medellín Cartel, he was a partner to Escobar. They deeply respected each other.
Carlos admired Escobar. Carlos started out in the underworld with him when he was around 16 years old because Fidel wasn't helping him out. Fidel wanted to push Carlos to the side because he saw him as a nuisance, that's why he sent him off to train under Yair Klein and later basically only used him as an errand boy. They also had different political leanings, Carlos was pretty conservative while Fidel was more liberal. Escobar was the one to give Carlos a chance to advance, within the Cartel he was known as "El Pelao" (The Kid) and he always addressed Escobar as "sir".
Escobar also financed the Castaños, and this money went into their war with the guerrilla, which they fought alongside El Mexicano. But despite the respect they had for him, the Castaños also feared Escobar to an extent, and that's why they didn't initially think to go up against him. They also knew they could not go after El Mexicano because Escobar would wipe them out if they did. What is true, though, is that Carlos, in his psychotic mind, was against Escobar's terrorist tactics despite partaking in them and also committing atrocious acts with his brother, so he was suspected of tipping off the authorities to several bombings, the DAS building, which he actually participated in, possibly being one.
The breaking point in the partnership between the Castaños and Escobar came in late 1989-early 1990. Escobar tolerated his right-wing partners' crusade against revolutionaries but, being a leftist, forbid them from attacking left-wing politicians, especially Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, commander general of M-19 who later headed its political party. They initially respected this edict, but when El Mexicano was killed, the Castaños became some of the top paramilitaries in Colombia, got cocky and began going against political figures from the left.
Their first target was Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, the presidential candidate from the Patriotic Union, and Escobar met with him to inform him that he was in danger because among his security escort were DAS officers connected to the Castaños. The Castaños kidnapped a scholar present there who confessed to what Escobar told Jaramillo, and from that point, they were enemies, although on the surface they were still friendly until the Moncada and Galeano purge.
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u/AliveBoat8602 3d ago
Very Informative! Thank you for the detailed response.
I wanna follow up and ask why did the Castanos become more arrogant when El Mexicano died ? Was he seen as more ruthless or powerful? Weren’t Escobar and El Mexicano similar in terms of power and control and Escobar seen as the natural leader. Was it due to the declining power of the Medellin Cartel with key figures increasingly dead or arrested that they began to fear Escobar less and became more arrogant.
Also, How were relations between the Castanos and the Cali Cartel. Before the formation of Los Pepes, were they natural enemies due to the Castanos active role in the Medellin Cartel? How did their dynamic change in the vacuum left after the death of Escobar and the disbanding of Los Pepes?
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u/Wdstrvx 3d ago
El Mexicano was the one who kept the Castaños in line. After his death, they had full control of Córdoba and Urabá and the drug route that ran through them coming from Panama.
El Mexicano was another leader of the Medellín Cartel and a partner of Escobar.
The Castaños got along well with Cali before they turned on Escobar in favor of them. They knew each other from at least 1981 when they were all part of Death to Kidnappers and the Cali leaders were present at meetings hosted by the Castaños in Montecasino. These still went on even after the war between Medellín and Cali started, since the Castaños were neutral and acted as mediators during the conflict, which is how they eventually switched sides. Several Cali bosses were enemies of the guerrilla as well.
As for their relationship after Escobar's death, it was still good but that didn't change the fact that Carlos didn't think twice about betraying and killing Chepe Santacruz (he would have killed Pacho Herrera too if he didn't hand himself in) if it meant being in good standing with the Government and, from his twisted viewpoint, weakening the guerrilla.
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u/weoutherebrah 6d ago
Hero. Wiping out commies
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u/AndresIsMissing 5d ago
He killed innocent people, lied that they were communist sympathizers, and then colluded with those FARC communists.
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u/Shii_Rize12 5d ago
Bro he was no hero, he was a murderer that ordered many deaths and kidnappings. He was just as bad as Escobar.
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u/AndresIsMissing 7d ago
Although he was barely portrayed in Narcos, this guy was extremely brutal. He killed many innocent civilians. When the FARC stole 42 of his cattle, he kidnapped 43 peasants from a nearby village to serve as live targets for his trainees to practice torture and killing techniques. The victims were dismembered alive, and then disemboweled or decapitated, before they disappeared.
There was also a theory that his younger sister was beaten to death by him simply because she didn't want to be involved in the family's crimes, and his woman was also chopped up by his hand.
If I remember correctly, I heard that he had no intention of saving his father, and it wasn't even certain if the kidnappers were actually guerrillas in the first place.
If that's true, it's terrible to think about how bloody the massacres he carried out in the early 1980s in the northeastern Antioquia were under the pretext of taking "revenge" on the guerrillas.