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Pablo Freaks

Escobar immediately reached out to his family in the Tequendama Hotel upon hearing about their denied entrance into Germany. He also called De Grieff to basically say, "WTF, I thought you had my back." That's putting it lightly. Escobar had a way with words as you can see in the clip. He completely lost it, knowing that he couldn't protect his family. He offered to surrender, but that's not what Gaviria wanted. He had tried to surrender earlier that year in March to be protected from his rivals, but that request was ignored. He even wrote a letter to Los Pepes calling them cowards and liars and accusing them of killing his brother-in-law Carlos Henao.

To read the full letter Pablo wrote to Los Pepes click here and scroll down to the bottom.

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Denied!

It was a November night in 1993 when Maria Victoria Henao Escobar and her children, Juan Pablo and Manuela, tried to flee to Frankfurt, Germany and were denied entry at Customs. Gaviria sent the Colombian police colonel and special DEA agent, Kenny Magee, aboard the flight with them so they could be intercepted upon arrival. In this episode, Murphy embodies those agents, although it wasn't Steve Murphy specifically who flew to Deutschland. They were detained overnight and then denied entry. Upon their search, DEA agents found a note that said, "Tell our friend in Frankfurt to call Gustavo De Grieff." This proved to everyone that the Attorney General's office was provided aid for Escobar's family. Gaviria intervened and asked De Grieff to drop the protection so the family could be in government custody. They were then flown back to Colombia and escorted to the Tequendama Luxury Hotel in Bogota. Pretty much everyone who was staying there fled soon after.

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Gaviria's Decision

President Gaviria was troubled by the news that Escobar's family was trying to flee the country. On the one hand, they are not to blame for Escobar's crimes, on the other hand; they were his biggest leverage against Escobar. Even though Pablo hurt his family every single day whether it was through affairs with other women or by putting them in harm’s way, he loved them dearly. Gaviria knew keeping the family in play was key. The President was already being criticized because Los Pepes were putting more pressure on Escobar than the government. So, Gaviria called officials in Spain and Germany to refuse the entry of Escobar's family into their countries. The request was heard loud and clear: Do not let an outlaw's family into your country.

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Fleeing To Germany

Remember when Pablo promised his family they'd leave the country if things got too dangerous? Well, he half-kept that promise because he didn't go with them. Instead, he shipped his family away like a package. He arranged for them to fly out to Germany and bought 12 different airline tickets to make it harder for the government to figure out which one was being used, but President Gaviria was not going to sit idly and let the Escobars escape just like that.