Pablo Escobar’s dark legacy refuses to die 25 years on
Medellin: Twenty-five years after he was gunned down by police, Pablo Escobar’s legacy refuses to die in Medellin, the Colombian city where he ran his cocaine empire with a mix of brutality and largesse. Even as city officials prepare to demolish the bunker-like mansion where the late drug lord lived, in the neighbourhood that bears his name residents who live in homes he built for them are planning heartfelt tributes to mark Sunday’s anniversary. Escobar was killed in a rooftop shootout in Medellin on December 2, 1993 — one day after his 44th birthday, and five months after he appeared on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people for the seventh straight time. His eight-story mansion, the Monaco, a symbol of the decadent opulence of the Colombian mafia in the 1980s and 90s, has fallen into disrepair in the years since his death. Its battered frame still bears the scars of Colombia’s first car bombing, in 1988, the start of a bloody war between the country’s rival cartels. The hulking white building is slated to be demolished in February, in a public implosion complete with stands for viewers to watch. “The Monaco has become an anti-symbol, in a place where some people are outspoken defenders of crime and terrorism,” says Manuel Villa, the city hall secretary who will perform the official countdown to the detonation. “We don’t want any more children saying they want to be Pablo Escobar when they grow up.” The mansion, a top tourist attraction in Medellin’s upscale El Poblado neighbourhood, will be replaced by a public park dedicated to the thousands of people killed in Colombia by “narcoterrorism” — the no-holds-barred war the cartels waged on each other and the state in the 1980s and ’90s. The park will cost an estimated USD 2.5 million. Colombian society remains deeply divided over the legacy of Escobar and other drug barons. According to Medellin officials, Colombia’s drug violence killed 46,612 people from 1983 to 1994. On the other side of this cultural divide, Luz Maria Escobar is changing the tombstone at her brother’s grave ahead of the anniversary of his death, as a crowd of tourists looks on. Tearfully, she reads the new inscription: “Beyond the legend you symbolise today, few know the true essence of your life.” (AFP)
Gold ring and first Playboy issue sold in Hefner auction
CALIFORNIA: A red smoking jacket worn by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner fetched $41,600 at an auction of the late publisher’s possessions in Los Angeles, as fans and collectors snapped up such items as his college typewriter and the magazine’s first issue. Bidders at the two-day auction conducted by Julien’s Auctions included comedian Jim Belushi, who purchased a leather-bound script for a 1977 Saturday Night Live show that Hefner hosted for $3,125, the auction house said. The highest grossing item was the typewriter, which he used to write copy for the magazine’s first issue in 1953. It went for $162,500, while his personal copy of the issue itself, featuring Marylin Monroe, sold for $31,250. Among the more unusual items was a gold ring which sold for $22,400. Hefner’s complete set of bound volumes of the magazine, from 1953 to 2013, sold for $76,800. His white captain’s hat went for $19,200. A 1962 letter from future feminist leader Gloria Steinem, who took an undercover job as a playboy bunny at Hefner’s New York nightclub sold for $22,400. (Reuters)