Year: 1993
At 25 years old, Gustavo Escobar was already a feared and respected name throughout the Colombian Caribbean. With an empire built on blood, fire, and strategy, he had consolidated his power in Santa Marta. Since his arrival in 1985, his army had grown from 40 loyal soldiers raised on his estate to an organized force of more than 2,000 men. In eight years, he had transformed a city battered by poverty into a fortress of criminal order—yes—but also one of stability. Under his rule, the slums lived in a forced peace that many preferred over the chaos reigning in the rest of the country.
Owner of an estimated fortune of $7 billion—$1 billion legally built through real estate, commerce, tourism, and banking, and $6 billion through illegal operations such as drug trafficking, underground gambling, and prostitution—Gustavo had remained neutral in the war between the Cali Cartel, Los Pepes, and his own father. While Pablo Escobar unleashed open war against the State, Gustavo quietly consolidated his territory.
Santa Marta was his.
He had been married for three years to Mariana Restrepo, a beautiful local woman he had met after paying for her grandmother's surgery at a private clinic. Together, they had three children: Pablo, a lively two-year-old boy, and newborn twins, Lucía and Juan, just six months old. In Gustavo's heart, his family was the only sacred bastion. Nothing and no one would come between them and their safety.
It was on a warm July morning that he received the call that would change his destiny once more. On the other end of the line, the broken yet still firm voice of his father, Pablo Escobar.
"Gustavo," he said. "I need you to take care of my family."
Gustavo fell silent. He had never heard his father ask for help—much less humble himself with a plea.
"I'll do it, if you ask me as a man, not as the patrón," he replied after a pause.
Pablo laughed bitterly. "You're just like your mother... You were right to stay out of it. But the end is near. I'll give you the locations of the last safe houses. Ten billion dollars. Do what you want with it—but protect them. Your way, not mine."
There was a heavy silence. Pablo continued in a low voice:
"Don't make my mistakes. Don't love the noise so much. Don't love the war so much. The only thing I regret is not having had you closer."
The call ended without promises, without heroic goodbyes. Only realism and legacy.
Gustavo hung up the phone, and in that instant, he knew what he had to do. He summoned El Tigre—his most ruthless and efficient lieutenant—and ordered him to take 200 men to locate the safe houses. Gustavo himself would lead the second operation: gathering the entire Escobar family and bringing them to Santa Marta.
Gustavo's mother had been dead for many years, but ties to his paternal bloodline had never been completely severed. Pablo had a wife, María Victoria, and two more children: Juan Pablo, 16, and Manuela, just 9. There were also Pablo's sisters, his mother Doña Hermilda, and several nephews and in-laws.
Gustavo gathered them all in silence. He used discreet vehicles, private planes, hidden routes. The transfer was stealthy, fast, and efficient. Upon arrival in Santa Marta, they were settled in various properties of the "Young Patron"—as some were already starting to call him. From ranches to mansions in the historic center and luxury apartments by the sea, the family was strategically distributed.
With Pablo's figure crumbling, the family needed a new pillar. And they found it in Gustavo. Although not everyone welcomed this transition.
María Victoria remained cold from the start. She never fully accepted Gustavo as part of the core family. She saw him as a reminder of a previous life, of a woman who wasn't her, perhaps even a betrayal. Her children, especially Juan Pablo—raised like princes in the palace of Medellín—could not tolerate having to yield prominence to a half-brother who came from the shadows and military discipline.
But no one questioned Gustavo's authority. He was the boss. The patrón. Everyone knew it—even if they didn't admit it.
With this new responsibility on his shoulders, and the looming fall of his father, Gustavo locked himself in his office to reorganize the future. He knew the eyes of the DEA, the State, the Army, and the cartel's enemies would be watching. Santa Marta had to remain a bubble. The chaos devouring Medellín and Cali could not be allowed to contaminate his empire.