Pablito or El Papa is how one refers to the late drug lord in Barrio Medellín Sin Tugurios or as the locals like to say, Barrio Pablo Escobar.
Barrio Pablo Escobar was built by Pablo Escobar in 1984 and given to families who had become homeless after a hillside slum in Moravia burned to the ground.
While not as luxurious as his own Hacienda Nápoles or La Catedral prison, Barrio Pablo Escobar made its creator very popular in Medellín’s poor communities.
There is much debate as to whether Escobar’s social programs were merely an attempt to improve his public relations, win the lower class vote and elect himself to Colombia’s House of Representatives in order to prevent his extradition to the US.
But, while people may be riled that almost 20 years since his death Escobar is still held up as a Robin Hood type figure in Barrio Escobar, it’s notable that almost 30 years since he built the neighbourhood, successive governments have not attempted to develop educational institutions, health clinics or recreational facilities.
In fact, despite growing from its original development of 780 single-family homes to over 3,000, Barrio Pablo Escobar has just one small public library which is actually a residential house and well-known to the community as La Biblioteca Luis Ángel Muñoz.
