Escobar Uncovered: 5 Days w/ Pablo Escobar’s Top Assassin - Pre-Departure & Day 1

As I wrote in my intro post for this blog series, I'd be chronicling Rene's and my 5-day adventure together in Medellín, Colombia to interview Pablo Escobar's former right hand man: Jhon Jairo Velásquez aka “Popeye.” Here we go!

January to February, 2017 - Predeparture

I'd be lying if I said organizing a shoot like this was a piece of cake. Not only would we require a skilled Spanish-English translator due to Popeye's inability to speak English and my incompetency in Spanish, but we would also need proper lighting, audio equipment with enough batteries (and a lot of them), camera equipment, a film crew to operate everything, a rental car, etc. But in some sick way, all this planning was fun to me, as the excitement and uncertainty of it all gave me a rush. I would spend hours upon hours of mental planning; running through each and every scenario in my mind, and how to deal with whatever problems may arise.

On the phone, Popeye seemed like the nicest guy in the world. For being such a cold-hearted killer responsible for thousands of murders, his personality confused me as he would say things like “I will welcome you guys with all the love in the world” or “I only have the utmost respect for you guys and the work you've done” and even “You can ask me anything you want, I'll be completely transparent with you guys! You're going to love it! By the end of it all, we'll be like brothers.” What in the flying fu©k?

I guess all we could do was take precautionary measures beforehand and stay as vigilant as possible throughout the shoot. Fast forward weeks later, and BOOM! We find ourselves in the “City of the Eternal Spring”...Medellín: the 2.5 million-person metropolis sprawled out in a linear valley between lush green mountains—whose hillsides are blanketed by low-income housing developments/barrios moving in an upward fashion resembling an almost infectious-like spread—and topped off with the perfect year-round climate (hence its nickname “City of the Eternal Spring”).

In recent years, Colombia has been fighting a tough fight against their bad rep in the aftermath of the drug cartels. But little do people know that it's a completely different world nowadays. What were once body-strewn streets are now lush, vibrant boulevards frequented by the largest influx of tourists the country has ever seen in its entire history! But the masses stay ignorant nonetheless...

Did we face resistance from our loved ones about coming down here? Sure. But that wasn't enough to stop us. I had been to Colombia two years prior and—being the oblivious American that I was—was completely uneducated on the country's violent past. “Colombia? Well I've been to Cabo, Mexico once. It can't be much more different.” Little did I know how wrong I was.

Regardless, present-day Colombia is worlds different/safer than it was back in the '80s and '90s. In fact, the government is making a strong push in their tourism sector to attract more foreigners and expats, which you'll definitely notice when walking around the ritzy, gringo-laden neighborhood of Medellín's El Poblado.

Saturday, February 11, 2017 - Day 1

Our plan was to set aside Saturday evening for an informal dinner with Popeye, which would take place in a well-populated public area. Our thoughts behind this? Safety in numbers. This meeting would be as casual as possible in order to get a feel for his vibe, talking style, etc. and to get to know him on a more personal level and build that sense of trust before he pours his heart and soul into the camera for us; strangers whom he had never met before.

Armed with just a gift peace offering (chocolate-covered fruit) for Popeye and our translator Diego—whom we were referred to by a close friend and had to fly in from Bogotá—Rene and I set out to the agreed meeting point: Restaurante Romero in the Laureles neighborhood. Upon arrival, Popeye greets us with a big smile and firm handshake. He mistakes Rene for being me at first and vice-versa.

We proceed to our table reservation and make small talk in an attempt to get to know each other more personally before talking shop. To me, the old man seemed to have grown a soft heart, which I wasn't surprised about due to our friendly banter over the phone in the weeks prior to arrival. But Rene, not knowing too much about the guy, was still a little skeptical. All hesitations were quelled though as he clearly showed us how caring of a person he had really become. (I would later learn that this warm, positive attitude is common in the paisa culture, or the people from Colombia's Antioquia region).

I tried my best to stay away from asking the “juicy” stuff: what was Pablo like, what was the craziest assassination you were a part of, etc. I wanted to save this all for when the cameras were rolling. But as the night went on, it was clear the man was just thankful for each and every breath he took; he was just thankful to be alive. He said that being locked up for 22 years really changes your perspective on life...and that the reason why he loves trees so much is that when they were in prison, he and the other inmates would do whatever they could to get a quick glance of a branch or leaf swaying beyond their cell's walls/bars, because it represented the hope of life beyond the prison walls.

At one point, Popeye also placed his most prized possession on the table: his old apartment key. He said that every single day for 22 years, a guard would walk by his cell with a cluster of keys hanging on his side, one of which was this particular key. He saw it as a symbol of having his own life back in the freedom of society.

I am not ashamed to admit that, despite being a grown man, these stories nearly brought me to tears. Yes, he did deserve to serve time for his horrendous actions and he does deserve to suffer the consequences...but I guess putting myself in his shoes of being locked away from all my loved ones was what struck the most fear in me. Additionally, being able to transform from a soulless killer to a gratitude-filled servant of God (he's very religious) was extremely eye-opening. How could one change so radically? And besides his general prison sentence, what particular events caused such changes? I wanted to know it all!

As we were finishing up dinner (with Diego struggling to squeeze in each and every bite of his food in between translating from English to Spanish and vice-versa), I proposed we head to Delirio, the rooftop bar directly above the restaurant, in order to continue the intriguing conversation. After getting situated upstairs, I felt it was safe enough to call over the rest of the “film crew”: my girlfriend (who I trained to work as the boom operator; or in simpler terms, anything audio/sound-related) and my assistant (my girlfriend's younger sister who had been working for me for several months at this point; now Rene's girlfriend. Her in-studio experience would prove useful to me as a camera operator and gaffer/grip).

Upon arrival, the two girls seemed to be almost in a sense of awe and disbelief that it was all finally coming into fruition. The man we had all heard of, read about, and seen so much of (mostly in Netflix's series “Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal”) was there in the flesh. This was the real-life Narcos. It was at this point that Popeye felt the urge to impress "las chicas" by pulling out the heavy artillery: showing off his new skull tattoos, telling crazy stories of murders that took place on the streets right outside of where we were drinking, explaining how he had no regrets for his actions...

NO REGRETS??? Now I was confused. After exposing his more vulnerable side and demonstrating to us how much of a reformed man he had become, he still admits that he has no regrets for his past actions? Seemed a little contradictory to me.

The night progressed with more casual talk about his life and his past, and eventually ended with us parting ways around midnight in order to rest up for the long day of filming we had ahead of us. The goodbyes were very amicable, and his stories served to whet our appetites for the insanity he would impart on us the very next day.

Shown on the right is a picture of Popeye with our translator Diego taken during dinner on day 1. To hear more about this from Rene's perspective, check out his recent post here: https://steemit.com/youtube/@world5list/interviewing-a-hitman-damnable-or-not

And as promised, here's part 1 of our pre-departure interview available exclusively on Steemit: