SUMMARY

The fighting between the Medellín Cartel and PEPES (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar: People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar) started as a consequence of the terror that the Medellín Cartel imposed on Colombia. PEPES declared a war and claimed that they would do what they could to make Pablo Escobar suffer in the same way as he made the population suffer. Most of the violence in this conflict consisted of PEPES revenge attacks on bombings blamed on Escobar. PEPES’ attacks were mostly targeted assassinations of people associated or related to Escobar. They also performed a number of arsons and bomb attacks against property owned by Escobar, his associates and his relatives.

The violence did have an impact on members of the Medellín Cartel, associates and relatives as many were killed or turned themselves over to the authorities in fear of their lives. A number of lawyers resigned from their work with the cartel fearing that they would otherwise share the faith of other lawyers and cartel associates. A number of relatives to Escobar, including his wife and two children, tried on a number of occasions to leave the country, even applying for asylum in other countries, without success.

The non-state conflict between the Medellín cartel and PEPES is first included in UCDP data in 1993. In February and March that year, a number of attacks resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.