June 24, 2023, 5:30 am | Read time: 5 minutes
Imagine a drug lord going to prison, one he was allowed to design according to his own preferences. What sounds absurd actually happened in Colombia. The legendary drug baron Pablo Escobar, the subject of the series “Narcos,” designed his prison with all the luxuries he didn’t want to miss during his incarceration. A hot tub, a disco, and a soccer field were part of it, as well as unrestricted access for prostitutes and soccer stars. TRAVELBOOK tells the story of “La Catedral”–and what became of it.
The series “Narcos” was one of the most successful original productions of the streaming service Netflix after its release in 2015. Of the three seasons, two focus on the legendary drug boss Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. In the episodes, there are moments when astonishment at Pablo Escobar’s life turns into disbelief. A drug lord building his own prison? A prison with a casino, bars, a soccer field, and a disco? That must be Hollywood’s penchant for exaggeration. But in fact, the decadent furnishings of Pablo Escobar’s prison “La Catedral” in the series are based on facts.
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As the Colombian army and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) closed in on the king of cocaine in the late 1980s, Escobar began bombing Medellín and kidnapping celebrities to pressure the authorities. The Colombian president was so desperate that he secretly started negotiating with Escobar. Escobar agreed because the pressure from Colombian authorities and DEA agents was so high that he faced an “involuntary” arrest and subsequent extradition to the U.S.
Pablo Escobar therefore offered to turn himself in and voluntarily go to prison for five years. However, only under three conditions: First, the Colombian constitution had to be changed to make extradition of Colombian criminals to the U.S. impossible. Second, he demanded that his then most relentless opponent, General Maza, had to resign. And third: that he could design and build his own prison at a location of his choice. Of course, only with guards he had personally selected.
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How Escobar Chose the Location for His Prison
The goal of this deal was to restore the president’s image through temporary peace and ensure Pablo’s safety from the U.S. The government’s true plan: to let Escobar have his way initially and then transfer him to another Colombian prison.
But the drug baron saw himself as the clear winner of the deal: He set out to find a suitable location for his prison and chose a mountain near his hometown of Envigado, surrounded by vast, dense forests and mostly shrouded in thick fog, making it impossible for Colombian and U.S. authorities to spy on Escobar.
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Luxury Prison with Casino, Artificial Waterfall, and Many Parties
Then Pablo built the prison to his own standards. “La Catedral,” also called “Club Medellín” and “Hotel Escobar” by Colombians, featured a basketball court, a soccer field, a casino, a billiard hall, an artificial waterfall, a helipad, and a huge dollhouse for Escobar’s young daughter, as the drug dealer’s family, who lived near the prison, regularly visited.
In Escobar’s bedroom, there was a rotating bed and a hot tub next to it. Otherwise, “La Catedral” was an entertainment center for the drug cartel: Parties were held here (sometimes even weddings!), to which, in addition to Escobar’s friends, prostitutes and friendly soccer stars were smuggled into the prison. Of course, “La Catedral” also had alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine in abundance. And Escobar’s enemies were brought here, tortured, and murdered.
While the drug baron made himself comfortable in his high-profile prison, the bosses of the cartels under his control had to pay him a high tax. Pablo’s Sicarios, hitmen, are said to have smuggled bundles of up to a million U.S. dollars into the prison in milk cans.
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Today “La Catedral” Is a Retirement Home
However, Escobar’s stay in “La Catedral” was to last just over a year: When the government planned to move him to another prison, he escaped with his Sicarios through the woods. He was on the run for another year before he was finally shot by Colombian police officers during an arrest attempt on December 2, 1993.
After Escobar’s death, La Catedral became the property of the Colombian government. Today, Benedictine monks use the remnants of the prison for something that could hardly be more opposite to its original purpose: Since 2007, they have been operating a retirement home here. About 50 seniors live here.
“A lot has changed,” Rodrigo de Jesús Rivera, a local resident, tells the Colombian radio station RCN. Once, “very bad people” lived here, but today “it’s like heaven here, it’s very quiet and peaceful.”