Manuela Escobar is a name that is familiar to many people, but few know much about her beyond her famous last name. As the daughter of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, she has lived a life of great privilege and danger.
While many children are taught to walk, Escobar was taught to run because she had a lot of running to do thanks to her father’s dangerous profession. Irrespective of how fast she ran, she could never outrun the shadow that her father’s legacy had cast over her.
To answer the question of what is the story of Manuela Escobar and how she did survive after her father’s death, here is all you need to know about her.
Manuela Escobar biography
Manuela Escobar was born in 1984, in Colombia. She is the only daughter of Pablo Escobar and his wife, Maria Victoria Henao.
Despite her father’s criminal activities, Escobar had a relatively normal childhood. She was homeschooled, and her parents made sure that she was isolated from the violence and danger that surrounded them.
Escobar was a little child when her father became the ‘king of Cocaine’, as he is fondly called, so she probably had no idea about the consequences attached to his actions. But what was certain was that her father would do anything to make her smile.
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According to reports, Escobar once asked her father for a unicorn, and instead of telling her unicorns were not real, her father ordered his workers to get a white horse and glue a horn and wings on it. Even though the horse later died of a terrible infection as a result of the act, her wish was fulfilled.
However, as she grew older, the reality of her father’s activities became harder to ignore.
In 1991, when she was just seven years old, her father turned himself into the Colombian authorities. He was eventually sent to a prison in Medellin, where he continued to run his drug empire from behind bars. Escobar and her family were forced to move frequently to avoid retaliation from their father’s enemies. They lived in a series of safe houses, always surrounded by heavily armed guards.
Once, while they stayed hiding out in the Medellín mountainside, it is reported that Escobar’s father burnt $2 million just to keep her warm and protect her from hypothermia. Despite this, Escobar managed to maintain a normal childhood, spending time with her mother and older brother, Juan Pablo.
In 1993, when she was nine years old, her father was shot and killed by Colombian police. The family was forced to flee the country and went into hiding in various locations around the world. They eventually settled in Argentina, where they changed their names and tried to start a new life.
The only daughter of Pablo Escobar has remained largely out of the public eye since then. She has not given any interviews or made any public appearances. It is believed that she is still living in Argentina with her mother and brother.
Manuela Escobar career
Little is known about Escobar’s career. It is reported that she is helping her mother with her real estate business in Argentina.
It is a business which her mother started after they fled Columbia shortly after their father’s demise.
Manuela Escobar net worth
Being the daughter of one of the richest drug lords to ever exist, many expect that Escobar’s net worth would be in the billions, if possible.
However, her father’s death turned her from someone who lived a lavish and glamorous lifestyle to one who struggled to even be middle class. When she changed her name to Juana Marroquin, life was not as bright and rich. While Manuela Escobar’s life was filled with tutors and the good things of life, Juana Marroquine lived in fear and financial hardship.
Even though the worst seems to be behind her, and various online reports reveal different amounts regarding her net worth, Escobar’s net worth is not known as of the time of writing this piece.
She has never uttered a word to the media as regards her finances.
Manuela Escobar family
Escobar’s family is known for the illicit drug trade and crime, no thanks to her father, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar is a name that is synonymous with the drug trade and organised crime. Escobar’s father rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful and feared drug lords in the world, with a net worth estimated at over $30 billion when he was at his peak.
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Her father dabbled in petty crime and eventually became involved in the drug trade. He started as a small-time smuggler, transporting cocaine from Colombia to the United States.
However, he soon realised that there was a huge demand for cocaine in the U.S., and he saw an opportunity to make a fortune.
In the late 1970s, Escobar founded the Medellin Cartel, an organisation that would go on to dominate the cocaine trade for the next two decades. The cartel was made up of a network of drug traffickers, smugglers, and hitmen, all of whom were fiercely loyal to Escobar.
Under Escobar’s leadership, the Medellin Cartel became the most powerful criminal organisation in the world. It was responsible for the vast majority of the cocaine that was smuggled into the United States, and it had a ruthless reputation for violence and intimidation.
Despite his immense wealth and power, Escobar’s father was a wanted man. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, including police officers, journalists, and politicians.
In 1991, he was finally captured by Colombian authorities, but he escaped from prison less than a year later. The United States government was determined to bring her father to justice, and they launched a massive manhunt for him. The hunt for Escobar lasted for years, and it involved hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple countries.
Pablo Escobar’s luck finally ran out on December 2, 1993. He was located by Colombian authorities in a safe house in Medellin, and a gun battle ensued. While trying to escape the barrio rooftop, Escobar was shot and killed during the bloody firefight, bringing an end to one of the most notorious criminal careers in history.
He was said to have been shot in the torso and feet but a bullet which struck him in the ear is what killed him.
Irrespective of his brutal legacy, Escobar’s father remains a controversial figure in Colombia. Some view him as a Robin Hood-like figure who used his wealth to help the poor and marginalised. Others see him as a ruthless criminal who was responsible for the deaths of thousands.
Escobar’s mother, on the other hand, is Maria Victoria Henao. She was the dutiful ‘child bride’ who stood by her husband despite all odds.
In March 1976, Escobar’s parents tied the knot but their relationship was disapproved of by Henao’s parents because she was just 15 years old. As a result, Escobar and Henao eloped.
The couple had two children: a son named Juan Pablo Escobar (now Sebastian Marroquin) and a daughter Manuela Escobar.
After Escobar’s father’s death, things went downhill for his family. The surviving members of the drug lord’s family fled Columbia because they knew they could no longer stay there.
They tried to seek refuge in countries like South Africa, Mozambique, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil but no one granted them asylum. Finally, they changed their names and settled in Argentina in late 1994. Thinking they had found a new life, in 1999, Escobar’s wife and son were arrested for falsifying a document. While her family spent time in prison, Manuela Escobar was left all alone.
Even though she was the only member of the Escobar family who had never committed a crime, Manuel Escobar is said to, at times, remain scared. The fear of the past deeds of her father catching up with her was a constant torment for her. During this period, a Colombian news website El Tiempo revealed that she was staying at a residential building called Jaramillo and living under the name Juana Manuela Marroquin Santos in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Although her family was finally released as a result of a lack of evidence, Escobar sank into depression from the constant fear that someone was her and that of her family members’ lives.
In the years that followed, her mother and brother stepped into the limelight as they gave their account of their lives and how they lived, but Escobar has never uttered a word to the media.
Almost three decades after the death of her father, her mother, Victoria Henao, finally told the world how she coped through those trying times in her book, entitled: Pablo Escobar: My Life and My Prison.
Manuela’s mother Victoria revealed during an interview that she stayed with Pablo Escobar despite all he did because she loved him.
“Those questions are probably ones that thousands of people have wondered. The answer is because I loved him, and while many may find that response inadequate, the truth is that’s the reason I remained by his side till the end of his life, even though I disagreed with his actions and decisions innumerable times,” she wrote.
Again, her brother, Juan Pablo Escobar (now Sebastián Marroquin ) also spoke up as he revealed how his uncle ganged up with his father’s enemies to kill him.
In one of his many interviews, when asked why he revealed himself and his identity to the world, he said: “It seemed selfish to me, just keeping to myself a solitary pacifist legacy of this violent story. I wanted to share with young people what I have learned about the serious consequences of participating in the cruel game of drug dealing. I am just doing what I believe is right. If I can prevent even a single young person from entering that world, then it will be worth it.”
Today, Juan Pablo Escobar is an architect and industrial designer who also gives lectures on the consequences of drug trafficking to teenagers in Mexico.
Manuela Escobar age
Escobar was born on May 25, 1984. She is 38 years old and will be 39 years old in 2023.
Manuela Escobar Instagram
Due to her reclusive lifestyle, Escobar does not have an Instagram account. According to online reports, she is not on any social media platform.
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Manuela Escobar now
Manuela Escobar is the only person who was never arrested or accused of a crime in her family, but she seems to be the one who suffered the most emotionally and psychologically.
Years after Pablo Escobar’s death, Manuela’s mother and brother stepped out and are known faces in the world today through their many interviews and books.
However, Manuela Escobar suffers from depression and paranoia. According to her brother, she now lives with him and his wife because of her mental health issues.
Asides from her mental health issues, Manuela is also deaf in her left ear following a bomb explosion that happened outside her father’s mansion on January 13, 1988.
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