Los Pepes and the Rise of the North Valley Cartel
January 28, 2010 10:59 PM Subscribe
When Pablo Escobar escaped from prison in 1992, a lot of people in Colombia began to lose sleep. Some of these people formed Los Pepes - People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar - a collection of Escobar's fiercest narco competitors, paramilitaries and columbian authorities with perhaps even american intelligence assisstance. After taking care of Escobar the victorious narcos, as the Cali Cartel, went on to rule the world of cocaine. For about three years. A younger, more ruthless crew inside the Cali Cartel quickly did away with the old guard and established what is still today considered the largest supplier of cocaine in the world, the North Valley Cartel.With many former police officers in its upper ranks and the assisstance of one of the Colombian military's top antinarcotics officers, the North Valley Cartel was more likely to run a wiretap than be caught on one.Still, as to the whole omerta thing? North Valley Cartel bigshot Andres Lopez AKA Florecita (little flower?), after turning himself in to american authorities, cooperating and serving about 2 years in prison, wrote a book. El Cartel de los Sapos (Cartel of the Snitches) was then made into the most popular telenovela ever by Colombia's Caracol and dominated just about every market its played in. Oh yeah, and telemundo is streaming them all for free with subtitles as we speak. Not quite The Wire, but still a must see.
An easy way to remember the difference is that Columbia == Columbus == Discovered America == American, while Colombia == olo == wild eyed from caffeine == Juan Valdez and his Donkeys == La Biblioburro, created by Luis Soriano in La Gloria, Colombia.
posted by stavrogin at 12:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [9 favorites]
posted by stavrogin at 12:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [9 favorites]
America, not american.
assistance, not assisstance (x2)
Sorry to pick on you, but FPPs with typographical errors sadden me.
posted by Kiwi at 1:04 AM on January 29, 2010
assistance, not assisstance (x2)
Sorry to pick on you, but FPPs with typographical errors sadden me.
posted by Kiwi at 1:04 AM on January 29, 2010
I was hoping this was about the cartels of the Columbia River Basin. A story of water and salmon. Seriously, getting Colombia wrong is my biggest pet peeve in the world.
I watch mun2 for the music videos and the Chicas Project (I ♥ Yasmin) and didn't know of this series. The correct URL is http://www.holamun2.com/shows/el-cartel/el-cartel-1001-the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king (Amazing how missing a slash borks a link). As a NBC Universal property, Telemundo's mun2 channel probably isn't viewable outside the Estados Unidos.
It may be a good series but it sort of starts out a little too telenovela-y for me at 1 in the morning but I'll watch it. Sadly, it isn't on mun2 the TV channel or I'd get tivo to earn its keep and record it for me. But for people interested in the Colombian Cartels and Miami, National Geographic Channel has a program this Saturday @ 11PM Pacific.
posted by birdherder at 1:27 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I watch mun2 for the music videos and the Chicas Project (I ♥ Yasmin) and didn't know of this series. The correct URL is http://www.holamun2.com/shows/el-cartel/el-cartel-1001-the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king (Amazing how missing a slash borks a link). As a NBC Universal property, Telemundo's mun2 channel probably isn't viewable outside the Estados Unidos.
It may be a good series but it sort of starts out a little too telenovela-y for me at 1 in the morning but I'll watch it. Sadly, it isn't on mun2 the TV channel or I'd get tivo to earn its keep and record it for me. But for people interested in the Colombian Cartels and Miami, National Geographic Channel has a program this Saturday @ 11PM Pacific.
posted by birdherder at 1:27 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
@Jake1: Next time go with a SLYP of cats dancing or something--even if you make a couple typos, people will just think you're going cheezburger on them.
Metafilter: Came for the links, stayed for the snark.
posted by sexymofo at 2:42 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: Came for the links, stayed for the snark.
posted by sexymofo at 2:42 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Did someone say cartel? Just as I have always suspected.
posted by HuronBob at 3:21 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by HuronBob at 3:21 AM on January 29, 2010
The Misspellings Cartel seems to be running rings around the War on Misspellings. I wonder Misspelling Czar is secretly working for the other side.
posted by DU at 4:54 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by DU at 4:54 AM on January 29, 2010
There is no cartel.
You know who could get to the bottom of this case?
Colombo.
posted by PlusDistance at 5:39 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
You know who could get to the bottom of this case?
Colombo.
posted by PlusDistance at 5:39 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
wow! I've been reading this site for years and I had no idea that people actually sat around waiting for the smallest screw-up to yell gotcha. As you can tell I'm not very experienced at this. I thought the whole thing would take maybe a half an hour but after three hours and still not getting half the stuff I wanted in, I just said screw it and posted. Believe me, for the rest of my life i will remember how colombia is spelled. And as far as the links go, I swear, they all work from my computer. I will try to find out why some dont for others as I do intend to post more in the future. But seriously, if you're gonna rag on something, do it on the subject matter and not my spelling or grammer. Its not like I'm handing this in for a grade.
posted by jake1 at 5:45 AM on January 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by jake1 at 5:45 AM on January 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
[Ok, folks, we got it Colombia/Columbia. Can we move on?]
posted by vacapinta at 5:47 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by vacapinta at 5:47 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
COLOMBIA UNIVERSITY, white powder on classic blue.
I promise I earned my lame stereotypical and vaguely racist joke offset credits last week when I took an acquaintance to meet the Mayan dude that works at the Squat and Gobble on Fillmore St. and then talked about the fucked up condition in which the real flesh and blood mayans are living now while the 2012 people are practically printing money by misappropriating their cultural heritage.
posted by dirty lies at 5:52 AM on January 29, 2010
I promise I earned my lame stereotypical and vaguely racist joke offset credits last week when I took an acquaintance to meet the Mayan dude that works at the Squat and Gobble on Fillmore St. and then talked about the fucked up condition in which the real flesh and blood mayans are living now while the 2012 people are practically printing money by misappropriating their cultural heritage.
posted by dirty lies at 5:52 AM on January 29, 2010
Its not like I'm handing this in for a grade.
Poor naive soul.
posted by fire&wings at 5:52 AM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Poor naive soul.
posted by fire&wings at 5:52 AM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
"I've been reading this site for years and I had no idea that people actually sat around waiting for the smallest screw-up to yell gotcha"
You're kidding, right...???
posted by HuronBob at 6:28 AM on January 29, 2010 [8 favorites]
You're kidding, right...???
posted by HuronBob at 6:28 AM on January 29, 2010 [8 favorites]
Hey, we got plenty of cartels in the Columbia Basin. And for those curious by the mention above, you can see the Chica Project here.
but after three hours and still not getting half the stuff I wanted in, I just said screw it and posted
And you can see how the casual sloppiness was real visible to people. Next time take an extra five minutes to take care of at least the most egregious errors.
posted by Forktine at 6:32 AM on January 29, 2010
but after three hours and still not getting half the stuff I wanted in, I just said screw it and posted
And you can see how the casual sloppiness was real visible to people. Next time take an extra five minutes to take care of at least the most egregious errors.
posted by Forktine at 6:32 AM on January 29, 2010
for the rest of my life i will remember how colombia is spelled.
with a capital C.
posted by gman at 7:02 AM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
with a capital C.
posted by gman at 7:02 AM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
"Mistakes made by others are due to lack of intellect, while our own mistakes are due to simple carelessness."
You've read this site for years and didn't know this would happen? I find that hard to believe. This is a great community, but you are expected to come correct, and you'll find at least some of the members are professional nitpickers and pedantic champions of a formidable nature.
Practical advice: Run your posts through at least 2 different spell checkers, and copy/paste as much as you can from your sources, especially proper nouns.
posted by discountfortunecookie at 7:23 AM on January 29, 2010
You've read this site for years and didn't know this would happen? I find that hard to believe. This is a great community, but you are expected to come correct, and you'll find at least some of the members are professional nitpickers and pedantic champions of a formidable nature.
Practical advice: Run your posts through at least 2 different spell checkers, and copy/paste as much as you can from your sources, especially proper nouns.
posted by discountfortunecookie at 7:23 AM on January 29, 2010
Oh, and thanks for the post. Your spirit of posting was right on, by the way. And having fleshed out links was great. Although I expect someone soon to bring up "more inside".
posted by discountfortunecookie at 7:26 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by discountfortunecookie at 7:26 AM on January 29, 2010
for the rest of my life i will remember how colombia is spelled.
with a capital C.
OK, gman, you just gave me my best laugh in what has been a laughter-filled week already. Thanks for that.
(still laughing)
posted by LooseFilter at 7:27 AM on January 29, 2010
Oh for the love of balls. This is a great FPP. Enough with the cranky-ass derail already.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:37 AM on January 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:37 AM on January 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
nebulawindphone: "Oh for the love of balls. This is a great FPP. Enough with the cranky-ass derail already."
Amen to that. Jeez people, he didn't rape your kitty.
My wife loves this show. Thanks for passing it along!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:41 AM on January 29, 2010
Amen to that. Jeez people, he didn't rape your kitty.
My wife loves this show. Thanks for passing it along!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:41 AM on January 29, 2010
Interesting. I'd read about Pablo Escobar years ago, but hadn't really put much research into how things changed after he went to prison.
Also, what nebulawindphone said.
posted by mephron at 7:52 AM on January 29, 2010
Also, what nebulawindphone said.
posted by mephron at 7:52 AM on January 29, 2010
jake1, ¡un besito para ti! the streaming novela is the bomb and I love stuff like this. great job and thanks!
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:53 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:53 AM on January 29, 2010
para tí goddammit
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:54 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:54 AM on January 29, 2010
I'd known about Los Pepes and the rise of Cali after the death of Escobar, but the rest of it was new to me, and I definitely didn't know about the telenovela. Thanks for the post.
posted by KGMoney at 8:44 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by KGMoney at 8:44 AM on January 29, 2010
Great post. I haven't managed anything like this. In fact I never made a FPP, yet.
Don't fret that the snarkhounds are loose. They only bark.
(And I like to read'em as long as I am not on the receiving end. :-) I looked up lose/loose again so I wouldn't mess up, but I'll probably get a frown for the smiley.)
posted by mmkhd at 8:56 AM on January 29, 2010
Don't fret that the snarkhounds are loose. They only bark.
(And I like to read'em as long as I am not on the receiving end. :-) I looked up lose/loose again so I wouldn't mess up, but I'll probably get a frown for the smiley.)
posted by mmkhd at 8:56 AM on January 29, 2010
Jake, you're taking this criticism too personally (and I can see why--this is a really good post that you've clearly put some time into). But if you've been reading this site for years, I'm surprised you've never noticed that people around here generally pay attention to stuff like spelling and capitalization.
Criticisers, give it a rest, for fuck's sake. There's a great discussion to be had here, and it's not about how to spell Colombia.
posted by box at 9:53 AM on January 29, 2010
Criticisers, give it a rest, for fuck's sake. There's a great discussion to be had here, and it's not about how to spell Colombia.
posted by box at 9:53 AM on January 29, 2010
Too bad it's a telenovela. Every time someone mentions a telenovela as good or edgy or based on good source material ("Sin tetas no hay paraíso" springs to mind), I get tricked into checking it out.
And every time, it's god-awful, clichéd, lowest common denominator bullshit stories with horrible acting, on-the-nose dialogue (or monologue), and visuals that look like they've been shot on some 1994 HandyCam.
So, no more. I have no idea why people like these things. They're produced as popular entertainment in countries with largely uneducated television audiences, and it shows. A lot. Even the crock of shit US version of "Ugly Betty" is orders of magnitude better in every way than the original telenovela it's based on.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:57 AM on January 29, 2010
And every time, it's god-awful, clichéd, lowest common denominator bullshit stories with horrible acting, on-the-nose dialogue (or monologue), and visuals that look like they've been shot on some 1994 HandyCam.
So, no more. I have no idea why people like these things. They're produced as popular entertainment in countries with largely uneducated television audiences, and it shows. A lot. Even the crock of shit US version of "Ugly Betty" is orders of magnitude better in every way than the original telenovela it's based on.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:57 AM on January 29, 2010
Seriously, getting Colombia wrong is my biggest pet peeve in the world.
Shouldn't be. The country was frequently, if not dominantly, spelled "Columbia" (e.g. "The United States of Columbia") in English for a good chunk of its history. In the very late 19th century, per a browse of Google News Archive, people were beginning to suggest using Colombia with an O; by the 1960s people were complaining when others did not. It's really not that much different from pronouncing Mexico with an X instead of an H. Do you go around telling people not to say Germany but Deutschland?
posted by dhartung at 4:17 PM on January 29, 2010
Shouldn't be. The country was frequently, if not dominantly, spelled "Columbia" (e.g. "The United States of Columbia") in English for a good chunk of its history. In the very late 19th century, per a browse of Google News Archive, people were beginning to suggest using Colombia with an O; by the 1960s people were complaining when others did not. It's really not that much different from pronouncing Mexico with an X instead of an H. Do you go around telling people not to say Germany but Deutschland?
posted by dhartung at 4:17 PM on January 29, 2010
Actually, I would argue that El Cartel is a couple of cuts above the average telenovela. And I like your average telenovela. Whats not to like about watching the hottest women on tv with the tightest clothes get all dramatic about stuff. But El Cartel and the original (and awesome) colombian version of Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso (Without Tits There Is No Paradise) broke all viewership records in Colombia because they actually differed from your average telenovelas in a couple of key areas. First, they dont have happy endings. Second, instead of going the tortured romance or the over the top action route, they both dealt in matters that actually touched the lives of the average person. In a country that has dealt with some of the true horrors of the 20th century, people responded well to stories of ordinary people responding to difficult situations in an environment where the reality warping wealth of the drug trade combined with grinding poverty and a background of more than 50 solid years of gruesome violence makes those After School Special type choices a bit tricky at best. That both projects are at least based in reality, El Cartel from the Henry Hill like perspective of Florecita and Sin Tetas from a work of fiction based on interviews focusing on las prepagos (prepaids) - a call girl industry that has sprung up around the narcos, also resonates with the gente. And one of the craziest things about El Cartel is that the story pretty much mirrors the real story exactly. And its a wild story.
posted by jake1 at 5:41 PM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by jake1 at 5:41 PM on January 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
this isn't a telenovela, but if you are interested in the drug trade i saw an amazing movie about colombia and escobar and his son, called "Sins of my Father"
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:45 PM on January 29, 2010
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:45 PM on January 29, 2010
dhartung, that is a map written in English, The country has always spelled Colombia with an O.
Now, this is just a telenovela based on real events, so..
posted by kadmilos at 6:37 AM on January 30, 2010
Now, this is just a telenovela based on real events, so..
posted by kadmilos at 6:37 AM on January 30, 2010
jake1, the comment you made about telenovelas is absolutely fascinating and if your FPP baptism by fire didn't do you in, I'd say take the style you showed there and run with it (OK, so stick at least half of it behind 'more inside' to avoid hogging the whole front page, but the point remains). We can always use FPPs with a more international flavor.
Pablo Escobar is such a dominating figure, even now, that I'm kind of surprised that they made a telenovela about him; my friends still get a little touchy about talking about the guy, let alone watching a telenovela about his cartel. Fascinating.
posted by librarylis at 10:39 AM on January 30, 2010
Pablo Escobar is such a dominating figure, even now, that I'm kind of surprised that they made a telenovela about him; my friends still get a little touchy about talking about the guy, let alone watching a telenovela about his cartel. Fascinating.
posted by librarylis at 10:39 AM on January 30, 2010
Actually the show and most of the links I posted deal with the scene post-Pablo. Not to take anything away from Escobar, though. He was definitely one of the all time greats as far as crime is concerned and his story, as mentioned by kadmilos must be heard. And it kinda is. Almost 20 years later, it is still a household name worldwide. But the story of what came next is almost unknown outside of Latin America, and just as crazy. Hope you enjoy.
posted by jake1 at 1:40 PM on January 30, 2010
posted by jake1 at 1:40 PM on January 30, 2010
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sorry
posted by daksya at 11:15 PM on January 28, 2010