Colombian conflict dialogue, but President Barco sent an ultimatum to the guerrillas and demanded that they immediately disarm or face military retaliation. Regional guerrilla and Army skirmishes created a situation where each violation of the ceasefire rendered it null in each location, until it was rendered practically nonexistent. By 1990, at least 2,500 members of the FARC-founded Patriotic Union had been murdered, according to historian Daniel Pecáut, leading up to that year's assassination of presidential candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa. The Colombian government initially blamed drug lord Pablo Escobar for the murder but journalist Steven Dudley argues that many in the UP pointed
Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord police in what would become Escobar's trademark "Plata o Plomo" approach to dealing with law enforcement -- "accept our bribe or prepare for a shootout with us." After robbing a bank and being turned in by one of their neighbors, Pablo and his cousin start their careers as murderers by killing him. Thereafter, the series follows Pablo's adventures and misadventures in organized crime and eventually cocaine smuggling, building an empire of wealthy criminals who contest power, often violently, with the Colombian state, eventually leading to murders of prominent politicians, policemen, business associates, friends, lovers, and eventually common citizens. The plot