Pablo Escobar’s favorite assassin is now a YouTube sensation

[Judi Lynn]

Pablo Escobar’s favorite assassin is now a YouTube sensation

By Max Bearak

June 8 at 1:11 PM 


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Colombian John Jairo Velasquez Vasquez, a.k.a. "Popeye," confessed murderer of about 250 people, is photographed at Combita prison in Boyaca in 2013. (Carlos Ortega/AFP/Getty Images)
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In the heyday of Colombia's cartel wars, one of the most feared sicarios, or hitmen, went by the name of Popeye. His chin jutted out like the cartoon character's. He was Pablo Escobar's right-hand man, helping him uphold the drug-running Medellin cartel's vengeful stranglehold over Colombia in the late 1980s.

He enjoyed years of impunity during which he claims he personally killed at least 250 people, including his own girlfriend, and ordered the killings of thousands of others. He was finally caught in 1992 and convicted of just one attack, though it was a particularly heinous one and it landed him 22 years in jail. "I'd estimate I've killed around 250 people with my own hands," he once said, "but only a psychopath keeps count."

Popeye, now 54, was released from prison for "good behavior" and immediately went about reinventing himself. Now, he goes by "Popeye Arrepentido," or "Regretful Popeye." That's the name of his phenomenally popular YouTube channel, which has almost 100 videos and more than 100,000 subscribers.

In the videos, Popeye, whose real name is John Jairo Velasquez Vasquez, tells riveting stories from his years with the cartel. He has captured the imagination of a public still morbidly fascinated by Escobar and his violent apparatus. Each video on the channel starts with a slo-mo bullet crossing the screen to rock music. He told the Guardian in an interview that “it may seem like ... glorifying crime, but it’s to attract young people.”

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/08/pablo-escobars-favorite-assassin-is-now-a-youtube-sensation/

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"Popeye" with his boss, Pablo Escobar. [/center]

[bemildred]

1. "but only a psychopath keeps count."

Yeah, that would be obsessive.

[Oele]

2. "But Popeye uses the videos to comment on current Latin American affairs too.

In his second most recent video, which is also his most viewed, he responds to a perceived insult made by Diosdado Cabello, a Venezuelan politician belonging to that country's ruling party. The video is titled "From One Bandit to Another," and in it Popeye calls himself a "fighter for democracy." He comes off as a breathless pop-historian as he animatedly points out the many failures of the Bolivarian Revolution. He defends himself by saying that Venezuelan politicians have killed perhaps more people than he has through their policies."