DailyMailVallejo ended her career in Colombian media in 1994 and in 2006 moved to the United States.

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When the Colombian and US governments as well as the Cali Cartel went after Escobar, he retaliated with bomb attacks and assassinations. Virginia Vallejos bookAmando a Pablo, Odiando a Escobar, published in 2006, became a best seller. 1 enemy of the United States. She further told Hollywood her story which birthed the movie Loving Pablo in 2017 starringPenelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as Vallejo and Escobar respectively. Click here to join our channel (@TheWeekmagazine) and stay updated with the latest headlines, here to join our channel (@TheWeekmagazine), This resort in Goa is a tribute to the Indus valley civilisation, Trends and predictions for the future of mental health, Sushmita Sen is dating Lalit Modi; he calls her 'better looking partner', Court dismisses Daler Mehndi's appeal against 2-year sentence in human trafficking case, Why is everyone gung-ho about aviation industry, Why Taapsee pounced at the chance to portray Mithali Raj on screen, How Myra Saad and Brian McCarty use art to heal children in war-affected areas. "You look horrible. Virginia Vallejo as photographed in 1987, the year her affair with Pablo Escobar ended. Vallejo, having been a member of the cartels inner circle, was privy to most of these secrets, and years later decided to expose the elites who had lauded then shunned her. Virginia Vallejo is also the only biographer of the narco terrorist that has endured brutal reprisals from the Colombian government, four presidential families in the payroll of the founder cartels, the army, the paramilitary squads, and the billionaires involved in massive money laundering. This was my life.". She fell in love with him while attending a party in his ranch Hacienda Napoles in 1982.

And reflecting on her extraordinary life as the ultimate gangster's moll, she says: "This is my fate. One year later he raped me.". Born to a prestigious family with an entrepreneurial father on Aug. 26, 1949, Virginia Vallejo enjoyed a comfortable life in an otherwise tumultuous Colombia. Career Information She says Escobar would not let her leave Colombia since he wanted her to write the definitive account of his life. 6. He dyed his hair blond for one and wore glasses and a goatee beard for another, while a friendly Saudi prince had obtained one for him. ", This was Virginia Vallejo's introduction in 1982 to the man who became the world's most infamous drug lord and her lover for six turbulent years. Vallejo claimed that it was unusual for a woman of her birthright to work in the entertainment industry back in the 70s. For his part, Escobar seemed equally enthralled with Vallejo, although there has always been a debate about the extent of his true feelings for her. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem play the leads in 'Loving Pablo'. She was prepared for all the surprises of the underworld of drugs and crime, singing Rubn Blades song, la vida te da sorpresas y sorpresas te da la vida (Life gives you surprises, and surprises give you life). When I ask about Escobar's famously lavish spending, she laughs. Pablo Escobar was named the Robin hood of Medellin after his interview with Vallejo which led to his public recognition. Fictional? Episode count After Virginia ended her relationship with Escobar in 1987, she began cooperating with European anti-drug agencies. 2.

After a short stint as an English teacher in the late 1960s, she was offered work on a television program, a position that became her gateway to a career onscreen. "He adored me. Virginia Vallejo, unfortunately, found that as the power and popularity of her former lover waned, so did her own. Vallejo ultimately made her television debut somewhat reluctantly back in 1972 as a host and presenter for several programs. Ecuador President Rafael Correa shows Virginias book in camera, 2008 and 2009. She had recited Nerudas love poems to Escobar and shared her knowledge and wisdom with him. Status Lorna Masekos Age Accomplishments and Net Worth, Evodia Mogase Biography: Who is the South African Socialite and What is Her Age, Who Is Elsa Majimbo? Vallejo thinks this was why she was first invited to meet him, since she was engaged to the president's nephew, a man who might have had political influence. Deceased

Pablo Escobar started as the leader of a small cartel, soon no cocaine would leave Colombia without his knowledge. She testified to the Colombian Supreme Court about the siege of the court and the murder of Luis Carlos Galn. Vallejo volunteered to testify against minister Alberto Santofimio, however, the presiding judge inspector General Maya Villazon shut down the case which made her a political asylee in the United States of America. After a two-day assault, the army freed the building but dozens of hostages were left dead and crucial criminal records were destroyed, including those on Escobar. Vallejos relationship with Escobar ended in 1987. The journalist teamed up with other media persons to come up with her own television program known as, Who Is Manuela Escobar Daughter of Pablo Escobar.

"If you open your mouth you're dead, love of my life," he whispered to her one night in bed after smoking marijuana. Virginia and Pablo Escobar in his political campaign, 1983, Promotion of Virginias book in a club catalog, 2008. On July 18th 2006, a special plane of the DEA took her out of Colombia to save her life and testify in high-profile criminal cases: the trial against the Cali Cartel bosses, the assassination of Senator Luis Carlos Galn in 1989, and the siege of the Palace of Justice in 1985. Vallejo pushed ahead in the career anyway, and in January 1978, she became the anchorwoman of a 24-hour news program. So how did she feel after hearing he had been shot? This article would give clarity on her relationship with Escobar and her personality. The death of her lover became her uprising although this was not easily attained because it led her to an uneasy life until the Drug Enforcement Agency of The United States of America came to her aid. But Escobar was not just smitten by a pretty pair of legs; he had also realized that Vallejos influence could be of tremendous use to him. In 1983, a year after the pair had first met, Virginia Vallejo interviewed Escobar on her new program. Virginia was already married and divorced twice before she met Escobar. As the net closed on the cocaine baron, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, he became more and more paranoid. Virginia Vallejo wrote a book about her relationship with Pablo Escobar called "Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar". Bestselling books of 2007 2008 in the United States: Obamas, Hillarys, Clintons, & Virginias. He shared some of his trade secrets including how he and his fellow drug traffickers financed politicians. Velez left the apartment after staying for a few minutes to make it seem as if she had interviewed Henao, but she would be killed by Los Pepes as she left. That audience was larger than that of the Football World Cup final of the same year. He became so confident with Vallejo that he showed her his collection of 14 passports. "I loathe him," she says of the gangster who controlled 80 per cent of world cocaine trade, a man who raped her and even stole her savings to stop her leaving Colombia. In 1982, Velez brought politician Fernando Duque to the Hacienda Napoles to meet Escobar after Escobar told her of his desire to enter politics and become president, and Escobar used her friendship with Duque to enter politics. The book has been translated into 15 different languages and the tale has been told by so many different magazines. Occupation "I remembered how our relationship began with two innocent people who loved each other before his industry became a bloodbath and damaged all those addicts. Virginia used her Escobar connection to advance her own career with the knowledge and contacts she had gathered through Escobar. Vallejo at a later time became a columnist for a Venezuelan newspaper from 2009 till 2010 before she took a bow from her public career. ". Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Biography: Who Is Jacob Zumas Ex-wife? Colombian "I thought he was fascinating," she says. Of Colombia, she says she misses only ajiaco soup, a chicken and potato dish. Currently living in Miami Florida, the United States of America as a political asylee, Virginia Vallejo was born on August 26, 1949, in Cartago, Valle Del Cauca, Colombia to Juan Vallejo Jaramillo and Mary Garcia Rivera. This television appearance not only brought him to national attention but helped to establish his philanthropic image with the public. Eventually their host arrived by helicopter: short, pudgy and with a thick moustache under his mop of curly hair. Shes now a political asylee in the United States, and will never return to Colombia. Pablo Escobar fell in love with Virginia Vallejo on screen after watching her in a famous commercial, he gave an ultimatum that he wanted to have her despite being legally married to his wife Maria Victoria Henao. Best Motivational Speakers in South Africa.

But her contempt for Escobar grew as the body count mounted. She had no scruples or conscience in making use of men and their money for her own ends with her belief, that when "womens bodies pass through mens hands, it is the mens heads that pass through womens hands". Do you know that Pablo Escobars main attraction to Virginia Vallejo was because she had a pair of sexy fair long legs after watching her on a commercial way back in the 1970s? Portrayed by

Biographical Information Velez was contacted by Pablo Escobar's wife Maria Henao, who had a strong disliking for her, in 1993. Later when he was on the run, he met her in secret locations. That is, until their affair came to a dramatic end and so did her celebrity. She described all of their sordid relations with Escobar, including the request from a former justice minister to have a presidential candidate killed. Over the years, many questions have been raised about her relationship with the drug lord and why she endangered her life to be with him despite his notorious acts. She began her career as a media personality in 1972 when she started working as a presenter for Oiga Colombia, she would also later work in Revista del Sbado in 1973 before joining their team of reporters that same year. 7. They became lovers although their relationship ended in 1987 because jealous Escobar felt she cheated on him. She insists they were discreet, often meeting in a flat in a middle-class suburb of the capital Bogota. Escobar wanted help with improving speeches for his political career, but Vallejo says "he never learned to talk properly he was a criminal". Vallejo did amazingly well and was opportuneto be the anchorwoman for the program Noticiero 24 Horas,this increased her popularity and led to her recognition byinternational media persons. We were very happy together.".

She further attended Anglo Colombian School which was co-founded by her uncle Jaime Jaramillo Arango; anauthor, professor in Med.

She accused several high ranking politicians of benefiting from the cartels, including ex-presidents Alfonso Lpez, Ernesto Samper, and lvaro Uribe. She was the first journalist to get him in front of a camera and enjoyed the spoils of life in the worlds most powerful cartel. She supported Escobars campaign against the extradition of Colombian drug traffickers to the US. "I thought I was going marry this beautiful man, the nephew of the president, but he had one big problem he snorted cocaine like a vacuum cleaner. "No one knew about all the killings, the addicts. Surg, a minister and ambassador to London, Berlin, the United Nations and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation. See Also:Who Is Manuela Escobar Daughter of Pablo Escobar. Ironically, no one talks about the cartel Lord without mentioning her name, this became a problem as Escobars criminal acts filled the whole of Colombia and for her own safety, Vallejo took to her heels as an asylum seeker. "I had mixed feelings when the entire country was celebrating the death of Pablo Escobar and even Bill Clinton was congratulating the government," she says. In jails in Colombia they could almost live like at home, with drugs, prostitutes, booze, weapons, good food and family.". Wikimedia CommonsVirginia Vallejo as photographed in 1987, the year her affair with Pablo Escobar ended. To this day she remains in the United States, fearful of the repercussions of returning to her homeland. In the most brazen attack, he paid for Marxist rebels to storm the Supreme Court in 1985. Some of these are personal and romantic while many are about Colombian politics, corruption, drug trafficking, guerillas and the inside story of famous events such as the bombing of the Supreme Court and assassination of Luis Galan, a presidential candidate. "When I saw all the bombs, killing children and innocent people, I wanted to grab Pablo and his people to kill them myself," she says. Currently, no one knows what she has been busy with except for her involvement with her memoir with Escobar. 4. She was scared of Escobar and his henchmen who tapped her phones and monitored her movements. Vallejo is dismissive of Escobar's wife Victoria ('she was very small, dark and frankly unattractive') and bitterly dislikes portrayals in dramas such as the Netflix hit Narcos, in which the character of Valeria Velez is clearly based on her. Exit El Patrn The journalist teamed up with other media persons to come up with her own television program known asTV Impacto in 1981. Thats when she started hating him.

A film,Loving Pablo,with Penelope Cruz starring as Vallejo was made in 2017. Then, read about Pablo Escobars death and the final phone call that brought him down. She and he pretended to be like Bonnie and Clyde and sometimes as Libertador (Simon Bolivar) and Libertadora del Libertador (ManuelitaSaenz). During his reign as the head of the Medelln cartel, from 1978 to 1993, he amassed a fortune estimated at 25 billion dollars today. Death Velez told Escobar that Turbay was being rated higher than she was, leading to Escobar having Turbay kidnapped; ultimately, Turbay would be killed by the Search Bloc in a collateral damage incident in 1991. Velez therefore became the most important reporter in the country, and she was tipped off on stories by Escobar, reporting at crime scenes immediately after they happened. 1. Six days before Escobar's death, she contacted authorities abroad after learning he had ordered the murder of the ex-girlfriend forced to have an abortion. "One month later and I was with the King of Cocaine.". He told me he had killed 200 kidnappers and then he bought me a Beretta pistol. She describes their affair as "a love story" they were to meet 220 times over the next five years. By this time Escobar was fighting the Colombian government in a campaign to prevent extradition to the US. He tried to impress her with stories of his exploits, adventures and power. She says her book aims to show "the good, the bad and the ugly side of Pablo Escobar so people can understand him and the evolution of our relationship". Throughout their five-year relationship, Vallejo experienced the high life. "He was worried about going to a US jail and never coming out. She had affairs with many rich men, about which she boasts openly, I had met my first version of the richest man in Colombia in 1972 at the presidential palace; I was twenty-two, and he was forty-eight and divorced. Valeria Velez worked as a news anchor during the early 1980s, and in 1981 she interviewed the famous cartel boss Pablo Escobar, forming a romantic relationship with him. she adds with a laugh. She later claimed that it was uncommon for women of her socioeconomic status to work in the entertainment industry and that her family largely disapproved. Virginia Vallejo Death: Is Virginia Vallejo Dead? She saw his spectacular rise to become the planet's seventh richest man then watched his plunge into paranoia as he was hunted like an animal by ruthless paramilitary gangs, Colombian troops and US drug enforcement agents. So they liked huge animals and all his huge toys were spread around the ranch." She is most likely based on real-life Virginia Vallejo, a real-life Colombian journalist who was one of Pablo's mistresses. But after a year together, their relationship started to corrode when Escobar confessed to a chilling reprisal on a previous girlfriend who became pregnant by another man. Thank God I'll never see you again," he told her afterwards. I asked Vallejo, now 68 and living in Florida, when she realised Escobar was a crook.

3. She further became the vice president of the association of Colombia announcers in 1978 and received an award for being the Best television Anchor for the Association of Entertainment Journalist for three consecutive years. Vallejo says her phone was tapped by Escobar. During this time Virginia started courting other men including a German Count. Her body, along with those of her news van driver and her cameraman, were found in their news van outside the hotel, with a sign saying "Pablo's whore" hanging from the door. Henao wanted Velez to open contact between her and Escobar, and Velez met Escobar at one of his houses, reuniting with him. She had access to Escobars jet, she met the kingpin in swanky hotels, and he financed her shopping trips. I quickly learned he was a criminal. Maria Victoria Henao, Pablo Escobars wife. Biography and Net Worth of the Kenyan Comedienne. Everyone in my country smoked contraband Marlboro and it felt like selling contraband cigarettes. Virginia Vallejo Facts and Body Measurements, Virginia Vallejo Husband: Virginia Vallejo Marriages, Virginia Vallejo Now: Virginia Vallejo Today, Frequently Asked Questions About Virginia Vallejo, Molly Ephraim Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Family, Husband, Children, Movies, Now and Net Worth, Jami Gertz Bio, Age, Height, Husband, Children, Net Worth, House, Lost Boys, Movies and TV Shows, Casie Colson Baker Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Boyfriend, Father, Mother, Siblings and Net Worth, Lee Carter Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Political Career, Net Worth and Champaign, Annet Mahendru Bio, Wiki, Age, Family, Wife, Actress, Salary, and Net worth, Molly Quinn (Actress) Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Husband, Castle, Net Worth, Kendall Toole Bio, Age, Wiki, Height, Husband, Parents and Net Worth, Bob Roll Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Weight Loss, Wife, Family, Podcast and Net Worth, Evan Joseph Asher Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Girlfriend, Parents, Autism and Net Worth, James Caan Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Children, Movies and Net Worth, 5 Virginia Vallejo Pablo Escobar: Virginia Vallejo Interview. However, by 1990 she was being beaten by Diana Turbay, the daughter of former president Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, who was seen as a link between the upper and lower classes. Affiliation 2 Who Is Sithelo Shozi, Andile Mpisanes Girlfriend and Baby Mama? Many people believed he was simply using Vallejo to promote his public image, which she certainly helped him do. You must realise kidnapping was a plague, with 3,000 a year at the time in Colombia." Velez decided to do Escobar a favor by bringing a radio to Henao at the apartment where Henao and the family was interned by the government, and she did so for Pablo's sake.

He got elected to Congress but was hounded and expelled on the charge that he had made his money in narcotrafficking and his involvement in several murder cases. "He was a monster but he's been turned into a legend.". He took her to meet poor families scraping a living on a stinking dump in the city of Medellin, speaking passionately as a newly elected politician about the need to help such people. Returning from a trip to Europe where she was wooed by the chief of the rival Cali drugs cartel, Vallejo found death threats on her answering machine. "In those days cocaine was more innocent," Vallejo claims. "If all that fails to work, this last button emits a frequency that destroys the eardrum," he once told her. Pablo EscobarMedelln cartelFernando Duque Beth Thomas Child of Rage Bio: What Did She Do To Her Brother, Where Is She Now? "Pablo really felt the suffering of people and so became a political animal," she says. Yes (based on Virginia Vallejo) She carried messages and sometimes money from Escobar. Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. "He was married and I was a celebrity," says Vallejo. Cause of death She was soon known across South America. Stephanie Stigman. She arrived at Escobar's Hacienda Napoles with her then-fiance. As they say, women are attracted to wealth, it is not entirely surprising that Vallejos attraction to Escobar was because he was the richest man in Colombia as of then and the only one who remembered the poor in his days. "It's ironic, isn't it?" Vallejo ended her career in Colombian media in 1994 and in 2006 moved to the United States. Vallejo estimates she spent "1,000 hours by his side and maybe another 1,000 in his arms". She believes vengeful forces linked to Escobar's family and prominent Colombian politicians are still hitting back at her with negative portrayals in programmes such as Narcos, which she declines to discuss as a consequence.