Pablo Escobar abides by the peace agreement, can he lead a successful life?

On July 1991 Pablo Escobar managed to make the Colombian government surrender. In exchange of ending the war, handing the bulk of his weapons and stop doing criminal activity, he was guaranteed to not be extradited to the US (guaranteed to the point the constitution was changed to forbid it), would keep his money and would serve a relatively short sentence in his self-made jail which was pretty much a luxury mansion.

The rival cartel also offered a truce with him, but negotiations failed. He was at his best and the only serious enemy he had was the US (which could not get to him by legal means anymore)

After some years, he would come out of jail a free and legal man.

But this was not to be, perhaps drunk on his success Escobar engaged on an unprecedented purge in his cartel which was targeting even his lieutenants. This was his undoing, as it gave the government proof he was breaking the agreement and also caused a break away within his cartel.

In the end he had to face the US, the government, his former allies and rival cartel which brought him down with less weapons than before. Even then he managed to give somewhat of a fight.

The POD here is that Escobar realize he really must quit now and makes peace with the rival cartel and does not purge his men.

He was extremely wealthy, possibly among the top 5 wealthiest in the world or so.

Can he lead a successful life as a legal businessman or politician in present day?

If so how far could he get? Could he eventually realize his dream of becoming president?
 
He wouldn't be a successful politician. The elite HATED him and thought he was a thug. As for business, I could see the US freezing any assets outside Colombia and placing sanctions on any business he attempted to start. Once you piss off the US, your options are very limited.
 
He wouldn't be a successful politician. The elite HATED him and thought he was a thug. As for business, I could see the US freezing any assets outside Colombia and placing sanctions on any business he attempted to start. Once you piss off the US, your options are very limited.

The elite could only do shit against him because of the fact that he was a criminal. If they didnt had that, the elite would had been sitting ducks against him and would had been helpless to stop him all the way to the presidency.

Now here it would be different, because of the war he gained a lot of public enemity, still even today some Colombians support him. So it would be hard to predict how he would do in politics, with his funds legalized, the elite would lose their one weapon they had against him. I dont think he could take the presidency (because the war destroyed his image), but he could likely take some offices.

As for the US, I dont think they would be perpetually at war with him, without any way to get to him, I think they would eventually come to terms if he dropped the trade entirely.

I mean, they kinda came to terms with his second in command. I could see them, if Pablo plays his cards right, agreeing to drop charges in exchange for info, likely on communists and leftist groups as well as info to blackmail lots of key figures.

As far as I recall Pablo had a good foothold in Cuba..... maybe he can succeed at killing Fidel? I definitively see the US making peace with him if he can pull such a stunt.
 
My point is that I dont think the US would keep enemity forever.

They have a history of cutting deals with defeated imprisoned druglords in exchange of just info.

I think they might as well with a guy that seems to be untouchable without extrajudicial means and is a golden mine of info and resources.
 
Top