guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels in Colombia combined have an income of about twice the national GNP

As the 1990 presidential campaign got underway, [Pablo] Escobar went on a rampage with the clear intent to bend the political process to his will. His minions not only killed [would be president] Galan but three other presidential candidates as well and brought down a fully loaded 727 airlines, likely as an attempt to kill one of the last credible presidential contenders. He blew apart the building housing El Espectador, a newspaper that had opposed him, with ahuge truck bomb using anhydrous fertalizer (the type later used in Oklahoma City)... He set out to kidnap a selection of wives and children of the country's most elite families so he could bring maximum pressure on the new president... Escobar wanted to influence the assembly's drafting of the new constitution to forever bar extradition of Colombian nationals and arrange special plea-bargaining rights for criminals such as himself.
- From Phillip McLean's Columbia: Failing, Failed, or Just Weak? In the Washington Quarterly 25(3).

it actually IS like the fucking movies.