Victoria Eugenia Henao, the child bride of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, has revealed that she remained in her 17-year marriage because she 'loved him'. Henao, now 58, met Escobar when she was 12 and he was 23. She said she was raped by him and forced to undergo a back-alley abortion at age 14.
In her new biography, 'Mrs Escobar: My life with Pablo', Henao describes being taken to a woman who inserted plastic tubes into her uterus until she began to bleed. 'I can't really describe the moment clearly but I had no idea what was going on. I simply obeyed in silence,' she wrote. Escobar then dropped her home and advised her to follow instructions.
Despite the trauma, Henao married Escobar when she was 15 in 1976. She attended school in the mornings and then returned home to cook, clean, and repair her husband's clothes. She endured his affairs, including a long-term relationship with Wendy Chavarriaga Gil, whom Escobar later ordered executed.
Henao gave birth to their son Juan Pablo (now Sebastián Marroquín) in 1977, and later a daughter, Manuela. She said she stayed out of both love and fear: 'I wasn't able to leave him, not just because of love but also out of fear, powerlessness and uncertainty about what would become of my children and me without him.'
Now, 25 years after Escobar's death, Henao expressed sadness for those who suffered at his hands. Her book offers a personal account of life with one of the most notorious criminals in history.
