Great show. I would agree it's not the same once it's about Mexico. Partly because the real story just isn't as fascinating to us.
Buddha's reply is pretty fair. But I'll add my 2 cents as I've spent 3.5 months in Medellín over 2 spells (2016 and 2018).
Both times I stayed with the parents of a Colombian I know. They were in their 60s so remember before, during and after the Pablo years. I also got to know a lot of locals through them.
The view shared there is that his positive impact is massively overplayed by stories of the time. Yes he did some good stuff but in the grand scheme of things it was insignificant. He also wasn't doing it out of the good of his heart - he was doing it to essentially own those poor people and keep his power and illegal enterprise.
In reality he brought the city, and somewhat the country, to it's knees. A guy who was teaching me Spanish lost his entire family bar his mum to cartel violence. Children didn't blink an eye walking to school with dead bodies on the street. Building some schools and football pitches were just vanity projects to keep his 'Robin Hood' image.
I did not meet a single person who had a good thing to say about him and I have been to those areas he helped. I do understand why the poor people would take anything he offered though. I agree why should they care about the problems in the US but the problems in Medellín were an order of magnitude worse.
They're ashamed of the period, so much so on the free walking tour (best one I've ever done btw) they don't even say his name - they call him Voldermort. This is done so the locals don't think they're talking about Escobar and think it's narco tourism. It's the same when chatting with my friends in public, you essentially don't mention him by name.
As a gringo if you admit to taking any form of drugs you will be shunned and struggle to make friends with locals. They have all seen first hand the utter, utter devastation it causes (when it involves any cartels, trafficking etc.)
What they are proud of is how far they've come, and the spirit they've shown to get this far together. Medellín is my favourite place on earth and the people are the best I've ever met. The women are incredible too
. I'd thoroughly recommend going just don't go to be an Escobar tourist - you'll miss all the good stuff.
TL;DR
Yes Escobar did some good stuff but don't believe the hype on the extent of it.
Also spent quite a lot of time in Mexico and almost moved to Guadalajara for a girl. They're obviously much further behind beating the cartels than Colombia so they're seeing a lot of the same problems.
Apologies for the essay!