This may not be a completely appropriate source, so please remove if that's the case.

The obvious answer is, "it depends". If you were an impoverished resident of Medellin, and you were the beneficiary of Escobar's bribes, you kept your mouth shut. Escobar was notorious for his "plata y plombo" policy: "silver or lead".

Now, if you were someone who had family killed by Escobar's cartel (if your family member was a police officer who refused Escobar's bribes, for example, or if you were associated with a rival cartel), then you may have been working with the paramilitary groups, and that's where things get interesting.

Los Pepes (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar) was the name of a vigilante group that conducted killings of people associated with Pablo, starting in late 1992 and early 1993. Members included the Moncada and Galeano families, who were partners with Escobar in Medellin until Escobar executed the heads of the families by hanging the upside down and burning them for keeping 20 million hidden. The other members, of course, were the angry members of the national police force who'd had colleagues assassinated by Escobar's hitmen.

Now, the Colombian government couldn't really sign off on the vigilantism...but the links are there, and it's agreed that the two groups were working together in "unofficial channels", with US special ops playing a significant role.

Hopefully this answers your question somewhat. I highly recommend the source below.

Mark Bowden conducted extensive research and analysis on Escobar and the manhunt for him in "Killing Pablo", isbn 0-87113-783-6. Bowden also wrote the very well-known "Black Hawk Down", among other things.

Although I have no formal historical "training" in the era, I got into the more modern era when I researched the links between the incident in Somalia and the US inaction during the Rwandan genocide. All of Bowden's work is top-notch, including his work on the Iran hostage crisis. Check it out.