Hollywood blamed for glorifying Pablo Escobar

Sebastian Marroquin, son of the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, speaks during a conference in Santiago on January 12, 2023. Marroquin traveled to Chile to give conferences in which he shares his life testimony at the invitation of local municipalities and the Council for Transparency at a time when organized crime activities in the country are reported to rise. JAVIER TORRES / AFP

SANTIAGO, Chile—The son of the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar says a glorified Hollywood image of gangster life has wrongfully inspired young people to seek a life of crime.

“Today, 30 years after his death, Pablo Escobar generates more news than when he was alive,” Sebastian Marroquin said of his late father at an event in the Chilean capital.

Marroquin, 45, who stopped his father’s surname in disgust decades ago, said he hears from young fans of the Colombian drug kingpin frequently.

“Many young people write to me to say: I saw the movie (or) I saw the series, and I want to be like your father,” Marroquin said.

Marroquin, who is an architect and lives in Buenos Aires, referred not only to the 2012 Netflix series El Patron del Mal, a riveting look at how Escobar rose from petty crime to lead the world’s biggest drug cartel, but also to general media coverage of what he called “narco culture.”

Police gunned down Escobar in 1993 as he fled across rooftops in his native Medellin, hub of his narcotics empire.

“My father should not be treated as an example of success because he could never enjoy anything,” Marroquin said. “I feel far richer than my father because I am a free man.

Asked how drug trafficking should be defeated, Marroquin said drugs should be legalized because “all this machinery of prohibition” has fueled crime.  /ra

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