Pablo Escobar: a never-ending source of entertainment

With the release of the third season of Narcos on September 1, former Colombian cartel king Pablo Escobar is dead, leaving behind a legacy of corpses, mourning families and millions of dirty dollars. At the end of the second season, he was killed in a shootout in the city of Medell¨ªn, but no matter. After a life of excess and crime, Escobar survives as an obscure and enduring legend in the parallel universe that is the entertainment industry, inspiring a long list of authors, movie-makers and show-runners.

Aside from the third season of Narcos ¨C produced by Netflix ¨C this month also sees the release of Loving Pablo, the new movie by Fernando Le¨®n de Aranoa starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

Previously, we saw the controversial Colombian TV drama Escobar: the Boss of Evil, and the romantic thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio del Toro, along with several small-screen soaps and documentaries.

Even a figure of the stature of Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garc¨ªa M¨¢rquez could not resist tackling Colombia¡¯s public enemy number one, in News of a Kidnapping, a non-fiction account of the abductions of a handful of prominent figures in Colombia in 1990. ¡°In the 1990s, Gabo wanted to return to journalism and he wrote this book at the same time as the Foundation of New Iberoamerican Journalism (FNPI) was established,¡± says Jaime Abello Banfi, the foundation¡¯s director.

When Garc¨ªa M¨¢rquez wrote News of a Kidnapping, Escobar¡¯s demise was too recent to turn him into a character in one of his novels. ¡°That¡¯s why he chose non-fiction. That, and because Escobar was the key to understanding Colombia at the time. It was a useful vehicle for resistance,¡± says Abello. ¡°He lived it [the violence] first-hand. Not only was he very close to former Colombian president C¨¦sar Gaviria, who pitted the state against Escobar, but friends of his such as the publisher Guillermo Cano were killed by the drug cartels.¡±

News of a Kidnapping focuses on the capture of the well-connected Maruja Pach¨®n de Villamizar, politician, journalist and sister-in-law of Luis Carlos Gal¨¢n, another of Escobar¡¯s high-profile victims. The book is based on the experiences of those who were abducted and offers insight into the cartel¡¯s attempts to crush the system.

Escobar has also inspired Colombian authors Fernando Vallejo, H¨¦ctor Abad and Juan Gabriel V¨¢squez, and not forgetting his own son, Juan Pablo, whose Pablo Escobar, My Father, goes some way toward redeeming the man who was hated and loved in equal measure by Colombians. ¡°When he was killed, I swore I would avenge his murder, a that promise lasted 10 minutes,¡± says Juan Pablo.

Instead, he has dedicated his life to making peace with the families of his father¡¯s victims and asking for the right to a second chance, while distancing himself from his father¡¯s criminal legacy.

He was keen to collaborate with the makers of Narcos, but was told it would be based on the accounts of Javier Pe?a, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent at that time. He has since followed the series closely and, on first viewing, picked out 28 mistakes, which he posted on Facebook.

¡°This is very different from the reality,¡± he tells El Pa¨ªs. ¡°As far as I am concerned, I get smaller as the series goes on. Like Benjamin Button. They haven¡¯t stuck to the truth in the series, but they aim to sell it to the world as though it were. I am also surprised at how much covering up of international corruption there is. Many of the agencies are a part of that corruption, feeding what is an excellent business for them and their citizens while the Latin Americans are left with violence with a capital V.¡±

The glorification of his life is having negative repercussions on younger generations
Juan Pablo Escobar, the drug lord's son

He believes his father would be amused by his glamorous on-screen persona. He does, however, respect Gabriel Garc¨ªa M¨¢rquez¡¯s News of a Kidnapping. ¡°The glorification of his life is having negative repercussions on younger generations in Latin America who now believe that the drug world is cool,¡± he says.

Perhaps Juan Pablo Escobar would have preferred a series based on his mother Mar¨ªa Victoria Henao¡¯s memoirs. ¡°She had to negotiate with the Colombian government and with the Cali cartel to get out of the country,¡± says Spanish producer Aitor Gabilondo, who was toying with the idea of serializing her story. ¡°In the end, she was given a new identity and went to live in Argentina with her younger children. She lived anonymously until her accountant found out her true identity and began to blackmail her.¡±

The blackmail prompted Juan Pablo¡¯s mother to tell her side of the story. ¡°Her view is unique and that¡¯s why we wanted to make a drama about it. But the project lost momentum, partly because so many series and films on the subject started to appear,¡± says the filmmaker, who is currently working on Vivir Sin Permiso (An Illegal Life) about a Spanish drug trafficker and modern-day King Lear.

Despite parking Henao¡¯s story, Gabilondo recognizes that Escobar is a gold mine for the entertainment industry. ¡°He¡¯s the Maradona of crime; you¡¯ve got an innovative, ostentatious, charismatic and very cruel drug trafficker,¡± he says. ¡°He even got to dreaming of becoming the president of Colombia, and if it hadn¡¯t been for his murderous instincts, he might have done so. He told his wife she should prepare herself to become the country¡¯s first lady. He was the ultimate populist.¡±

English version by Heather Galloway.