Netflix Romanticizes Pablo Escobar For Their Hit Show “Narcos”
Martín Alonso Jaramillo made his way to deliver another carton basket of food to a client just like on any other day. Only this time, as he passed through a police station and noticed a rusty and seemingly abandoned car, eighty kilograms of dynamite exploded inside of it to cover the sky in fire and smoke. Jaramillo woke up ten days later in the hospital with stitches all over his body and an amputated leg.
Thirty-five surgeries later and his body remained frail, he was unable to work as he used to, and the lawyers and government officials offered him no help as they were too afraid of the man who’d caused him so much pain: Pablo Escobar.
“The only joy I remember is that of December 2nd, 1993. They say one shouldn’t be glad of someone’s death, but I really hated Pablo Escobar. Every time someone spoke of him my blood started to boil, but when I saw on the news that they’d finally killed him, I was happy.”
Two decades after Escobar’s death, after the deaths of more than 200,000 Colombians, the streaming network Netflix announced the release of their next hit show: “Narcos”. The story of Colombia’s most violent drug-lord and his rise to power, but the romanticized version of course, to keep those ratings high and meet Hollywood’s standards.
“Narcos” ranked as the number two most streamed show in 2016, with 2,236,630 demand impressions according to Parrot Analytics. It has been renewed four times as modern viewers demonstrated a strong appeal towards drug dealers in Latin America.
“People are weirdly fascinated with the show,” said “Narcos” co-creator Christopher Brancato.
While the show does state that the story is based on true events and some scenes are fictional for dramatic purposes, the scripts are peppered with inaccuracies and the exaggerations are abundant. People forget that the main character of the show caused thousands of real people immense pain and suffering. He forced an entire nation into chaos and instability and stained its image before the whole world.
Colombian immigrants coming to the United States often experience the burden of Escobar’s legacy, decades after his death. It follows them thanks to the propagation of the conflict by the new media, that instead of educating the public, glorifies a criminal figure and ignores the voices of his victims.
“When I started as a freshman in college and told people I was from Colombia, most of their responses were asking about Escobar or if I had tried cocaine, they would reference Narcos and be excited about it. As if it were something funny. I’d get lucky if someone related my country to out football players or something like that,” said Santiago Aguilera from Louisville University.
The Colombia seen in 2019 is nothing like the one from the 90’s, when the cartels were active and every street witnessed violence. People don’t understand how much the country has advanced and changed for good, despite their many challenges and the harsh aftermath of the Medellín cartel. Shows like “Narcos” don’t help in moving past the stereotypes and having a better international image.
“I’ve never met kinder and happier people than in Colombia. The culture here is fascinating and I’ve seen so many crazy landscapes that I can’t believe they belong to the same country. There is so much that people don’t know about Colombia’s present, so much that the media doesn’t care to show,” said American travel blogger Zach Morris, who’s lived in Colombia for the last five years.
The Netflix show turns Pablo into an icon for people who aren’t aware of the true and bloody history behind his name, and even when “Narcos” shows him being a ruthless criminal, it also depicts him as the Robin Hood of poor town in Medellín, or the witty outlaw rising up against a corrupted government. Either way, people’s reaction to Escobar in “Narcos” is deemed ridiculous even by the drug dealer’s own son, Juan Pablo Escobar.
“While I start dialogues with people to inspire them not to be like my father, I get messages from hundreds of young people saying: I just finished watching the show and now I want to be like your dad? How can I do it?”
Juan Pablo also receives photos from people getting tattoos of his father’s face or from bars and restaurants named after him in places like Sydney, Barcelona, and Singapore, as if Pablo were a character from a franchise. All this became more popular after the release of “Narcos”, so there is an existing relationship. People feel like Netflix validates this behavior.
“I’ve dedicated an article pinpointing the 28 greatest mistakes the show made in season 2, and if we were to talk about the first one, I could write a whole book about the inaccuracies or provocations, justified as “artistic licenses”. In my opinion, the show is nothing but a glorification and an invitation to be like my father.”
The following clip shows Escobar’s first appearance in “Narcos”, in a purely fictional confrontation, according to The Diamondback.
The introduction of Escobar already palces him as a figure of authority, capable of stepping over the Colombian army and doing whatever he pleases, declaring himself the future president of the country, and appearing as a total badass to audiences. He also includes the iconic phrase “plata o plomo” meaning “money or lead”, which most fans repeat constantly as a way of characterizing Pablo and acting like him.
Escobar never said that in real life.
YouTube comments from the clip above also include the following:
“That is how you introduce one best televisions antagonists up to date.”
“This is the moment when I started to love Narcos.”
“Talk like a real motherfucker!”
“I want this kind of power.”
Wagner Moura does a spectacular performance in this role, the script is strong and clever despite the inaccuracies, and the production is in another level, but the real issue is how Pablo is romanticized and consequently glorified by the audience. “Narcos” had a really strong potential and could have been a far better show by staying true to history and showing all the sides of this story. Now it’s become a problem for the Colombian people despite its massive success in the rest of the world.
Is it good television? Certainly. Is it responsible television? Not in the slightest.
One of my high school classmates, who wishes to remain anonymous, is the cousin of the infamous John Jairo Velásquez, alias “Popeye”: Pablo’s number one hitman in the Medellín Cartel. The source claimed that his family expressed disgust towards the show, as Pablo’s underlings were often showed as funny and used for comic relief while in truth they were very violent and ruthless people, like Velásquez.
The source expressed that they would receive countless news of what Velasquez did while working for Pablo, like plotting the assassination of political leaders, kidnappings, the murder of soldiers and policemen, extrusion, and terrorizing hundreds of civilians in Medellín.
“My cousin is themonster responsible for 250 homicides, 200 detonated car bombs, and plotting of a thousand other crimes. Entire families suffered because of him, and now his boss gets to be the star of a Hollywood show and people find him and his hitmen admirable or iconic. My mom knows so many people in Medellín who were hurt by Popeye and the cartel, but as victims don’t make for a good plot, they are ignored by the media.”
International viewers and the showrunners fail to understand how Pablo Escobar was a person that did not care of the cost of human life. As long as he got some kind of advantage, he would hurt and kill without hesitation. 80% of victims in the drug conflict between the 80’s and 90’s were civilians, said Nick Brown in his article “5 Reasons Why You Should Stop Watching Narcos.”
On November 27 of 1989, flight AV 203 departed the city of Bogotá on its way to Cali, but never landed as it blew up in the sky from a bomb planted on board by the Medellín Cartel. 101 passengers died in the terrorist attack. Not a single survivor. All because Pablo Escobar wanted to assassinate the presidential candidate César Gaviria, who never boarded the plane after an alert from his security, but the damage was done to the innocents.
That is the truth of Pablo Escobar. Not a witty Robin Hood character, not a badass contrabandist who throws out catchy phrases, not a person worthy of praise. Only a cold-blooded murderer portrayed in an irresponsible manner by Netflix.
The show relies on fictional adjustments to fit the Hollywood standards, to keep viewers engaged and invested in a character who committed so many atrocities, and instead of telling the story of the cartels through the eyes of the victims as a way of educating the public, the narrative follows Pablo and even tries to show his false humanity.
“Narcos” glorified Pablo Escobar to be more entertaining to the public, not caring of how damaging it was to the real victims and to the people of Colombia.
For just one second, think of a streaming network releasing a show titled “Bin Laden”, and glorifying the terrorist on every episode. Imagine the viewers praising him, quoting him, ignoring all the victims who suffered in the 9/11 attacks. Would that be accepted by society? Would such a show even be streamed or created?
Why is it different when it comes to Colombia and Pablo Escobar? Why is it encouraged?
