Narcos season 2: Pablo Escobar’s son says Netflix show is 'insulting' and lists 28 historical errors
Sebastian Marroquin authored Pablo Escobar: My Father
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The second season of Narcos finally reached Netflix little over a week ago, receiving critical praise; the streaming service commissioning a third and fourth season soon after.
However, Pablo Escobar’s son has criticised the show's depiction of events, listing off 28 inaccuracies while also calling it ‘insulting’.
Sebastian Marroquin, who has spoken candidly about his father on film and in a book titled Pablo Escobar: My Father, listed off the mistakes in a Facebook post, picked up by The Telegraph.
They range from portraying Carlos Henao, Marroquin’s uncle, as a drug dealer when he was apparently an architect, to detailing how a trip to Germany was entirely to different. Read all 28 'mistakes' below.
Sebastian Marroquin's 28 problems with Narcos season 2
1. Carlos Henao (RIP) was my maternal uncle and he was not a drug dealer he's cracked up to be in the series. In fact he was a great man, a hard worker, honest, noble and good father of the family. A good friend of my mother. Henao was an architect who helped build some houses, roads and bridges of the hacienda Naples to my father, but never got involved in illegal activities. Was never convicted in Colombia or any country for any offence. He was a Bible salesman. He was always talking about making peace, not war. Always talked about escape, not attacking anyone. He was not drug dealer and for the Netflix show to malign him. Carlos Henao was never a drug dealer nor lived in Miami. He was kidnapped and tortured with Francisco Toro, another innocent man. How sad that Netflix has shown so many corpses with the posters of people hung up, and they forgot to publish the images of my uncle Carlos tortured, in that respect they were identical and also public. But they're not happy with that, placed him at another time and place in the history of my father, and made it seem that his death was the product of a legitimate confrontation between police and narcos, when in reality it was an injustice, his death, while this violates the right to a good name, to the honor and the honor of a man who was very dear and respected in Medellín. A man blameless from beginning to end.
2. My Father was not a supporter of Atlético Nacional, but of the Independiente Medellín. If the writers don't even know the favorite team of Pablo, how dare they tell you the rest of a story like that and sell it as true?
3. La Quica was arrested in New York on 24 September 1991 at the time of my father's escape from the Cathedral (July 1992). He had been arrested in the US for a long time for falsehood of documents. He was subsequently and unjustly accused and condemned for the bombing the plane from Avianca that killed more than 100 passengers and crew and on which it was believed the successor of Luis Carlos Galan, Cesar Gaviria, would be flying. Even the prosecutor De Greiff sent letters to the US in favour of La Quica's acquittal since the man - also according to my father - didn't play any part. The bombing was done by Carlos Castaño under orders from my Dad.
4. On the escape from the Cathedral: the confrontation was not that big, only a keeper of the prison died. There was no clash. My Father had no contacts, no help from the law to escape. The escape was planned from when the jail was constructed: my father ordered them to leave a few bricks loose. Dad ran away when the government informed him the agreement to not transfer him was no longer applicable.
5. Limon was a worker of Roberto 'Osito', elder brother of my father. He worked for him as a driver for 20 years. He did not appear nor was recruited later by the family, but many years ago. On the show, when it came to the 'worker' Roberto 'Osito' collaborating with the DEA, they showed how they were able to extract information. Limon met him being the driver of the truck that was coming up to the cathedral. At the end of the day, Osito assisted the DEA after growing disloyal to our family .
6. It is not true that the Medellín and Cali will negotiate to stay in Miami and New York, respectively. The truth is that even today the market for prohibited drugs is still so big, there will always be a deficit of Drug Dealers. Consumers are millions and pay whatever it takes to be pleased.
7. The CIA didn't tell the Catano Brothers about Los Pepes. It was Fidel Castaño who decided to, with the complicity of the Cali cartel and the local authorities and foreigners who turned a blind eye to thousands of crimes.
8. My mother never bought or used a weapon. Everything about it is a lie. She never even shot.
9. My Father didn't personally kill Colonel "Carrillo" as they call him in the series. He attacked the police of Colombia many times and they killed more than 500 in a month in the city of Medellin at the end of the 80's. I'm not proud my father's violence, and I must admit, and know he did a damage to the police as well as also gave them a lot of money.
10. Those who are knowledgeable of the background of the story, you know that my father was wrong in ordering the death of those who were his partners and lenders, Moncada and Galeano. The pair were kidnapped by the Cali cartel and to be released alive, they promised information on Pablo. Phone records show a change in loyalties. My Father still decided to forgive the life of Moncada at the last minute, but by the time he got the order to stop his murder, death had already found him. And this was one of the determinants in the fall and the end of my father.
11. At the end of his days, my father was alone. Not surrounded by his band as shown. Well, almost all of his band, with the exception of Angelito and Chopo, they either had surrendered or were dead.
12. There was no such comfort in the days after the escape of the cathedral. We were living in slums, not in mansions.
13. The story of "Leon" in Miami is a lie. He did not live in the USA. And he was a man absolutely faithful and brave in the service of my father. He died after being kidnapped and tortured by Castanos in Medellin. Fell fighting the war in the name of my father, but it is never shown.
14. My Father never threatened the people of Cali. He put out a statement saying that his wife and part of his family were also originally from the area. So he said in the statement that he had nothing against the citizenship.
15. Ricardo Priscus was already dead by the time they show it. He had a brother who was a doctor who was a good man, stigmatized by the actions of his brother, but he wasn't part of Pablo's band. Ricardo died a long time before in real life.
16. My dad never attacked the daughter of Gilberto Rodriguez at his wedding, not in real life. Or any member of his family. That was the covenant, do not touch the families. Even though my father believed that they planted a bomb on 13 January 1988 in the building Monaco where we lived with my sister and my mother.
17. My father never forced us to stay with him underground, he always thought - just like my mother - that the best thing was that we education and other opportunities were best for us.
18. We were in a single shooting with my father, but not similar to the one in the show.
19. The show put the attack on the discount in the year 1993 when in fact the attack occurred between 1988 and 1989. A little out of time for me to taste, don't you think?
20. My paternal grandmother betrayed my father and allied himself with his eldest son Roberto. He negotiated with Los Pepes and collaborated so actively that they allowed him to continue living peacefully in Colombia while those who were loyal to the love for our father were still living In Exile. I would have liked tthe show's version to not be so "sweet".
21. The trip to Germany was not like this. My paternal grandmother didn't travel with us.
22. The district attorney's office of Colombia did not want to help as much as shown. The office was completely infiltrated by the Cali cartel. As was the whole scheme of protection provided by their own agents. We were in condition of hostages, abducted by our own and charged with the offence of kinship. We were two minors and two women locked up in a small hotel room.
23. Virginia Vallejo was so in love that she rejected my father's money? There are two lies. My mom never talked to her after they escaped the cathedral. It was almost a decade that my father had no contact with Virginia who was a lover at the same time of the heads of the Cali cartel.
24. At the hotel tequendama, my father didn't send us phones. I was hanging up on him every time he called me to protect him, but he turned out to be a whimsical and stayed longer than prudent on the line, knowing that it would be tracked. "The phone is death" he told me all my life. That's why he didn't want to talk to me, because I would cut off the call. One day he asked to talk to my mother and sister and identified himself before the operator with his two names and surnames. That call was to say goodbye; they prolonged it as much as possible, that last call, with the clear intention of being located asiw was the day of his last battle in the neighborhood the olive trees in their city, Medellín. My Father killed himself as I said a dozens of times. This is why I'm not surprised that the shot that took his own life was in his hand. It wasn't the police. Carlos Castaño ran that final operation.
25. No journalists were murdered in front of the Hotel Tequendama.
26. My Father never mistreated his parents. Never existed a conversation in that tone or sense.
27. After my father died, my mom was summoned to a meeting with the Cali cartel in the city, there were more than 40 big Mafia Bosses of the Colombia of the moment. The person who saved her was Miguel Rodriguez, not Gilberto. On that occasion they stripped us of out inherited property and shared the money as part of the spoils of war.
28. My Grandma says to him in the series that it was my mother who betrayed my father? When in real life it was my paternal grandmother and their children who contacted the Cali Cartel!
Other qualms include how Escobar was pictured as attacking rival drug lord Gilberto Rodriquez’s daughter at her wedding, Marroquin writing that he never came to an altercation with any of the Rodriquez family, as well as which local sports teams he supported.
Of course, the show’s creators have always said they never depicted the entire truth, with many aspects being exaggerated for dramatic purposes.
It was previously revealed that Escobar’s brother, Robert, put in a formal request to Netflix to watch the series before release but never heard back from the streaming service.
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