[My father] would be proud, he would hug me and he would be sitting front-row at all the events where I talk to the youth about not repeating [Pablo Escobar's] story because I am a consequence of what he did and I have not changed my stance on violence since we talked about it.
I can understand how people would despise my image and my father's persona. My father's image amongst the poorest of people, those forgotten by the state, still remains a respected image. Whether we like it or not, my father was an important figure who filled a vacuum left by the state amongst the lower social classes.
Yes, of course my father harmed and caused a lot of damage but both stories are true. He did things to help and destroy Colombia, both are true.
What we experience in Colombia is fratricide, we fight ourselves and it demonstrates the priority of hatred over peace and reconciliation.
To be quite honest my country [Colombia] still shows that it can be intolerant.
It's very difficult to resort to hating [Pablo Escobar] when all he gave you his entire life was love and all the best he ever had.
[Our family] love our father's image because the only thing we received from him was love and affection. We recognize that our father made incredible damage outside of the home but we ask for reciprocity because the only thing he ever gave us within the household was love.
Unfortunately, on my father's side we have a nonexistent relationship. But my mother and sister and I live very closely, we remain in the same city and we see each other every day.
My sister, my mother and I are great friends. We have always valued our immediate family immensely, something we learned from my father.
When I started thinking about plans to avenge [my father], I realized I was only going to become someone worse than him, someone worse than the person I had so often criticized. I was going against my own principles. And yes, people tell me that it was a tremendous life decision in the span of 10 minutes but I just say, what else was there to think of?
My whole life I saw how the violence my father created had come back to my family and I thought that I would only make things worse for my mother and my sister if I sought to avenge my father. I had to dare to take a path of peace.
My whole life I had seen my father solve every problem he had through the use of violence.
I knew something was wrong that day, he made the mistakes [Pablo Escobar] had never committed throughout the last 10 years as the most wanted man in the world in one day. He never used the phone, he only did the day he was killed.
[Pablo Escobar] always told me that the day he used the phone would be his last day, something I had very clear while I was talking to him.
I was talking to my father via phone from my hotel room when he said "I will call you right back" before he hung up. 10 minutes pass and the phone rings again. I thought it was him but it was a journalist telling me my father had died.
It's a shame to see drug dealers enter and leave the United States as if nothing in addition to those that purchase weapons and firearms.
I am not allowed to enter American territory simply because I was born the son of Pablo Escobar and apparently that implies that I inherit my father's crimes. Not that I want a visa now, I don't care anymore, I have been to the United States before.
What I criticize is the message that the United States is sending to the youth of the world - to those of us who invite people to leave the ways of violence and the drug trade, we are not given a visa but those that sell drugs and weapons, yes.
I am a free man but only partially so relative to other people in society. Why do I say "partially free"? Because there is only one country in the world that denies me entrance because of who my father was and that is the United States.
If I were paying to display images of my father [like Netflix does] in the United States, I am sure I would face legal sanctions and I would even be killed for doing it. And Netflix receives applause instead of criticism for it.
The pictures I have been sent that display my father in places around the world such as the metro in Barcelona or downtown Los Angeles, I cannot understand the amount of publicity that has been given to my father in addition to the message that is spread because of this.
Of course, I think this is something that Netflix does much better. If you analyze the enormous amounts of effort and attention that has been given to my father's image due to Narcos, I am sure of one thing: if I did the same exact thing that Netflix does with my father's image, I would be killed, do not doubt it for a second.
When one is that powerful and one think life will last like that forever, it is simply the most ephemeral thing. I don't think these sons and daughters of drug dealers are contributing to a lasting peace nor to human values that add to our society. They're delivering the message of riches and power that comes at the cost of people's lives and health and they incentivize young people to follow this model.
I am surprised that many people disregard the fact that the end for almost all drug dealers ends up being the cemetery or the jail cell, we do not know of any case where a drug dealer has "retired"
It's important to learn from the past and people's experiences, not only from my father's [Pablo Escobar] as a drug dealer, but from others that have ended just the way he did.
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