Netflix’s Narcos portrays the life of Pablo Escobar, the late drug trafficker who was once the 7th richest person in the world due to his massive drug trade in Colombia and the United States. The second season recently debuted on the streaming service and according to Daily Mail, an estimated 3.2 million people watched the first season of the crime thriller worldwide. However, Sebastian Marroquin (formerly known as Juan Pablo Escobar), told Mirror Online that there are many errors in the series.
For starters, Marroquin stated that his father didn’t steal the sword of Simon Bolivar. “It was given to Pablo as a present for backing M-19’s attack on the Supreme Court in which judges were killed and they burnt all the evidence of drug trafficking. It was given to him to show gratitude for his logistical, military and financial support for this act of terrorism.” Marroquin also claims that his father never trafficked drugs to Europe. “He didn’t need to – why would he go so far if they could could sell drugs so close? There was a deficit of drug dealers at that time, there weren’t enough drugs to satisfy the Americans,” said Marroquin.
In the series, Escobar’s wife, Maria Victoria Henao, was shown as someone who sympathized and stood by her husband despite all the violence he caused. But Marroquin said that his mother “never condoned Pablo’s violence. She never helped him in his business as an accomplice. Completely the opposite.” Other things that occurred on the Netflix series that Escobar’s son states never happened or wasn’t accurately portrayed include his father’s involvement with the kidnapping of journalist Diana Turbay, the first time a picture of Pablo was revealed to the public, and how the deaths of the Moncada brother and Gustavo Gaviria (Escobar’s cousin) occurred.
As a teenager, Escobar began a life of crime by selling contraband cigarettes and stealing cars in Colombia. Later in life, he smuggled cocaine into the U.S. and had a $30 billion fortune. In the end, Escobar was shot and killed while attempting to escape across nearby roofs with his bodyguard Alvaro de Jesus Agudelo who was also gunned down. However, some still claim that Escobar committed suicide. You can watch the latest season of Narcos now on Netflix.