Any work of fiction based on a true story is going to piss someone off. In the case of Narcos season two, Netflix seems to have pissed off a Buenos Aires-based architect, writer, and entrepreneur named Sebastián Marroquín. So why should anybody care? Well, mostly because Marroquín is the son of Pablo Escobar.
After apparently binging his way through Narcos’ second season, Marroquín – who was born Juan Pablo Escobar – took to social media to lay out 28 “grave factual errors” he found in the series. Of course, anyone looking to nitpick about names or dates could find plenty wrong with Narcos narrative arc, but Marroquín suggests that the show actually “insults the history of an entire nation as well as many victims and families.” So yeah, sounds like it’s a big deal.
It also seems like a clever way to direct traffic to his book “Pablo Escobar: My Father”, which Marroquín links to repeatedly throughout his 2,100-word diatribe and the ensuing comments section. But aside from a few minor details like which soccer club his father liked, or the exact number of shootouts he was dragged into as a child, Marroquín does seem to have some legitimate gripes.
The first point he makes, and indeed the one that seems to hit closest to home, is that his uncle Carlos Henao was never actually involved in the drug trade. Describing him as an honest, respected, and hardworking citizen, Marroquín refers to Henao’s death as an “injustice” that was portrayed by Narcos as fair play in Colombia’s bloody drug war.
Another sensitive subject that didn’t sit right with Marroquín was the fact that his paternal grandmother collaborated with both Colombian authorities and the Cali cartel to assure her protection, calling it a “betrayal” and insisting he never knew the sweet old woman portrayed by series creator Chris Brancato and his writing staff.
Naturally, the team behind Narcos deserves a little leeway for taking artistic license. Facts are facts, but Brancato and co. were clearly more interested in exploring themes of moral ambiguity and the thin line between good guys and bad. Even so, Marroquín’s post is a fascinating look into the mind of a man who has worked hard to right his fathers wrongs, but still remembers his life through the lens of love and loyalty. See the full post in Spanish below.