Original subtitles

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(gentle music)

(birds chirping)

(gentle thoughtful music)

(engines rumbling)

- [Farmer] Let's go.

(gentle music)

(ominous music)

(people chattering)

(gentle music)

(quiet dramatic music)

(quiet tense music) (birds squawking)

(people chattering) (engines rumbling)

(dramatic music)

(people chattering)

(engines rumbling)

(engine roaring)

(engine roaring)

(upbeat music)

(people chattering) (upbeat music)

(tires screeching)

- [Pedestrian] Asshole.

(dramatic music)

(mournful music)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Following his father's death,

Juan Pablo Escobar had changed his name

to Sebastian Marroquin

and had moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina,

where I'd first met him.

After 12 years in exile,

this was the first time that Sebastian and his mother,

Maria Isabel Santos,

had agreed to break their silence

and opened their personal archives for a film.

(gentle music)

- This is my dad at his first communion,

and this is a very valuable picture for me.

This always keeps me company at night.

It sleeps with me.

Nobody would recognize the person in this picture.

I could show it to all of my friends and acquaintances

and everybody that I met.

It was the only moment of honesty I could have

with my friends when showing them a picture of my father

without being afraid of jeopardizing my own identity.

I never tell anybody who my father was.

If somebody finds out and asks me, we can talk about it,

but if not,

I'm a nobody.

My father was the famous one

for his boldness or whatever reasons he was.

He was the best of all at cheating.

He planned at his cheating in advance.

If we had plans to play Monopoly that night,

he started to plan his cheating.

He would send me someone

to take money out of the Monopoly box

and knowing where he would sit in the living room,

he would hide it under his chair or under the rug,

under the coffee table.

There were bills everywhere.

Of course, six hours later

when we all sat down to play and opened the box

to divide the money according to the rules of the game,

he would lose and he would lose and he would lose,

but he would never, ever,

he would never run out of cash, ever.

He always had money.

I've learned a lot of things from my father.

The most important thing is that if I wanna live,

I have to do the opposite of what he did.

That's my lesson.

If I want to die, I have to follow his footsteps.

(mournful music) (engine rumbling)

- [Narrator] Sebastian was only 16 years old when,

in December, 1993, his father was killed in Medellin,

the city where Escobar had grown up and became powerful.

Sebastian first heard the news from a journalist.

(people chattering) (dramatic music)

- [Caller] Hello?

- [Sebastian] Yeah, please don't bother me now,

I'm trying to confirm the news about my father.

- [Caller] The police have just confirmed it.

He was at the mall in downtown Medellin.

- [Sebastian] What was he doing there?

- [Caller] I don't know.

The police have already issued a press release.

It's official.

- (sighs) Life sucks.

Well, we don't want to talk about it right now, okay.

But, well, I'm personally going to kill

the sons of bitches who did it.

(people chattering) (somber music)

(lid thudding)

I understand that as Pablo Escobar's family,

I've lost the right to get angry.

I shouldn't have gotten crazy and said all those things

when my father was killed, and in such a violent situation,

any teenager might have reacted the same way,

but because I had that last name, it wasn't acceptable.

And if anybody harms me,

I don't have the right to get angry.

You are Pablo Escobar's son, so you are dangerous too.

(engine puttering)

I am not the right person to explain my father's actions.

Every time I try to do this,

I make a mistake and I start to believe that I'm the one

who has to answer for my father.

It would be a lot easier for us and and for his family

to really criticize Pablo Escobar as a person.

We would make friends a lot easier,

but it wouldn't be honest.

People shouldn't ask me to stop loving my father.

We can't just erase the fact

that we actually had a loving relationship with the man.

We were a really a family.

Instead of criticizing Pablo Escobar

in order to be accepted,

it's more important to actually explore the true story.

We really need to understand and make everybody aware of

what really happened from beginning to end

so we don't repeat it.

(crickets chirping)

- [Narrator] Pablo Escobar and Gustavo Caviria

present

Naples Country Estate.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

- He had a collection of encyclopedias about wildlife,

and he selected the animals that he wanted to buy.

- We visited several giant wildlife preserves

where they had animals for us to look at

and for him to choose from,

and I remember he told me,

my partner is going to kill me when he finds out

that I've spent $2 million in animals.

- He was squandering money at the country estate.

There was everything there.

There was nothing else to spend money on.

There was an eagerness to spend money and to enjoy life,

but we reached a point

in which there was nothing else to see

and nothing surprised us.

There was nothing else left to buy.

- He would buy exotic birds for $1 million,

and I would purchase art for 1 million pesos,

so I would tell him, art lasts forever.

Your birds can die any day.

We argued about that all the time, you know.

- [Sebastian] Those are my toys.

We used to race go-karts all around the house,

and if people think I was a rich, spoiled brat,

they were right.

I got everything that I wanted.

I just had to ask for it, and that's how I was raised.

I was surrounded by luxury. It was so surreal.

(dramatic music)

My childhood took place

while my father was on top of the world.

- [Translator] Our visit to this unique place has come

to an end.

(Sebastian speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] This fabulous estate,

which bases its philosophy on the love of life.

(Sebastian speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Forever, looking towards the future,

elevating humanity and preserving nature.

- At that time, cocaine was supposed to be the best thing

that could happen to society.

It was seen as something glamorous,

something trendy,

something fashionable.

It had arrived and not just in Columbia,

but all over the world.

It was huge.

For my father, working was the easiest thing in the world.

He would stay at the best hotel in Miami.

He would take over three or four entire floors

on behalf of the Fredonian Petroleum Company,

a fictitious company,

which he named after a town in Columbia

that has no oil at all.

He would do whatever he wanted from the best hotel in Miami,

receiving and delivering right in front of everyone.

Even the most obvious gangsters

in America were visiting him.

It was absurd that anyone would believe his charade.

Nobody bothered him.

He would take the money in and out of the country,

and he declared it under his own name at customs.

One time he took $4 million and nobody ever said anything.

Only "Welcome to the United States, Mr. Pablo Escobar."

He was running his own business,

going shopping, legally.

He never faked his name, ever. No.

Not to buy properties in the United States.

- We know that everybody dreams

of visiting Disney World one day,

and Sebastian's father was like a child

at that park with his son.

He was afraid of roller coasters.

He didn't like them,

but it didn't matter because he rode them all.

The fact is that he would do whatever it took

to make Sebastian happy.

(engines rumbling)

- [Narrator] By the early 1980s,

Escobar was at the top of his game.

He had the family he had always dreamed of,

and he controlled the Medellin drug cartel,

which was supplying 80% of the world's cocaine.

(crowd shouting)

Escobar was one of the richest men in Columbia,

and he used part of his fortune to help the poor.

His charity work included the construction

of dozens of soccer fields.

(interviewer speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] Are you building 50 soccer fields?

- [Translator] Yes, because we want every town,

every neighborhood, no matter how rich or poor

to participate and to benefit from these programs.

- [Translator] Are you the Robin Hood of Antioquia?

- [Translator] No, not at all.

However, I think it is a very interesting comparison

because if you know the story of Robin Hood,

you know very well that what he did was fight

to defend the poor.

(gentle music)

(birds squawking)

- [Narrator] His most ambitious project was the construction

of hundreds of houses for families

who were living in a municipal dump.

(gentle music)

The complex known

as Barrio Pablo Escobar still exists today.

- [Translator] Obviously, more than 5,000 people

are thankful to our friend Pablo Escobar Gaviria.

We believe that once we move to La Milagrosa in March,

we're going to be very happy there.

(gentle upbeat music) (people chattering)

- What else could a guy

who had discovered a magical formula to make money do,

what else could make him even more powerful?

What?

I think that's when he decided to get into politics.

He wanted the kind of power you can only get

from the masters.

- [Translator] Today, we are the new political force

in this town.

We are the liberal hope of the people of Antioquia.

- [Narrator] Escobar had bigger plans.

He wanted political power.

He decided to join the recently formed New Liberal Party led

by two charismatic young politicians,

Luis Carlos Galan and Rodrigo Lara Bonilla.

Soon after meeting Sebastian for this project,

we traveled to Bogota in order to meet Rodrigo Lara.

25 years ago, his father, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla,

was the first to publicly denounce Escobar.

- You know, I never talk about my father in public.

It's very rare.

I talk about my father only if I have to.

It has to be a very special context.

My dad and Galan went to campaign

in the Middle Magdalena Medio Region.

They couldn't understand at the time

why they were receiving so much support,

why so many people were showing up to see them.

After all, they had never visited

those municipalities before.

They were delighted with the campaign success.

They began to ask,

who was the political leader that brought you here?

It's Pablo Escobar who tells us to vote for you.

Mr. Pablo is generous. He gives us fridges and money.

They started wondering, who is this Pablo Escobar,

who they love so much?

My father told me they started asking around.

He asked someone in the Medellin stock market

and a few more people,

and they all told him he's extremely wealthy guy,

but extremely dangerous too.

(dramatic music)

When they realized who he was,

they decided to expel him from the New Liberal Party.

That was a humiliation for Pablo Escobar,

and I think that's when he got enraged

and that's what led him to his opposition

to the New Liberal Party.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Despite his expulsion

from the New Liberal Party,

Escobar's wealth and popularity got him elected to Congress.

- I think that at some point in his life,

he must have flirted with the idea

of becoming president of Columbia.

- We went to Congress

and he told me to start getting ready to become First Lady.

He was sure he was going to make it.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Shortly after,

Lara Bonilla was appointed Minister of Justice.

His determination to confront the drug trade turned him

into a threat to Escobar's plans.

- [Translator] The country must know the truth

about the wealth of certain people.

No one should think that tax amnesty means

that we will ever forget the felonies committed

by these people in order to make those enormous fortunes.

- Up to then nobody had ever accused them.

At the time they were regular people, they were trendy.

- Up to that moment when Rodrigo Lara confronted my father,

my father was in charge of Columbia.

He was the one calling the shots in that country.

- [Translator] I would like to inform the public

that the Minister of Justice has a 24 hour period

to present reliable evidence,

sustaining the charges he made against me

yesterday in Congress.

- My father said, Pablo Escobar is a drug lord,

and drug dealers usually cry out, "Prove it."

- [Reporter] Can you assure us

that your money has never been connected to the drug trade?

- [Translator] I have always ascertained

that my money has nothing to do with drug dealing.

- [Reporter] Now where did your money come from then?

Your enormous wealth?

- In Antioquia, everyone knows about our investments

in the areas of industry, farming and construction.

- A common practice for them was to try

to morally kill him by tainting his name.

They thought this would call him down

or they would blackmail him.

- [Translator] What happened was

that the Minister of Justice has falsely accused me,

and I have sued him in court for libel,

a felony which Colombian law punishes

with one to four years in prison.

- [Translator] This is actually a maneuver

by drug traffickers who are seeking

to oust a cabinet minister for the simple reason

that they find him inconvenient.

(helicopter whirring)

- [Narrator] Escobar's attempts

to intimidate Lara Bonilla didn't work.

In March, 1984,

the minister ordered a raid on Tranquilandia.

It was the largest cocaine lab ever found.

In a few hours,

Escobar and its partners lost close to a dozen planes

and 13.8 metric tons of cocaine

with a street value of $1.2 billion.

(dramatic music)

- My father's pressure in public confrontation resulted

in Escobar's resignation from Congress.

We can say that he took Pablo Escobar's mask off.

(pensive music)

- I think that at that point, he lost it.

He completely lost it. He was totally out of control.

- From what I know, they would call him and say,

"Mr. Minister, right now, your sons,

Rodrigo, Jorge, and Pablo are leaving school

and you will never see them again.

Bye, Mr. Minister."

- [Translator] I'll keep myself protected

since I think that anyway,

they will try to make me pay after what I've done in order

to put these criminals in the right place.

- There were people, influential people who told them,

"Don't fight these guys.

They're going to kill you."

- [Translator] The Minister of Justice lied to the country

when he said he would not resign.

We'll see what happens in the next few days.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Narrator] On April 30th, 1984,

just a month after the raid on Tranquilandia,

Escobar's men killed Lara Bonilla.

(singing in foreign language)

- When people remember him, they laugh.

He was a very charming person, very nice.

He had a great sense of humor.

He was a very good father.

He really enjoyed his children.

- What made my father go crazy?

What made him decide to stain the drug business

with the blood from Lara's death?

(singing in foreign language)

- When my father died, I think I was an eight year old boy.

The first feeling I had in my heart was to avenge his death.

I remember listening to music and thinking about the moment

when I would use a weapon to get revenge.

- The point is that

one can only begin to guess what went on

in my father's mind when Lara denounced him.

Because with all his money and with all his power,

he could still not change Lara's words.

(singing in foreign language)

(traffic whooshing)

In 1984, when Rodrigo's father died,

our lives changed forever.

How could he not have known what would happen to his family,

what his family would suffer because of his decisions?

The very next day at dawn,

we were on our way to Panama City.

Panama has always been a preferred route

for drug traffickers.

In the middle of the jungle,

there was just enough space

for the helicopters to land properly.

We moved into a mansion

that General Noriega provided for my father,

right next to a golf course where he had direct access,

and although he was still a fugitive wanted

by the Columbian authorities,

he was actually approached

by many respected Colombian politicians

to negotiate his return to Columbia.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Narrator] One episode, in particular,

has attracted media attention.

The former president of Columbia, Alfonso Lopez,

visited Escobar in Panama.

This led to intense speculation that Escobar had agreed

to pay off Columbia's foreign debt

in return for amnesty for his crimes.

- It's not true that my father offered

to pay the foreign debt.

He never made such an offer.

I know because I asked him.

That's part of the myth. It was never true.

Things between my dad and Noriega ended badly.

According to what my father told me,

Noriega stole a plane and $3 million from him.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Escobar did not trust his host General Noriega.

He was afraid Noriega was going to turn him over

to the US authorities.

He decided to move with his family to Nicaragua.

Sebastian was seven years old.

- My father went from being protected by Noriega,

to being protected by the Sandinistas at that moment,

Nicaragua was desolate. It was a very sad country.

It was surrounded by war.

I went through the worst time of my life in Nicaragua.

I cried. That's the only thing that I could do.

When they called me to lunch, I cried.

When they called me to play, I cried.

When I went to the patio,

I cried because I saw a wall that was built even taller.

- We came from a violent country to a country

where you could really feel violence

in the air.

- When I was seven years old,

my life was the life of a criminal.

I was suffering the same

as if I had ordered all those murders by myself.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, the United States

was already closely watching Escobar.

A DEA informant took these photos of him

while loading a plane with cocaine in Nicaragua.

- Despite being a fugitive,

my father decided to return to Colombia.

He was wanted there.

- He was scared that he could be more easily extradited

from a foreign country than from Colombia.

- I really don't know if the state was prepared enough

to go after him or not,

but my father was ready to prevent them from catching him.

- Hello? - Hello.

- [Caller] How are you?

- [Caller] Maza Marquez just sent

from 350 to 400 soldiers here to Medellin.

- Every time they went after him,

Pablo was the first one to know where they were going.

- [Man] Tell the pilots to let us know.

- [Man] They'll tell us immediately,

- [Man] Okay.

- And my father went around town freely

with 30 or 40 bodyguards.

(dramatic music)

This tranquility didn't really last very long

because the war with the Cali Cartel was just starting.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] By now, Escobar's Medellin Cartel faced

an equally ambitious competitor.

A second drug cartel based in the city of Cali,

was starting to control a large share of the cocaine market.

(dramatic music) (people chattering)

In 1988, the growing rivalry

between the two cartels exploded into war

with the detonation of a car bomb in front

of the building where Escobar's family was living.

- [Translator] I am Pablo's brother.

Pablo's very offended because they're harassing his family.

Whoever messes with his family will be the next victim.

That's what he told me to tell everybody.

(Pablo speaking in foreign language)

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] As well as the Cali Cartel,

Escobar had another increasingly powerful enemy,

Luis Carlos Galan,

who had founded the New Liberal Party

with Lara Bonilla.

Escobar had killed Lara Bonilla,

but now Galan was about to win the presidential election.

- [Translator] We have had to fight

the most serious problem in Colombian society right now.

It has arrived to our country like it did

to more than 60 other countries in the world,

the obscure and criminal power

of drug dealers.

- There are documents that I read

when I was 10 or 11 years old

where he denounced the infiltration of drug money

into politics in 1978,

not because he was moralist

and thought that drugs were necessarily immoral,

not really because of that.

But actually because he understood the power

of drug money to corrupt.

- My dad was the last Colombian politician

to be able to gather huge crowds just to listen to him.

The only incentive

to attend his rallies was to listen to him.

- [Translator] We are in the process

of changing the mindset of the Colombian people,

which is what's needed and required

so we can really progress.

- Political leaders are never remembered

by the number of hospitals they built,

the number of schools they built, nor the roads or bridges.

What they are remembered for is changing the way

a society thinks at a certain moment,

like Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Gandhi.

I believe that's the reason

people remember Luis Carlos Galan.

In a way or another,

he succeeded in changing our way of thinking.

He had an impact on the collective consciousness

of the Colombian people.

- [Translator] So that no Colombian

will ever be ashamed again

of showing their Colombian passports anywhere.

- At that time,

we were very lucky to travel with our father.

Once on a tour of 60 towns,

I told them that 60 was about all I could take.

No more.

- Since I was very small,

I remember that my dad have always had the need

to have bodyguards to feel safe,

but that particular year in 1989,

we could feel that the danger was much, much, much closer.

- [Translator] Don't forget that Galan has a death threat

hanging over his head.

In Medellin, they tried to kill him, but failed.

He had over 80 bodyguards.

(man speaking in foreign language)

- After Rodrigo's death, my father's security was increased,

so it would be certainly harder to kill him.

At least that's what I thought at the time.

- He made two public statements,

which I think emphasized his sadness and preoccupation.

The first is when he said, you can kill men,

but not their ideals.

The other was when a cousin of mine, a journalist,

asked him if there was a possibility

that he wouldn't be elected president,

not just in that election,

but at any time in the future.

So he told her, of course, that possibility exists.

My role models are people who are never president,

but who's influence on Columbia had a greater impact

than many presidents,

and then he mentioned examples of people

who were actually murdered.

(crowd shouting)

(bright music) (people chattering)

- [Translator] He's here with us.

Please welcome Dr. Luis Carlos Galan.

- [Translator] I honestly-

(guns firing) (people screaming)

He's been shot. He's been shot.

The sons of bitches got him!

- To tell you the truth,

I felt that it was nothing serious

because I had helped him put on

the bulletproof vest that night.

So that kept me calm at the hospital while I waited.

(people shouting)

Two or three minutes later,

a doctor appeared wearing surgical scrubs,

looking for family members, and he sat us down,

and then he told us that there was,

there was nothing else that they could do,

that he had passed away.

(bells tolling)

(crowd shouting)

- [Narrator] On August 18th, 1989,

Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated,

with him died the hopes of millions of Colombians.

(crowd shouting)

(singing in foreign language)

- These children were put into an absurd situation.

Sebastian, Rodrigo and the Galan brothers

were just little kids.

A hurricane passed through their lives and destroyed them.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Sebastian's decision to work

in this film had prompted him

to reflect deeply on the past.

In February, 2008, he asked me to deliver a letter

to the sons of Galan and Lara Bonilla.

(gentle music)

- [Sebastian] Dear Claudio, Juan Manuel, Carlos and Rodrigo,

how do you write to a family

that your own father hurts so much?

What do you say to people your own age

who carry so much pain?

How can I start this conversation

with people who suffered so much?

How can I ask for forgiveness

to an entire nation without any offense?

What can I do besides apologizing on behalf of my father?

Is that really enough?

I am aware of the damage my father did to the country

and to humanity.

For an alleged logic assumption,

I was expected to avenge my father's death.

This assumption has been feeding the hatred

towards my family and to myself.

Every day I wake up searching for peace.

What I have learned from this story

is that violence is not the answer or the excuse for anyone.

I simply cannot accept the idea

that we are on this planet to hurt each other.

I believe there are more noble reasons

to live for and enjoy life.

I understand that I was born

in an environment rich with violence,

but the legacy of being born in such a hostile environment

could be no other than to search for peace.

I don't want to repeat history.

My father's violence sent many families

into exile, mainly yours.

He ignored the fact that he was actually planting the seed

for his own family's exile.

I want to invite you to break free from the past

and speak from the heart,

to listen to each other and to understand

that if we continue on this rollercoaster of hatred,

there will be no future for us or for the country.

Respectfully, Sebastian Marroquin.

- Let me see.

I think it's an act of courage,

a noble one.

- I think that the family has been paying

for their father's mistakes at a certain degree.

We have also suffered the loss of a loved one,

the drama and the tragedy,

but we never suffered that burden.

- Society is not only punishing Pablo.

Pablo Escobar is also punishing his family.

It is punishing his wife and his kids,

and it's punishing that goes on.

- Our fathers were killed,

a long time ago.

We haven't forgotten.

But the wounds are healed and we live a normal life.

For a lot of people,

the violence that the country continues

to experience keeps these wounds open.

They easily fall into these cycles of violence.

- [Translator] For your children, for yourself,

for Columbia, denounce the drug dealers.

Wanted, Pablo Escobar Gaviria.

Cooperate, denounce, inform.

(crowd shouting)

- A crowd gathered at Galan's funeral

to say goodbye to their leader and to demand justice.

(crowd shouting)

Without anyone to step into his shoes,

Columbia's future was uncertain.

It was Galan's eldest son, Juan Manuel,

then only 17 years old

who nominated his father's successor, Cesar Gaviria.

- [Translator] On behalf of my family,

I want to thank you for your solidarity towards ourselves

and our people, and I want to tell Dr. Cesar Gaviria,

on behalf of the people and on behalf of my family

that we entrust in his hands my father's ideals.

(audience applauding)

You have our support to become the president

that Columbia wants and needs.

(audience applauding)

- I knew from the start I was taking a big risk,

but I was willing to take it.

Today we know that the bomb

on the Avianca flight was put there to kill me.

(pensive music)

The Secret Service building was blown up,

which resulted in over 100 deaths.

It's hard to imagine a state more at risk

than the Columbian state at the time of Escobar.

There is a nationwide order

to shoot anyone associated with Cesar Gaviria.

The order is to shoot. There is no other option.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Despite Escobar's threats, in May, 1990,

Guviria was inaugurated as president of Columbia.

- [Translator] Columbia's number one enemy

at this moment is the terrorist, Pablo Escobar,

whose criminal organization relentlessly and mercilessly

kills innocent children, women and men.

We need to create total chaos,

so they call us to discuss peace.

We need a civil war so they can call us to talk about peace.

That's the only way out.

If we start harassing politicians

and burning down their houses,

then they will talk to us about peace.

Our problems will be fixed. There is no other solution.

We have to fight with all our hearts,

and if we die trying, so be it.

Nothing compares to the cruelty and horror

of Escobar's actions.

All of Columbia felt that the terrorism existed

because of the fear of extradition.

They always said that if the extradition was banned,

Escobar would abandon terrorism.

- My father used to say that extradition was the only thing

those guys feared.

Anything else they could easily recover from.

You could take their planes or their cars away

and they would laugh and get them back.

They only feared extradition.

They need to be shipped away.

- My father had so much power

at that moment in his life

that he was dictating executive orders at his wish.

He had the Constitution changed,

so he could get whatever he wanted.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] In July, 1991, Escobar got what he wanted.

Columbia adopted a new constitution banning the extradition

of Columbian citizens to stand trial abroad.

It was a tour to force for the cartels

which had bribed and terrorized members

of the constituent assembly.

- What happened was something amazing.

It was crazy to think that one man

could have so much influence over the nation's politics.

- They waited until extradition was abolished

from the Constitution before turning themselves in.

- [Translator] 5:00 PM The order has been given.

The two helicopters take off.

One of them descends into the neighborhood, El Poblado.

No images nor photographs.

Pablo Escobar is behind bars.

- [Narrator] No longer fearing extradition,

Escobar made an arrangement with the government.

He would surrender and serve time in prison,

but not in any prison.

Escobar himself chose the location

and supervised the construction of his own, La Catedral.

- [Translator] As a consequence

of the president's peace and justice policy,

I am willing to spend as much time as necessary in prison

in order to contribute

to my family's peace and to contribute to Columbia's peace,

to strengthening civil rights,

to strengthen civilian power and to strengthen democracy

in my dear Fatherland.

I wish to pay tribute to all the members

of the National Constituent Assembly

for their noble contribution to peace in our nation.

I also wish to pay tribute to my parents,

to my irreplaceable and loving wife,

to my 14-year-old pacifist son,

to my little toothless seven-year-old daughter

and to all of my family who I love so dearly.

Pablo Escobar Emilio Gaviria, June 19th, 1991.

Some straw to build the roof

and for the rest he used some sticks.

The pig was very happy after finishing his house,

he was very nice and comfortable home.

It's wonderful to have your own house, he said.

Very proud then.

- That's supposed to be the voice

of the big boss telling a story

for children, and to me it's a big contradiction.

These are things that I still can't figure out who he was,

a guy accused of so much violence,

but that's not the image that I get of him.

How could anybody understand the difference

at such a young age?

(Pablo singing in foreign language)

- That's my dad.

(gentle music)

(Pablo singing in foreign language)

- I thought that the letter was a gesture

that demanded a response.

In my opinion, he initiated the approach

and it was a sincere approach.

It is in an intelligent letter,

a well-written letter from a person

who speaks from the heart.

- [Narrator] Three months

after I delivered Sebastian's letter,

it was Rodrigo who decided to take the next step.

Since Sebastian had been advised not to travel to Columbia,

he came to Argentina so we could meet with him.

The rendezvous had to be kept secret.

This is why I arranged for it in Tigre,

a suburb of Buenos Aires only reachable by boat.

(engine puttering) (gentle music)

(gentle music) (birds chirping)

- Hi. - Rodrigo.

Hi. How are you? - Good.

- [Sebastian] Yeah, it's a great pleasure to meet you.

- [Rodrigo] My pleasure.

How are you? Good?

- [Sebastian] I'm here. I'm doing a little soul searching.

- You can- - Good idea.

Well, the truth is that this is an exciting moment.

- [Rodrigo] Yes, it is.

I wanted to meet you, sir.

I'm really pleased to be here with you.

- [Sebastian] No, no, no. Please don't call me, sir.

You don't need to be formal,

we're still very young and thank you.

Thank you very much for coming

because it's a marvelous gesture

towards my family and everybody towards,

it's meaning.

It's really, really hard to put into words.

- I thought it was very important to talk to you

'cause no matter what has happened,

there is no room for mixed feelings.

You understand what I'm saying?

- Yeah, I think it's very hard to separate the facts

from our names and from our families

and the terrible death of your father,

and in the end we're all orphans, you know?

- You haven't been back to Columbia?

- No, no. I've never been back.

Not since...

Well, after my father's death we had to leave you.

- Yes. - We couldn't stay.

Staying would've meant,

it would've meant

patiently waiting for death.

The path wouldn't have been very different from my father's.

- And you know that some time ago I was in Bogota

and I asked the politician

if he remembered the Pablo Escobar family, his son.

He told me he remembered you for something you said

after your father's death.

I remember I also said

I was going to avenge my father's death when I grew up.

It's a violent image.

The most important thing is that over time

you can alter hatred.

You have to forget about it. - And transform it.

- You have to eliminate it.

- When my father died, I was 16.

How old were you? - I was eight.

- You were eight.

You were eight? Yeah.

At eight years old, you already had revenge on your mind.

- Of course. - At eight years old.

- Yes. - It was a natural reaction.

- Yeah. - Natural.

- Natural. Sure. - It was natural.

- Sure. That's a natural reaction from a human being.

This is why many times the criminal mind thinks

that you have to kill not only your enemy,

but also their heirs.

This is very important to us getting together.

It's telling a lot of people, you know.

- We can't keep feeding this circle of anger

or we'll never get out of this.

- Yes, yes.

We'll never get out. Yes.

The past has been tough.

The important thing is to look forward.

- Yeah, that's right. - You are a good peaceful man.

I'm a good peaceful man.

Let's move forward.

(both laughing)

- Thanks, man.

It was a pleasure meeting you.

- My pleasure. - Thanks, man.

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

- No problem. - It's a pleasure meeting you.

- Yeah, let's go for a walk. Let's move forward.

- Right. - Yeah, let's move forward.

- Let's go for a walk. - Yeah, let's go.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Sebastian and Rodrigo knew

this was only the first step.

Galan sons had not yet responded to the letter.

(gentle music)

- When he made the decision to surrender to La Catedral,

I think the country really believed and hoped

that things would change

and that the violence would stop for good,

but obviously that didn't last too long.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Escobar had turned his prison

into a five star hotel from where he continued

to run his criminal empire.

He was charging taxes to the other drug dealers

and was still ordering assassinations.

This was too much for President Guviria

who decided to transfer him to another prison,

but Escobar had other plans.

13 months after entering La Catedral, he escaped.

(dramatic music)

- From the building where we were

we could clearly see the hill where La Catedral was located.

Suddenly, suddenly the lights went off

and that was when I realized

that my father had left La Catedral.

- I remember watching, from France,

the reports of Pablo Escobar's escape from La Catedral.

(Pablo speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] No one will ever fucking catch me.

From here in the jungle, I'll have everyone killed.

In the end, they will lose.

- Well, it's very easy to talk about it now,

but at the time,

no one knew exactly what was really going on.

- [Translator] What we need now is for the authorities

to find Pablo Escobar, capture him, turn him in,

and submit him to our justice system.

- [Narrator] The video shows

how the authorities searched La Catedral jail

hours after Pablo Escobar escaped.

Evidence left behind by the leader

of the Medellin Cartel was dug out.

Documents, photographs of people

from his organization and possibly victims,

letters and video recordings like this one were discovered

during the search showing Escobar's luxurious lifestyle

inside the prison.

- [Reporter] It's a match

between the Pot Bellies and the Troublemakers.

Pablo Escobar has just scored a beautiful goal.

The star player leaves the game with an injury.

- It was pretty frustrating

to see that he was not really in prison.

First, he was in control of his own security,

and second, he did whatever he wanted in jail.

It was a defeat for the country.

Also, the justice system and the people.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Following his escape,

Escobar became the most wanted criminal in the world.

President Gaviria sent hundreds of troops

to hunt him down.

The United States supported them through the DEA, the CIA,

and even the Delta Force, which went to Medellin.

From his hideouts, Escobar kept contact with the press.

(phone whirring)

- [Reporter] Hello.

- How are you? - Hello, Mr. Pablo Escobar?

I want to ask you a big favor on behalf of the country,

why don't you surrender?

You'll be safer and you will be able to see your family.

- [Pablo] I'm actually, I'm all for that.

I am most willing to go back to prison, but in that case,

I need to have the place examined first.

I can't just be in an urban prison.

It's very easy for anyone to plant a car bomb

and blow the whole place up.

I'm willing to cooperate. - All right.

- [Pablo] I'm not scared of the gringos either.

You know.

- [Reporter] If you want,

I can connect you with the president

of the country right now,

but please, please be more specific.

- [Pablo] You can tell the president

that I am willing to return to a different prison,

but first I need to know the security conditions

of that particular prison because I can't.

- [Reporter] But Pablo, how do we tell him?

- What came next was a real hunt,

something like a hunt for animals, not for human beings.

A real manhunt.

- Basically, everybody lost their minds.

They were after anybody,

and virtually anybody

who even smelled like Pablo Escobar

became a military target.

- The problem was that the country wanted results

at any cost.

- It was somewhat disgusting

because it was basically an insult to human rights,

but what happened, in fact was a real manhunt.

- I remember when Pablo Escobar said

he was not only gonna go for his enemies,

but for their families too.

- [Pablo] Tell them that if I find these two guys dead,

I will kill his mother and his cousins.

Does the son of a bitch think that I'm afraid of him

because he's fucking a cop?

- That didn't justify

the state applying the same methods that he had.

- Our daily life changed drastically for all of us.

Fear took over and the only goal

we had was just to stay alive.

- [Reporter] A press release

from Los Pepes confirms the fact

that the group has reactivated its military operations

to get Pablo Escobar.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Narrator] The vigilante group,

persecuted by Pablo Escobar, also known as Los Pepes,

was made up of members of the Cali Cartel

of Medellin drug dealers that had turned

against their old boss and of members

of the security forces.

They fought a dirty war against Escobar

and his organization.

(singing in foreign language)

- This group carried out unacceptable operations.

In fact, the objective of this group called Los Pepes

was basically to destroy all of Escobar's properties

and put Escobar's family in danger in order to harass him.

(man speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Guviria said it is not the civilians

who should take justice into their own hands.

He was referring to the so-called Los Pepes

who took responsibility for the attacks on Escobar's family.

(Guviria speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The same way

we reject Escobar's terrorist acts,

we reject and condemn the bombs

targeting the family of criminals.

It is the state, not the individuals

who actually should impart justice and make use of weapons.

Well, there were rumors,

but no certainty that members of the security forces were

involved in all of that.

- When violence in Colombia has come

from groups outside the law,

the country has a clear understanding of the threats.

But when there's a moment

in which the state is also involved,

you don't know where, (sighs) you don't know,

you don't know where the danger comes from anymore.

- At that moment,

there was no hope at all for any agreement.

There were no options.

Surrendering was not an option. Nobody wanted him alive.

Surrendering was not good for anybody.

The only way out was death.

(dramatic music)

When my father escaped from La Catedral,

he had great fear for our safety.

He asked us to leave to the United States

where we would be much safer.

We had to be at the airport two hours before takeoff.

I was there six hours before.

I saw strange movements.

There were already people there waiting for us.

It was very clear.

There were four, five, or six cars

just lined up,

each containing four men wearing hoods.

You didn't need to be a genius to realize

that something was gonna happen to the family.

The press arrived.

First some reporters from the radio

that were close to the airport

and others that were there by chance.

And then right after that, the TV crews arrived

and just one person who worked for the airline.

He approached me very discreetly and he said,

"Whatever I can do to help, just let me know."

I asked him to please help us and get a helicopter.

I had the money to rent a helicopter

and get us out of there.

The only thing that people

who were there to kill us didn't have was a helicopter.

- [Narrator] Even though Les Pepes were

in control of the airport,

Sebastian was able to escape by a helicopter

from what seemed like sure death.

His father, still fearing for his family's safety,

arranged for them to be brought to his hideout.

(helicopter whirring)

That same night,

Sebastian and his sister got the news

that their US visas had been canceled.

- That night, we were already reunited with my dad.

We saw it on the news that the US Ambassador,

if I'm not mistaken, his name was Morris Busby.

He had given the order to cancel our visas.

This was part of the plan to keep us as bait.

- [Narrator] Second exit Medellin.

Shortly after Sebastian, his mother and sister tried

to leave Columbia for the second time.

In November, 1993,

they traveled to Germany where they applied for

and were denied political asylum.

- They were all separated and questioned for hours and hours

and hours by the police and by Interpol,

but the decision had already been made.

The pressure that they put on them,

the German authorities, worked.

We were sent back.

- [Narrator] Bogota exit.

On their return to Columbia,

the Columbian government decided

that Medellin was too dangerous for Escobar's family.

They were now placed under protection in a hotel owned

by the armed forces in Bogota.

From there, they could also keep a close eye

on the family's communications.

- [Reporter] Army units immediately surrounded the area

around the Hotel Tequendama

where the wife and two children

of the boss of the Medellin Cartel are staying.

The main entrance to the building has been sealed off.

A strange vehicle caught the authority's attention.

The bomb squad arrived immediately.

It was just a false alarm.

- We were getting threatening calls to our hotel room

from inside the hotel.

We probably had our enemies right on the floor below us.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Desperate to contact his family,

Escobar broke his own rules, jeopardizing his own security.

- We asked the receptionist not to transfer any calls

from outside without identifying the caller first.

(phone ringing)

- [Receptionist] I have Mr. Pablo Escobar on the other line

saying he wants to talk to you.

- Meanwhile, there were army generals inside the room.

When I heard his voice, I said,

"Hello, grandma, take it easy.

Don't worry.

We're okay. Don't worry.

You don't need to call us. We're fine."

He kept saying, "Hold on, hold on."

And I said, "Take it easy, Grandma. We're doing fine.

You do not have to call us."

Because I knew he had told me once.

Don't spend time on the phone. The phone is death.

- [Pablo] How did you get the Attorney General

to protect you?

They're going to ask you this question,

how did you get the Attorney General?

- Yes, yes, grandma, don't worry.

He was dictating answers to me for an interview

for a magazine called "Semana."

I insistently asked him to stop it.

I knew he could answer them carefully based on

what he talked about before, time and time again.

- [Pablo] Have you made any commitments at all

to the prosecutor?

This is another question, such as your father's surrender.

- The call was taking way too long,

and I was getting desperate.

It was really terrible because we could tell

that he wanted to be there with us.

The next time he called,

he would ask for another family member,

for my mother, or for Angeles.

- [Maria] Take very good care of yourself.

We all need you. (laughs)

- [Pablo] Don't worry my love,

my only goal in life is to fight for my family.

I'm hiding in a cave. I'm very, very safe.

The worst is over.

- He was breaking his own golden rule

and they traced the call

and they were able to find him.

So when he saw a strange movement near the house,

he hung up the phone, but before that, he said,

"I'll call you right back."

- [Pablo] Did you speak to anyone at the prosecutor's office

about your relocation abroad?

(helicopters whirring)

I'll call you right back. - Okay, I'll wait.

(helicopters whirring)

And my father was dead.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Narrator] 16 months after escaping from La Catedral,

Escobar was finally tracked down.

Three shots, put an end to his life on a roof in Medellin.

(singing in foreign language)

(people chattering)

(pensive music)

Sebastian was only 16 years old

when he faced the most important challenge of his life.

- There were only two paths to choose from.

One of them was was to repeat history.

(crowd chattering)

- Yeah, we don't want to talk right now,

but I'm gonna kill all those sons of bitches who killed him.

I'm gonna kill them myself.

(crowd shouting)

I almost got myself into my dad's shoes

just by saying those words.

I almost continued his story, which wasn't what I wanted.

(phone ringing)

Hello? - Juan Pablo,

I understand your pain.

I want you to know

that the Justice Department is not after you.

Now that you're calmer,

is there anything that you would like to say?

- [Sebastian] I wanna make it very clear

that I do not want any revenge.

I will not avenge my father's death.

My only concern at this moment is the future of my family.

I'm gonna fight for us to get an education

so we can move on and be good people.

If I have any opportunity to contribute to peace

in this country for centuries and centuries, I will do it.

When I got the official news from my father's death

from the District Attorney's office, I told them,

you have what you wanted.

Now please, please, do the right thing and help us get out,

get out of the country.

(pensive music) (bell dinging)

- [Narrator] In March, 2007,

Sebastian and his mother agreed to come with me to Ecuador.

The plan was to drive from Quito to the border with Columbia

and visit the bridge across which

they had fled their country 13 years earlier.

That's when Juan Pablo Escobar

first became Sebastian Marroquin.

- I thought that the name Juan Pablo Escobar

was far too attached to my father's past.

So a name change was the only way

that I thought could free our lives again.

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] It was a very tense trip.

We were all afraid to be with Sebastian,

so close to Columbia.

(quiet tense music)

- This is my first approach.

Now, let's see how many years will pass until I can go back.

Maybe one day the conditions will be right to go back.

However, there is always a certain fear that stops me

and tells me that I shouldn't go.

But of course, I would like to have the option of going.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Before leaving. Sebastian warned me

that he would not be crossing the bridge again.

This was the closest to Columbia he was willing to go.

However, being there did prompt him to talk to me

about his departure from Columbia.

- It makes me very sad to see him in pain

because he's not able to go back.

- They told my mother very clearly that there would be peace

after Pablo Escobar's death,

but that would only happen after I died.

She said that that was not the kind of peace

that she was looking for,

and that she would rather give her life as guarantee

that I would stay out of trouble.

Under the circumstances,

my life was worth $4 million.

That's the price they put on my head

because they offered that amount

to two friends of mine

in exchange for poisoning my soda.

I had to go to a certain meeting with my father's enemies.

Before this meeting,

I wrote my will because I certainly doubted

that I would actually survive,

and they gave me a list of conditions

that I had to follow in order to stay alive.

One, I had to leave the country.

Another one was that I could never enter the drug business.

I told them they shouldn't worry about that.

I had learned my lesson about drug dealing.

I considered it a curse, and they shouldn't worry.

That's when they almost killed me.

(traffic puttering)

We had to take our chances.

We made our decision and we left.

We abandoned the country, abandoned the family.

We abandoned everything really, everything.

Have a nice trip. Come back soon.

And we told the rest of the family

that they wouldn't hear anything from us

for the next 10 years.

I was 18 years old, so what I did was I bought a poncho.

I got into a taxi,

and I crossed the bridge without any problem.

I was the first one to cross,

and if anyone was stopped or caught on the way,

they would be all on their own.

The family would continue.

I miss it.

That's the thing about freedom,

you don't realize that you have it until you lose it.

When your country is taken away from you, you miss it too.

(pensive music)

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Sebastian and his family started a new life

in Buenos Aires.

Sebastian studied industrial design and architecture.

His mother became a real estate developer,

but the past eventually caught up with them.

- In 1999, four years

after arriving in Argentina,

my mother's accountant,

who managed some of her properties and personal accounts

here in Argentina, found out who we were,

and he decided to start extorting us for money

in exchange for his silence,

and in exchange for not revealing our true identities

to the Argentinian justice system,

and we then decided to report him to the local authorities.

We decided that if we gave in to the threats,

we would always be running from everybody who approached us

and found out our true identities, and we ended up in jail.

We received direct threats from him and his lawyer saying

that they would use

part of the money to buy cocaine

and actually hide it in our cars.

Who was going to believe Escobar's son

if they found cocaine in his car?

We were framed.

We were accused of money laundering, ID forgery,

and later on, also racketeering

and other trumped up charges.

I was in prison for 45 days.

My mother spent 18 months of her life in prison.

- I had a very hard time.

I was in a very tiny cell for many, many months.

- All of that, just because we had Pablo Escobar's DNA

and after a very exhaustive investigation,

the Supreme Court finally ruled in our favor.

- I would always ask myself the same questions.

How is this story going to end?

How is this suffering going to end?

Are we going to suffer this exile forever and ever?

- Since I left my country, I've never returned.

The most dignified path for me would certainly be

to remain silent and to vanish completely

from Columbian life.

(gentle music)

- Columbia's a country that has gone

through different cycles of violence.

Violence has been inherited, hatred has been inherited.

- [Narrator] In September, 2008,

three years after he first agreed to break his silence,

and despite the fact that he still feared for his life,

Sebastian agreed to travel to Columbia.

Almost no one knew about his trip.

- It seems to me that sometimes people think

that the only way

of righting a wrong,

of compensating for wrong is through equal retaliation.

It's like the Bible says, an eye for an eye.

- But I am Colombian too.

I don't want to give up my nationality. I love my country.

I don't want to give up my nationality

just because my father decided to do as he pleased,

because he was Pablo Escobar.

- I asked Sebastian not to go with tears in my eyes.

I thought it was too, too risky.

I thought it wasn't the right time.

- Take your seat, Mr. Marroquin.

- Thank you.

The fact is that the myth,

the myth surrounding my father has contributed

to the fear of what I might represent for the future,

the future of Columbia in terms of violence and pain.

I have to overcome this myth through my actions.

I have to overcome this myth through my behavior.

(gentle music)

- [Announcer] Last call to flight number.

- [Narrator] At Bogota's Airport,

I witnessed how Sebastian Marroquin

finally returned to Columbia.

With Rodrigo's help, we had organized a meeting

with Sebastian and the sons of Galan for the next day.

Two decades had passed since Escobar ordered the murders

of Galan and Lara Bonilla.

By now, their sons have become important figures

in Colombian politics.

- Maybe the administration will make an effort.

Maybe the president will make an effort.

- [Narrator] Juan Manuel Galan was elected senator in 2006.

Among his most controversial initiatives was the proposal

to open up the debate on the legalization of drugs.

In his first attempt to run for office,

his brother Carlos won a seat on Bogota city council.

Claudio Galan was appointed to the cabinet

of Columbia's largest province.

Claudio, Juan Manuel, and Carlos have never ceased

in their pursuit for justice

for their father's assassination

and dream of one day relaunching the New Liberal Party.

Rodrigo Lara was also elected senator.

His anti-corruption stands

has made him very powerful enemies,

among them former members of Los Pepes.

- Deep inside, I agree we could legalize drugs

and get rid of this problem,

but there is something that I don't like to leave behind.

This doesn't mean that all of this has been in vain.

My father's and Galan's sacrifice,

as well as that of so many police officers,

has prevented Columbia from becoming an narco state.

They fought organized crime and its attempts

to take over the Columbian state.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Finally, on a historic night in Bogota,

the sons of Luis Carlos Galan and Rodrigo Lara Bonilla met

with the son of Pablo Escobar.

(gentle music)

- I've been thinking about this all day long.

I think that that what we are

about to do tonight is very important.

It sends a message to the country,

a good message, a message of peace.

(gun firing) (people screaming)

(dramatic music)

- Nothing in life is random.

Nothing is accidental. Things always happen for a reason.

They happen when they have to.

I think that my father,

from where he is,

has something to do with what is happening now.

- Anyway, it's very difficult to think about

what we are doing.

Emotionally, it's not easy.

It's not easy to sit down

and talk to someone who is not guilty,

but is the son of the man who killed our fathers.

(pensive music)

- [Juan] We were just talking about how anxious we are.

I can't imagine how you feel.

- I can imagine. - Even more anxious.

- We all feel the same.

The story is, it's difficult for all of us.

It's so sad.

Even more so for you, you who had to go,

go through losing your father,

a man who was going to rescue the country.

- Thank you for the acknowledgement.

- Listen, Juan Manuel, I mean it for everybody.

I'm deeply sorry for what your family suffered.

The same as Rodrigo's.

There's so much violence and so much pain.

I'm here to ask you for forgiveness

and to look into your eyes,

and although I said this in my letter,

I believe that this is the way that it needs to be done.

- I just wanted to say

that it was a great gesture

to approach us, to attempt

to generate an encounter

that would mean a lot for the country, I think.

- My dad always said

that we are all victims of drug trafficking.

You're a victim of drug trafficking too.

You were one of the first ones.

- I think that in this case,

we have nothing to complain about.

We should be the last ones among all the Colombians.

- First, I want to say that we think

we don't have anything to forgive you for.

The fact is that we actually see you

as completely unrelated to everything

that Pablo Escobar represented, on the one hand.

On the other hand, this meeting,

this approach to us is a starting point

in the search for justice, in search for truth.

- I'm the only one who can speak

on behalf of my father's memory.

I believe in divine justice and wherever he is,

right now, I believe he has to regret the things

that he did.

- You are a victim.

And for me, it feels good to shake your hand

or even to give you a hug

and to say to you, let's move forward in life.

Let's take the right path.

Let's hope this gesture really contributes

to having a better country,

a country much better than the one we grew up in,

at least during our childhood.

- [Narrator] A few days later,

Sebastian went to Medellin

where for the first time he visited his father's grave.

(gentle music)

I had spent four years hoping

that there could be reconciliation

between Sebastian and the sons

of his father's most prominent victims.

Now that it had happened,

it felt like the start of something bigger.

- What happened to me during these last months of 2008

has been the most special time of my life.

It has been the time that I've enjoyed the most,

the one that has given me freedom

and the one that has taken the burden off of my back.

Every teenager, every young guy wants to be Pablo Escobar.

They don't know why or what he did.

They don't know the story, but they still,

they wanna be Pablo.

They all want to be Pablo.

But if they knew it, they wouldn't dare to repeat it.

(singing in foreign language)

Why am I not a drug lord?

Because I was with my father.

I was by my father's side, hiding.

We had millions of dollars in cash in the room,

but we were starving to death

because the police were outside the house

where we were hiding,

looking for him during a whole week, and we ran out of food.

That's when I understood the fact

that drug money is completely useless.

If you can't even use it to buy a pound of rice,

then, so the only thing

we could use it for was to fuel the fireplace.

(gentle music) (waves crashing)

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)

(gentle music continues)