There’s a lot of material about the narcos and the life that surrounds them, there’s series right now like Narcos on Netflix and documentaries about both their lives and the response of the people including the narcocorridos and other cultural representations.
On the series or documentaries their economic, political and social power looks appealing, they make sure the difference in between the people and the narcos is noticeable and it’s not related to the good or bad neither of them have done. Pablo Escobar’s son criticized, on an interview with The Influence back in August, the glamorization of his father’s life on Narcos, he talked about the heroification of Pablo Escobar’s figure and how they use his image to promote young people to follow his steps.
Narcos are seen as legends a lot of the time, they’re portrayed as strong, powerful people but the reality is completely different.
“I could easily have turned into Pablo 2.0, but I found out about the violence and the pain. We had no freedom. We were always hiding. We had millions but we could not go outside to buy a piece of bread.”
The real narcos have penetrated in our economy, social aspects and even the state not only in Latin America but also The United States, our societies are sometimes controlled by politicians who are related to narcotrafficking, even part of the police and judges are constantly being paid by the narcos to keep their business moving and working all the way through America. Territories occupied by the narcos means their residents, innocent people a lot of the time, will live in fear, hiding indoors, surrounded by kidnappings, extortion, violence and murder.
“I don’t think that the United States has an obsession with cocaine, but they do with the huge money it produces. Money that is bathed in blood throughout Latin America.” said Juan Pablo Escobar to The Influencer
A society with such big influence from the narcos is dangerous, the problem is not only the drug trafficking or the killings in between the carteles or those involved, innocent people are being dragged into the line of fire.
The most worrying part is that only in Mexico according to a study done in 2013 by the Facultad Lationamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Flacso) in about 1400 students, 26,3% wanted to be a Narco which is an alarming number. Sadly Mexico has been part of a violent war against carteles for the last years, including incidents like the one that took place in Guerrero in September 2014, were 43 students from Ayotzinapa were kidnapped by the police and turned over to cartel gunmen, four years before that the city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua was nicknamed the murder capital of the world since el Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel tried to take control of the Juarez Cartel.
El Chapo, just like Pablo Escobar have been terribly glorified by the public, gaining praise from the media and the people, who usually see them as powerful business men, glorifying his criminal empires, over passing their violent side and the amount of damage Escobar caused in Colombia, that is still fighting off the rests of Escobar’s powerful empire and Mexico who became terribly violent due to the events in between the carteles.
The numbers of people being killed related to the narcotrafficking are increasing and the money and power they get does as well, more people get involved each time because of necessity or wanting to get a better life but they don’t really have an idea of the magnitude and danger of it, just in the Philippines nearly 1800 people have been killed in 2016 because they were drug dealing suspects in a drug war lead by the president of the nation.
There can’t be development at a place that is constantly brought to dust by the carteles and the narco wars, there’s innocent people dying when these confrontations take place yet we continue creating music, stories, shows showing the luxuries and the power like if they were a good thing instead of showing the dangers and harsh reality of the lifestyle and fighting against the drug trafficking and narco lifestyle.
