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Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord
Title card
Escobar: El Patrón del Mal
Genre	Drama Historical series Telenovela
Created by	Juana Uribe Camilo Cano Gabriel Klement
Based on	La parábola de Pablo by Alonso Salazar
Written by	Juan Camilo Ferrand
Directed by	Carlos Moreno Laura Mora
Starring	Andrés Parra Angie Cepeda Cecilia Navia Vicky Hernández Christian Tappan Rodrigo Silva Tommy Vásquez Toto Vega Nicolás Montero Marcela Gallego Ernesto Benjumea Diana Hoyos Susana Torres César Mora Germán Quintero Helena Mallarino Juan Carlos Arango Alejandro Martínez Julio Pachón Anderson Ballesteros
Country of origin	Colombia
Original language	Spanish
No. of episodes	113 (Caracol) 74 (international)
Production
Producers	Juana Uribe Camilo Cano Gabriel Klement
Production location	Colombia
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	25 minutes 43 minutes (international)
Production company	Caracol TV
Original release
Network	Caracol TV
Release	May 28 (2012-05-28) – November 19, 2012 (2012-11-19)

Escobar: El Patrón del Mal (international title: Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord; also known as Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal) is a 2012 Colombian biographical TV series produced and broadcast on Caracol TV, based on a true story about the life of Pablo Escobar – the notorious druglord.

History

From May 28 to November 1, 2012, Caracol TV aired Escobar: El Patrón del Mal weeknights at 9:30pm. From July 9 to 27, 2012, Telemundo aired one-hour episodes of Pablo Escobar weeknights at 10 pm/9c, replacing Decisiones Extremas. From July 30, 2012, to January 24, 2013, Telemundo aired half-hour episodes of Pablo Escobar and El Rostro de la Venganza weeknights, both sharing the 10 pm time slot. From January 25 onwards, one-hour episodes of El Rostro de la Venganza were broadcast.

Plot

The series begins and ends with his dramatic last moments before being shot to death by agents of the National Police of Colombia, while escaping from a relative's home, and later flashing back to his childhood in Aburra Valley, Colombia, where Pablo is teased by his cousin, Gonzalo, and older brother, Peluche, on a footbridge crossing a creek, eventually rescued by his mother, who scolds Pablo for crying. His mother's influence on Escobar's life choices is portrayed in the first episode and throughout the series, starting with her admonishment that if he is going to do something bad, he had better do it really well, after he is frustrated while trying to cheat on a test and starting a class rebellion to avoid the consequences. As he and Gonzalo became older, they began their lives of organised crime, becoming bodyguards to a well known smuggler and eventually his partners, after successfully standing off with police in what would become Escobar's trademark "Plata o Plomo" approach to dealing with law enforcement – "accept our bribe or prepare for a shootout with us." After robbing a bank and being turned in by one of their neighbors, Pablo and his cousin start their careers as murderers by killing him. Thereafter, the series follows Pablo's adventures and misadventures in organized crime and eventually cocaine smuggling, building an empire of wealthy criminals who contest power, often violently, with the Colombian state, eventually leading to murders of prominent politicians, policemen, business associates, friends, lovers, and eventually common citizens. The plot focuses on Escobar's contradictory drives to be a good husband; a decent, upstanding, Colombian citizen; a politician; a supporter of the poor; and a wealthy, powerful "bandido" (an endearing term for criminal, like "rascal"), all while seeking ever more political power, wealth, and sexual exploits.

Cast

For the broadcast of the series, Caracol decided to change the real names of the characters and their aliases, although some resemblance was maintained between the physique of the characters and their aliases with the real people they played. The following tables show the names of the characters and actors, as well as the names of the real-life people they represent in the series.

Pablo Escobar and his Family

Important members of the Medellín Cartel

Group of hitmen

Cali Cartel and Self-Defense Forces (PEPES)

Members of the public force, judges and family members

Government and press members

Left leaders and other characters

Colombia broadcast

• Release dates and episode names, based on Colombia's Caracol TV broadcast.

Production

The series was created by Camilo Cano and Juana Uribe, vice president of Caracol TV and the series' producer. Cano's father, Guillermo Cano, who was publisher of newspaper El Espectador, was murdered by Escobar in December 1986. Uribe's mother, Maruja Pachón, was kidnapped on Escobar's orders, and her uncle, presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, was killed on Escobar's orders in August 1989.

According to Caracol TV, the series features 1,300 actors and more than 450 locations; each episode cost COP 300 million (€131,000, £105,000 or US$164,000).

Reception

After heavy promotion on Caracol TV and in El Espectador, Escobar premiered with high ratings. However, some people have criticized the show, wondering if the audience will eventually identify with the drug lord instead of the people who fought him. A researcher, prior to the release of the show, opined to Medellín newspaper El Colombiano that the series will not add anything to TV "because its treatment is not a documentary" and it does not address "rigorous academic research. The model is fiction and the victims' participation won't be anything more than an anecdote. On the contrary, this kind of series eventually distorts knowledge about history in public opinion."

Telemundo's July 9 broadcast of Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers.

Historical accuracy

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There are several mistakes that are made in the series, set in the 1980s and 1990s, some of them for example:

Facts and timeline

• The legal details of the extradition treaty and the Supreme Court rulings are different on several occasions.
• Before Pablo Correa (real name Ramiro Arturo Correa Arroyave) was killed in July 1986, José Pablo Correa Ramos, a sports leader with possible cartel ties, was first killed in February, possibly so as to simulate his death. In 1984 Pablo Escobar possibly had another Pablo Correa Arroyave killed.
• "La Quica" and "Tyson" were probably arrested in July 1987, later than Carlos Lehder (February 1987). They probably escaped in August 1988, not in 1987. Allegedly, there was another helicopter escape in Medellín in December 1988.
• According to "Popeye", Wendy Chavarriaga Gil was not poor and was planning on taking revenge on Escobar for her forced abortion by informing on him. She was also not killed by "Popeye" himself.
• In reality, the bombing of the Monaco building (January 13, 1988) happened before the bombing of the Cali farmacies (February 18, 1988 and later).
• Jorge Elí Pabón was killed in Panama because of a drug related vendetta, not by the police.
• Escobar's birthday was on December 1 and the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 was on November 27, 1989. In the series, they show Escobar's 40th birthday first, when in reality the bombing happened first.
• In the series, it is shown that the surrender of "Candonga" and the death of "El Topo" happen at the same time, when in reality there is a difference of two months between both events.
• The capture of "Kiko", in real life Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, alias "la Quica", in the series appears as if it had occurred in October 1992, after the death of his brother "Caín". In real life, Brances Alexander Muñoz Mosquera, alias "Tyson" was killed by the authorities on October 28, 1992, and the capture of Dandenys Muñoz was on September 25, 1991.
• "Kiko" is shown murdering relatives of the brothers of Henrique Ramada and Gerardo Arellano. This happened in July 1992 and at that time "la Quica" was already in prison in New York.
• 'El Buitre' (Johnny Rivera "El Palomo"), did not surrender to the army, as shown in the series, but was killed by them in November 1992, but his character merged with Serio Ramírez 'El Pájaro' shows him surrendering to the Bloque.
• According to witnesses, Escobar and his hitmen flee from La Catedral after kicking a wall stuck with plaster. In the series, they cut a fence to escape. In addition, the 1992 Colombian energy crisis is omitted, which also facilitates the escape from La Catedral.
• Other victims of the Cartel were also ignored, such as police captain Luis Alfredo Macana, the director of the Occidente de Cali newspaper Raúl Echavarría Barrientos, the journalist and news presenter Jorge Enrique Pulido, Captain Carlos Fernando Hoyos and Lizandro Ospina Baraya, grandson of President Mariano Ospina. Neither when Rodolfo Ospina Baraya 'Chapulín' (Lizandro's brother) and his participation in the PEPES.
• The murder of Wendy Chavarriaga (Yesenia in the TV series) at the hands of 'Popeye' (El Marino in the series) took place in 1992 during Pablo Escobar's war against the PEPES. In the series, the event takes place in 1987.

Technology, anachronisms and other details

• When "Chili" kills Colonel Jimenez with a bomb, it is observed that the hitman's vehicle has a "Pico y placa" sticker, a measure imposed since 1998 by Enrique Peñalosa as mayor of Bogotá.
• In Emilio's room (Juan Pablo Escobar) there's an Xbox 360 controller guitar when this console did not exist back then.
• In the Rodríguez Orejuela house, where a air conditioning split is shown that did not exist at the time.
• In the second episode of the series, when Escobar arrives in Cali with his girlfriend, the tail of a Lan Airlines plane appears with the design that the company implemented in the 2000s.
• When "Chili" and "Topo" go to kill the colonel in the town, they are buying a Shaved ice in the park, right on the table there is an electric shaved ice making machine and at that time there were only wheelbarrows and the machines were manual.
• In one of the scenes where hitmen are doing intelligence in an empanada stand and talk about assassinating Colonel Jiménez with a rocket, while they watch his vehicle pass by, a calendar dated in the year 2012 is seen.
• When Pablo Escobar meets with Senator Santorini in a store in Medellín, it is seen that the display case offers yogurt brands (like Regeneris) that did not exist at that time.
• When Rodrigo Lara Bonilla is playing soccer in the yard of his house, there's a ball used is the same one used in the Champions League, a competition that began in 1992 although the scene was set in 1984.
• In episode 52, set in 1989, during a scene in the newspaper El Espectador, an employee works with Windows XP on his computer, when this operating system was launched on the market in 2001.
• In a scene recreated on September 19, 1990, the kidnapping of Dr. Bedoya's sister is presented, where one of the kidnappers is dressed in a shirt that shows Goldberg as a wrestling figure, although at that time Goldberg was playing American football for the Los Angeles Rams, since he was selected that same year and made his wrestling debut in June 1997.
• In several scenes with cars and trucks, there are modern accessories that do not correspond to the period, for example LED auxiliary lights.
• There is a scene set in 1989 where the hitman "El Buitre" is seen wearing a shirt from the rock group White Zombie, a band that became famous in the mid-90s.
• There is a scene where Candonga is smoking an electronic cigarette.
• The US dollar bills that are manipulated by the drug gangs correspond to series put into effect from 1996.
• The Chevrolet Trooper vehicles were assembled by Colmotores-Colombia from 1988, therefore they did not exist in previous years.
• Images of Panama City are shown with buildings built later.
• When Escobar is in the jungle in 1990, escaping from Colonel Pabón and Colonel Aguirre's army, he wakes up his companions because of a goal scored by Deportivo Independiente Medellín by Pato Aguilera, who played for Genoa at the time.
• In a scene set in 1990, in which the Motoa brothers pretend to be cyclists, a Renault Twingo model car appears, a model that was not sold in Colombia until 1995.
• In the last chapters, the members of the search group appear armed with Galil ACE rifles; however, these rifles began to be manufactured by INDUMIL in 2010.
• In episode 2, a Bajaj CT 100 motorcycle can be seen when Pablo arrives in the neighborhood and is admired by the young people, since said motorcycle began production in 2001.
• Several police stations have the logo of the Mexican police and not that of the National Police of Colombia.
• During the delivery of houses in the neighborhood that Pablo Escobar builds in Medellín, in the speech there is a ranch in the background that has a satellite TV antenna, technology that was not common at the time.

Awards

Confirmed on June 27, 2013. The finalists were announced on July 31, 2013. Winners were announced on August 15, 2013.

See also

• El Señor de los Cielos
• Narcos (2015)

References

1. ^ ESCOBAR EL PATRON DEL MAL – LANZAMIENTO MAYO 28 DE 2012, Caracol TV (press department), accessed May 27, 2012
2. "Escobar – Capítulo 29 – CaracolTV.com -". CaracolTV. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
3. "pablo escobar, the drug lord". caracolinternacional.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
4. "La historia como nunca se había contado". Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
5. "La serie más vista en Colombia llega a su fin esta noche". Archived from the original on November 21, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
6. Andres. "La historia oculta de Teresa Mendoza y Pablo Escobar". México Espectáculos. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
7. "All Together. Different. NBCUniversal". telemundomediakit.com. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
8. Andres (July 25, 2012). ""El rostro de la venganza" se estrena el 30 de julio – México Espectáculos". México Espectáculos. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
9. "All Together. Different. NBCUniversal". telemundomediakit.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
10. "Telemundo Video Hub". Telemundo. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
11. "LOS REYES DE LA COCAINA". www.semana.com. May 29, 1989. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
12. ^ Daniela Franco G., Asesino en serie Archived April 4, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, El Espectador, May 27, 2012
13. Pablo Escobar, capo del rating Archived August 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Cosecha roja, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, May 29, 2012
14. Jim Wyss, Colombia’s Escobar resurrected in new telenovela, The Miami Herald, June 10, 2012
15. Armando Neira, ¿Se convertirá Pablo Escobar en bueno? Archived November 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Revista Semana, May 29, 2012
16. "Con Escobar vuelve la polémica". www.elcolombiano.com (in European Spanish). May 22, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
17. "Telemundo Media's 'Pablo Escobar, El Patron del Mal' Averages Nearly 2.2 Million Total Viewers - Ratings - TVbytheNumbers.Zap2it.com". TVbytheNumbers. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
18. Rick Kissell (July 10, 2012). "ABC 's lovers, Fox's chefs rule Monday". Variety. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
19. El Tiempo (June 20, 1997). "La historia jurídica de la extradición" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 15, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
20. "Doce Años de nexos con la mafia". El Tiempo. November 19, 1995.
21. "El clan que pasó de traficar cocaína a ser megacontratista en Antioquia". Cuestión Pública. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
22. Juan Diego Quesada (December 2, 2023). "Alonso Salazar, Colombian journalist: 'If Pablo Escobar had possessed an atomic bomb, he would have dropped it on us'". El País. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
23. United States Senate (September 1989). "Structure of international drug trafficking organisations" (PDF). Retrieved October 22, 2024.
24. "La Quica: Un Hombre Clave Para Escobar". El Tiempo. September 27, 1991. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
25. "Five inmates escape on helicopter runners". UPI. United Press International Archive. December 24, 1988. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
26. Martin, Hugo (September 24, 2022). "Fue amante de Pablo Escobar, tuvo sexo con su sicario más sangriento por venganza y terminó asesinada". infobae. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
27. "Yo no maté a Guillermo Cano". El Tiempo. October 11, 1995. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
28. "No es tan exacta, los errores que tiene la serie Escobar, el patrón del mal". September 24, 2023.
29. ""El patrón del mal": Descubre cinco errores presentes en la sintonizada serie que transmite Netflix". El Comercio. July 6, 2020.
30. "Lista de nominados a los Premios Tu Mundo 2013". starMedia. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
31. "Premios Tu Mundo 2013: Lista de estrellas nominadas". Terra. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
32. "Premios Tu Mundo 2013: lista de ganadores (FOTOS)". Huffington Post. August 16, 2013.

External links

• Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord at IMDb
• MSN Latino official website
• Telemundo Now, Telemundo Full Episodes

• 2012 telenovelas
• 2012 Colombian television series debuts
• 2012 Colombian television series endings
• Caracol Televisión telenovelas
• Docudrama television series
• Cultural depictions of Pablo Escobar
• Spanish-language telenovelas
• Television shows set in Colombia
• Works about Colombian drug cartels
• Works about Pablo Escobar