Business journalist
The proposed law in the Colombian Congress seeks to ban the sale of goods celebrating former Lord drug Pablo Escobar. But opinions are divided on it.
On Monday, November 27, 1989, Gonzalo Rojas was at a school in Colombian capital, Bogota, when the teacher pulled him out of class to bring some devastating news.
His father, also called Gonzalo, died in a plane crash that morning.
“I remember leaving and seeing my mom and grandmother waiting for me, crying,” says Mr. Rojas, who was only 10 at the time. “It was a very, very sad day.”
A few minutes after the take -off, the explosion on the ship of Avianca Flight 203 killed 107 passengers and crews, as well as three people on the ground affected by a falling debris.
The explosion was not an accident. It was a deliberate bombing of Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel.
While the era is defined by drugs, bombing, abduction and high murder rates largely transferred to the past of Colombia, Escobar’s heritage is not.
The infamous criminal, who was killed by security forces in 1993, has achieved almost cult status around the world, these in favor of books, music and TV productions such as Netflix Narcos series.
In Colombia itself, his name and face are decorated with wings, keys to the keys and T -shirts in tourist stores that are engaged in curious visitors.
But the proposed law in the Colombian Congress wants to change that.
The proposal of the law wants to ban Escobar goods – and one other convicted criminals – to stop the celebration of the drug boss that was central to the global cocaine trade and is widely responsible for at least 4,000 homicides.
“Tough questions that are part of history and memory of our country cannot simply remember the T -shirt or sticker that is sold on the corner of the street,” says Juan Sebastián Gómez, a member of the Congress and co -author of the Act.
The proposed law would ban sales, as well as the use and wearing of clothing and objects that promote criminals, including Escobar. This would mean fines for those who violated the rules and the temporary suspension of the company.
Many suppliers selling goods claim that a law forbids this goods would harm their life means.
“This is terrible. We have the right to work, and these T-shirts are especially well sold,” says Joana Montoya, who owns a booth output full of Escobar goods in Comuni 13, a popular tourist zone Medellín.
Medellín, Escobar’s hometown, was known as the “most dangerous city in the world” in the late 1980s and early 90s due to violence associated with drug wars and armed conflict of Colombia.
Today he revived at the center of innovation and tourism, and suppliers are eager to bring visitors’ inflows who want to bring souvenirs home – some relate to Escobar.
“These goods Escobar uses many families here – she maintains us. It helps us pay rent, buy food, look out for our children,” says Mrs. Montaya, who supports herself and her young daughter.
Mrs. Montoya says that at least 15% of her sales come from Escobar products, but some sellers say BBC that they are even 60% for them.
If the account was approved, it would be a defined time period for sellers to get acquainted with new rules and abolish their ESCobar supplies.
“We will need a transitional phase so people can stop selling these products and replacing them with others,” explains Congressman Gómez. He says Colombia has more interesting things that could prove to be a drug lord and that connection with Escobar stigmatized the country abroad.
Some of the T -shirts, sold for about £ 5, carry the phrase associated with Escobar – “silver or lead?”. This symbolizes the choice that the head of the cartel gave to those who represented the threat of his criminal operations: accept the bribe or be killed.
María Suarez’s assistant trade believes that the profit obtained from the sale of goods Escobar is not ethical.
“We need this ban. He made awful things and these souvenirs are things that should not exist,” she says, explaining that she feels uncomfortable that her head of Escobar stock.
Escobar and his cartel Medelín were believed to have controlled 80% of cocaine entering the US at one point. In 1987, Forbes magazine was named one of the richest people in the world.
He spent some of his wealth developing a deprived of the fourth, but many consider it a tactic to buy loyalty from some segments of the population.
For years since his father’s death, Mr. Rojas remembers him as a peaceful and responsible man who loved his family. For him, the account is a decisive moment.
“It’s a turning point along the way we think about what is happening in terms of commercialization of the paintings by Pablo Escobar to correct it,” says Mr. Rojas.
Still, he has criticism about proposals. He believes the account is not focused enough on education.
Mr. Rojas remembers the day many years ago when he met a man who wore a green T -shirt with an Escobar silhouette and the word “Pablo, president”.
“It caused me such a confusion that I couldn’t tell him anything about it,” he says.
“It must be more emphasizing how we deliver different messages to new generations, so there is no positive image of what the head of the cartel is.”
Mr. Rojas was actively involved in the efforts to transform the narrative around Escobar and drug trade. Together with some other victims, he launched Narcostore.com in 2019, an online store that he seems to sell items with topics on Escobar.
But none of the products really exists and when customers choose the item, a video of a victim’s testimony is shown. Mr. Rojas says the place has attracted 180 million visits from all over the world.
In the Colombian Congress, the bill is faced with the four stages that should be made before it becomes law. Gómez says he hopes that this will cause thinking both inside and outside the congress.
“In Germany you do not sell Hitler’s T-shirts or swastika. In Italy, you do not sell Mussolini stickers and do not go to Chile and get a copy of Pinochet’s ID card.
“I think the most important thing is that the account can make a conversation as a country – a conversation that has not happened yet.”
Medellín Mayor – who was also a presidential candidate in the 2022 election – publicly supported the bill, calling the goods “insulting for the city, country and victims”.
In El Poblad, the upper area of Medellín, which is popular with tourists, three Americans are browsing a stand full of souvenirs. One buys a hat with Escobar’s name and face printed on the front. He says he wants a memory of “history.”
But for the supporters of the law, it is not about the removal of Escobar from history, but about the deletion of the mythical construction of him, to encourage new ways to honor the victims he killed – and recognizing the long -term pain of the victims of the left.
