![]() "He's searching for peace for himself and for those around him, in contrast with his father, who sowed violence and death."įor Marroquín, writing had become a psychological necessity as the documentary project for The Sins of my Father took shape. ![]() "That very brave letter took us completely by surprise," says Juan Galán, now a Colombian senator himself. The letter Marroquín eventually wrote to the sons of Galán and Lara astonished the recipients. Then there were the murders, reported regularly on the national news, that compelled the teenage "pacifist" son to speak out. But the other parents at school were too terrified to let my classmates come to visit me." It was my backyard, a 3,500-hectare backyard with elephants and giraffes. "Father picked out animals to buy from National Geographic magazine. Life included normal childhood experiences, such as visits to Disneyworld or a tourist trip to see the White House, but also baroque excess, such as the private zoo at their giant Napoles estate. "At school, I had a bodyguard outside the classroom, next to me in recess or even when I went to the bathroom. "The only thing that scared me was that he never felt any fear in any situation." Despite the family's wealth, young Escobar had few friends. "I was never scared of him," said Marroquín. Immersed in a new identity, Marroquín was left only with bizarre, private and often disturbing memories of a childhood lived in the shadow of a father who terrified almost everyone he met. "Nobody realised I was the son of Pablo Escobar and I never told anyone." Marroquín's mother went into property he became an architect. The family finally settled in Argentina after entering a witness protection programme and changing their names. "I was called to a meeting with enemies of my father," he said, "and told I would be allowed to live on two conditions: that I leave Colombia permanently and that I promised never to get involved in drug trafficking." Soon afterwards, Marroquín abandoned Colombia with his mother, sister and teenage sweetheart María, to whom he is still married. It was as close as he could get to his grave without tempting sharpshooters. His last memory before leaving Colombia at the age of 16 is of sitting in an armoured car for his father's funeral. For years after his father's death, Marroquín refused to look back. It was remarkable in itself that he had come to the point of asking such a question. "How do you write to the sons of families that your own father hurt so much?" said Marroquín. Lara was shot by Escobar's henchmen in 1984, soon after setting fire to $1.2bn-worth of seized cocaine Galán was killed while campaigning in 1989. "My father called the shots in Colombia," said Marroquín. In 1989, Escobar was rated the seventh-richest man in the world by Forbes magazine. The Medellín drug cartel had cornered 80% of the world cocaine market. Their bravery cost them their lives.Īt the time, Escobar was making billions of dollars as his cartel pumped a never-ending supply of cocaine into the United States and ordering the assassinations of hundreds of opponents. Rodrigo Lara, a former Colombian minister of justice, and Luis Galán, a charismatic presidential candidate, had both dared to take on Escobar at the height of his power, publicly opposing the drug baron's ambitions of becoming president of Colombia during the 1980s. "A great deal of young people want to live the life of Pablo Escobar," he said, "but if they knew what that really meant nobody would dare do that." ![]() In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Marroquín has revealed the motivation behind an extraordinary new documentary, entitled Los Pecados de mi Padre ( The Sins of my Father), which culminates in an attempt to make his peace with the sons of two prominent Colombian politicians, murdered at the behest of his father.
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