Will Columbia Ban Pablo Escobar be memorable?

A proposed regulation within the Congress of Columbia makes an attempt to ban the sale of products celebrating former drug Lord Pablo Escobar. But opinion is split on it.

On Monday, 27 November 1989, Gonzalo Rosas was in a faculty in Bogota's Colombian capital, when a instructor took him out of the category to present some disastrous information.

His father, often known as Gonzalo, died in an aircraft crash that morning.

Mr. Rosas says, “I remember looking at my mother and grandmother, crying, crying,”. “It was a very sad day.”

After a couple of minutes after the take -off, an explosion on the Board Avianka Flight 203 killed 107 passengers and crew, in addition to three folks on the bottom.

The explosion was not an accident. It was a deliberate bomb assault by Pablo Escobar and his Medalin Cartel.

While an period outlined by drug wars, bombing, kidnapping and an sky excessive homicide charge has been largely transformed into Colombia's previous, not the heritage of Escobar.

The infamous prison, who was killed by safety forces in 1993, has achieved a sect -like place worldwide, immortal in books, music and TV displays such because the Netflix sequence Narcos.

In Colombia, his title and face are primarily adorned on Mug, Kichen and T-shirts in vacationer outlets for keen guests.

But a proposed regulation in Colombia's Congress is making an attempt to vary it.

The invoice needs to ban Escobar items – and amongst different convicted criminals – to assist get rid of the glory of a drug boss who was central in world cocaine commerce and was extensively liable for not less than 4,000 murders.

Juan Sebastian Gomez, a Congress member and co-author, says, “Tough issues that are part of our country's history and memory, they cannot be sold just a T-shirt, or a sticker on a road corner.” . “

The proposed law will prohibit sale, as well as to use and carry clothes and objects promoting criminals including Escobar. This will mean a fine for those who violated the rules, and a temporary suspension of businesses.

Many sellers selling the goods claim that a law that banned this goods will harm their livelihood.

“It's horrible. We have the precise to work, and these pablo t-shirts particularly promote effectively,” Joanna Montoya, which is a popular tourist field of Medelin, a popular tourist area of ​​Komuna 13 He is the owner of the stall.

Escobar's hometown Medeline was known as the “most harmful metropolis on the earth” in the late 80s and early 90s due to drug wars and violence associated with the armed conflict of Colombia.

Today it has been revived in a center of innovation and tourism, eager to cash in the influx of visitors with vendors who are willing to take souvenirs – some belong to Escobar.

“This Escobar items profit many households right here – it maintains us. It helps us pay our lease, purchase meals, takes care of our youngsters,” Ms. Montaya says, who says herself And supports her young daughter.

Ms. Montoya says that at least 15% of her sales comes from Escobar products, but some vendors told the BBC that it is 60% for her.

If the bill is approved, the sellers will have a defined time period to familiarize themselves with the new rules and to phase their escore stock.

“We will want an an infection section so that individuals can cease promoting these merchandise and exchange them with others,” says Congress Gomez. He says that Colombia has more interesting things than drug Lords, and association with Escobar has tarnished the country abroad.

Some of the T -shirts, sold for approximately £ 5, tolerate a catchfrase associated with Escobar – “Silver or lead?”. It is a symbol of the option that the Cartel Boss gave to those who pose a threat to their criminal operations: a bribe or be killed.

Shop assistant Maria Suarez believes that the benefit from the sale of escore goods is not moral.

She says, “We want this ban. She has carried out horrible work and these souvenirs are issues that shouldn’t be current,” she says, stating that she feels uncomfortable stocked. .

Escobar and his Medalin Cartel are believed to be at one point that they were entering 80% of cocaine into the US. In 1987, he was named by Forbes magazine as one of the world's richest people.

He spent some of his fate to develop a deprived lady, but many people consider it as a strategy to buy loyalty from some sections of the population.

Years after the death of his father, Mr. Rosas remembers him as a calm and responsible person, who loved his family. For that, the bill is a decisive moment.

“It is a milestone within the street to mirror methods to mirror what is going on when it comes to commercialization of pictures of Pablo Escobar to appropriate it,” Sri Rosas says.

Nevertheless, there are criticisms about his proposals. They believe that the bill does not focus enough on education.

Mr. Rozas remembers a day when he met a person wearing a green T-shirt with a silhouette Escobar silhouette, and the word “Pablo, President”.

“It creates me a lot confusion that I couldn’t say something about him,” he says.

“There is a necessity to emphasise how we give totally different messages to new generations, in order that what the cartel boss is, it doesn’t have a constructive picture.”

Mr. Roja has actively involved in efforts to reopen the narratives around Escobar and drug trade. Along with some other victims, he launched Narcostore.com in 2019, an online shop that appears to sell ascobar-theme items.

But none of the products exist really and when customers select an item they are shown video testimony from a victim. Mr. Rosas says that the site has attracted 180 million trips from around the world.

In the Congress of Columbia, the bill has to face four stages, which needs to be passed before the law is enacted. Gomez says that he is hoping that it will promote the reflection of both inside and outside the Congress.

“In Germany you don't promote Hitler T-shirts or Swastikus. In Italy you don't promote Mussolini stickers, and also you don't go to Chile and get a duplicate of Pinochet's ID card.

“I think the most important thing is that the bill is to generate dialogue as a country – a conversation that has not happened yet.”

The Mayor of Medeline – who was additionally the presidential candidate within the 2022 elections – publicly supported the invoice, known as the products “insulting the city, country and the victims”.

In an upmarket space L Poblado, an upmarket space of ​​the favored medeline with vacationers, three Americans browse a stall with a memento. Buys a hat with an Escobar title and the entrance face printed on the entrance. He says that he needs a memento of “history”.

But for the supporters of the invoice, it isn’t about eradicating Escobar from historical past, it’s about eradicating one in all its mythological building, selling new strategies to honor the victims – and overtaking the ache of the victims Gave.