I think these discussions with my father even gave the label of pacifist, particularly with my father, and he mentions this when he turns himself in to prison at La Catedral when he dedicates his action to his 14-year-old pacifist son.
Throughout the series [Narcos], I appear younger and younger - I don't know why that is particular to Netflix, to show the evolution of Pablo Escobar's children in that manner.
I was perhaps one of the few people that were not part of [Pablo Escobar] group of yes-men because I was not a direct beneficiary of the violence that his actions generated.
To be quite honest my country [Colombia] still shows that it can be intolerant.
The pictures I have been sent that display my father in places around the world such as the metro in Barcelona or downtown Los Angeles, I cannot understand the amount of publicity that has been given to my father in addition to the message that is spread because of this.
Yes, of course my father harmed and caused a lot of damage but both stories are true. He did things to help and destroy Colombia, both are true.
When I started thinking about plans to avenge [my father], I realized I was only going to become someone worse than him, someone worse than the person I had so often criticized. I was going against my own principles. And yes, people tell me that it was a tremendous life decision in the span of 10 minutes but I just say, what else was there to think of?
I think [Pablo Escobar] wasted an incredibly opportunity which was when he stayed at the prison he made, La Catedral. It was the one chance that the government and the people of Colombia gave him to confess his illicit activities and to remain in one place with very favorable conditions.
I was talking to my father via phone from my hotel room when he said "I will call you right back" before he hung up. 10 minutes pass and the phone rings again. I thought it was him but it was a journalist telling me my father had died.
In reality, my father [Pablo Escobar ] always interrupted others to be with his family. My father's priority was always the family.
What we experience in Colombia is fratricide, we fight ourselves and it demonstrates the priority of hatred over peace and reconciliation.
Sadly, [Pablo Escobar] ended up throwing away the one opportunity he had. I naively thought, as a son and as many other Colombians, that he would take this opportunity to make amends with the country.
Clearly, something I am grateful for today is that my father had the strength to recognize and tell me about his activities instead of selling me a fabricated story. I think that helped us build a relationship based on trust.
I did not like [Pablo Escobar] actions because I did not think it was right to have bombs placed in a non-discriminatory fashion throughout the entire country.
What I criticize is the message that the United States is sending to the youth of the world - to those of us who invite people to leave the ways of violence and the drug trade, we are not given a visa but those that sell drugs and weapons, yes.
I did not begin to talk about peace when my father died nor did I begin to criticize him at that point - I did this when I had him in front of me, I was one of his harshest criticizers and I never applauded his violence.
[My father] would be proud, he would hug me and he would be sitting front-row at all the events where I talk to the youth about not repeating [Pablo Escobar's] story because I am a consequence of what he did and I have not changed my stance on violence since we talked about it.
When I was 7 years old and my father [Pablo Escobar] tells me "my profession is that of a bandido (a bandit) that is what I do" - these are the words he tells me after the assassination of the Minister of Justice ordered by my father himself in 1984 - it's very difficult to react to that when you are only 7 years old because you don't realize the significance of the word bandido.
Unfortunately, on my father's side we have a nonexistent relationship. But my mother and sister and I live very closely, we remain in the same city and we see each other every day.
I argued constantly with my father [Pablo Escobar] because I never liked all the violence that he created.
My sister, my mother and I are great friends. We have always valued our immediate family immensely, something we learned from my father.
I think one has to be aware that a change needs to be made to improve one's life and then there will always be alternatives and choices that can lead you away from a life of violence.
I am a good man and I behave well on an everyday basis. It was not a decision of waking up one day and saying "I will be a good person today, problem solved", no, it has to be an everyday thing.
I would go to the office to visit my father [Pablo Escobar] and regardless of who he was meeting, he would drop everything to receive me in his office. In the series, the priorities that my father demonstrates are completely inverted and untrue.
For every stone that [Pablo Escobar] threw, he would get many thrown back at him and us, his family, because we were the most vulnerable. In these types of extreme situations, we learned about the consequences of violence and that is why we did not go down the same path.
