Colombia asks Madrid to remove ‘Narcos’ billboard

MADRID: Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos warned Wednesday against praising late drug lord Pablo Escobar “as a hero” as Bogota asked Madrid authorities to remove a giant poster advertising the Netflix series “Narcos”.

Asked about the series produced by the US video on-demand website, which portrays Escobar as a loving family man and ruthless murderer, Santos told Spanish radio that it was a “very good” show.

“But we as Colombians lived through the Pablo Escobar tragedy and suffer from the memories” of a man who had thousands killed, he added.

“Pablo Escobar was a murderer who doesn’t deserve to be praised as a hero under any circumstance.”

Santos is on a trip to Spain after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for negotiating a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels and ending five decades of conflict.

The billboard features a close-up of a sombre-looking Wagner Moura, the actor who plays Escobar in the series, next to the caption “Oh white Christmas” in a thinlyveiled reference to the cocaine that the Colombian drug lord dealt in.

Colombia’s Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin has asked Madrid city hall and Netflix to remove the poster for the negative image it gives her country, a spokeswoman for the Colombian embassy said yesterday. — AFP