Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord

History

Plot

Cast

Colombia broadcast

• Release dates and episode names, based on Colombia's Caracol TV broadcast.

Production

Reception

Historical accuracy

Facts and timeline

• The legal details of the extradition treaty and the Supreme Court rulings are different on several occasions.
• Before Pablo Correa was killed in July 1986, José Pablo Correa Ramos, a sports leader with possible cartel ties, was first killed in February, possibly so as to simulate his death. In 1984 Pablo Escobar possibly had another Pablo Correa Arroyave killed.
• "La Quica" and "Tyson" were probably arrested in July 1987, later than Carlos Lehder. They probably escaped in August 1988, not in 1987. Allegedly, there was another helicopter escape in Medellín in December 1988.
• According to "Popeye", Wendy Chavarriaga Gil was not poor and was planning on taking revenge on Escobar for her forced abortion by informing on him. She was also not killed by "Popeye" himself.
• In reality, the bombing of the Monaco building happened before the bombing of the Cali farmacies.
• Jorge Elí Pabón was killed in Panama because of a drug related vendetta, not by the police.
• Escobar's birthday was on December 1 and the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 was on November 27, 1989. In the series, they show Escobar's 40th birthday first, when in reality the bombing happened first.
• In the series, it is shown that the surrender of "Candonga" and the death of "El Topo" happen at the same time, when in reality there is a difference of two months between both events.
• The capture of "Kiko", in real life Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, alias "la Quica", in the series appears as if it had occurred in October 1992, after the death of his brother "Caín". In real life, Brances Alexander Muñoz Mosquera, alias "Tyson" was killed by the authorities on October 28, 1992, and the capture of Dandenys Muñoz was on September 25, 1991.
• "Kiko" is shown murdering relatives of the brothers of Henrique Ramada and Gerardo Arellano. This happened in July 1992 and at that time "la Quica" was already in prison in New York.
• 'El Buitre', did not surrender to the army, as shown in the series, but was killed by them in November 1992, but his character merged with Serio Ramírez 'El Pájaro' shows him surrendering to the Bloque.
• According to witnesses, Escobar and his hitmen flee from La Catedral after kicking a wall stuck with plaster. In the series, they cut a fence to escape. In addition, the 1992 Colombian energy crisis is omitted, which also facilitates the escape from La Catedral.
• Other victims of the Cartel were also ignored, such as police captain Luis Alfredo Macana, the director of the Occidente de Cali newspaper Raúl Echavarría Barrientos, the journalist and news presenter Jorge Enrique Pulido, Captain Carlos Fernando Hoyos and Lizandro Ospina Baraya, grandson of President Mariano Ospina. Neither when Rodolfo Ospina Baraya 'Chapulín' and his participation in the PEPES.
• The murder of Wendy Chavarriaga at the hands of 'Popeye' took place in 1992 during Pablo Escobar's war against the PEPES. In the series, the event takes place in 1987.

Technology, anachronisms and other details

• When "Chili" kills Colonel Jimenez with a bomb, it is observed that the hitman's vehicle has a "Pico y placa" sticker, a measure imposed since 1998 by Enrique Peñalosa as mayor of Bogotá.
• In Emilio's room there's an Xbox 360 controller guitar when this console did not exist back then.
• In the Rodríguez Orejuela house, where a air conditioning split is shown that did not exist at the time.
• In the second episode of the series, when Escobar arrives in Cali with his girlfriend, the tail of a Lan Airlines plane appears with the design that the company implemented in the 2000s.
• When "Chili" and "Topo" go to kill the colonel in the town, they are buying a Shaved ice in the park, right on the table there is an electric shaved ice making machine and at that time there were only wheelbarrows and the machines were manual.
• In one of the scenes where hitmen are doing intelligence in an empanada stand and talk about assassinating Colonel Jiménez with a rocket, while they watch his vehicle pass by, a calendar dated in the year 2012 is seen.
• When Pablo Escobar meets with Senator Santorini in a store in Medellín, it is seen that the display case offers yogurt brands that did not exist at that time.
• When Rodrigo Lara Bonilla is playing soccer in the yard of his house, there's a ball used is the same one used in the Champions League, a competition that began in 1992 although the scene was set in 1984.
• In episode 52, set in 1989, during a scene in the newspaper El Espectador, an employee works with Windows XP on his computer, when this operating system was launched on the market in 2001.
• In a scene recreated on September 19, 1990, the kidnapping of Dr. Bedoya's sister is presented, where one of the kidnappers is dressed in a shirt that shows Goldberg as a wrestling figure, although at that time Goldberg was playing American football for the Los Angeles Rams, since he was selected that same year and made his wrestling debut in June 1997.
• In several scenes with cars and trucks, there are modern accessories that do not correspond to the period, for example LED auxiliary lights.
• There is a scene set in 1989 where the hitman "El Buitre" is seen wearing a shirt from the rock group White Zombie, a band that became famous in the mid-90s.
• There is a scene where Candonga is smoking an electronic cigarette.
• The US dollar bills that are manipulated by the drug gangs correspond to series put into effect from 1996.
• The Chevrolet Trooper vehicles were assembled by Colmotores-Colombia from 1988, therefore they did not exist in previous years.
• Images of Panama City are shown with buildings built later.
• When Escobar is in the jungle in 1990, escaping from Colonel Pabón and Colonel Aguirre's army, he wakes up his companions because of a goal scored by Deportivo Independiente Medellín by Pato Aguilera, who played for Genoa at the time.
• In a scene set in 1990, in which the Motoa brothers pretend to be cyclists, a Renault Twingo model car appears, a model that was not sold in Colombia until 1995.
• In the last chapters, the members of the search group appear armed with Galil ACE rifles; however, these rifles began to be manufactured by INDUMIL in 2010.
• In episode 2, a Bajaj CT 100 motorcycle can be seen when Pablo arrives in the neighborhood and is admired by the young people, since said motorcycle began production in 2001.
• Several police stations have the logo of the Mexican police and not that of the National Police of Colombia.
• During the delivery of houses in the neighborhood that Pablo Escobar builds in Medellín, in the speech there is a ranch in the background that has a satellite TV antenna, technology that was not common at the time.

Awards