The family of Pablo Escobar sued Colombian television network Caracol and newspaper El Espectador because a hit TV series based on the late drug lord’s life and articles published about him “damaged Escobar’s good name.”
Escobar’s sister Luz Maria filed a lawsuit claiming television network Caracol never received permission to include her family’s characters in the popular series “Pablo Escobar: The Boss of Evil” that premiered in late May, breaking Colombian television records. The drug lord’s family also sued newspaper El Espectador for publishing two articles chronicling Escobar’s violent crusade against the state in the 1980s arguing they violated the integrity of Escobar’s family, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Escobar demanded El Espectador rectifies the two articles and Caracol suspends the tv series until her family had access to the scripts and authorized the parts where they were mentioned.
According to El Espectador, the lawsuit was filed in June but was denied on Sunday by a Medellin judge. The court said it couldn’t find any evidence that the TV series presented any “irremediable prejudice or imminent harm” against Escobar’s family.
El Espectador defended the articles “The Evil in Person” and “Serial Killer”, that were part of the lawsuit, arguing the facts presented were common knowledge and did not violate the right to privacy of Escobar’s family.
“It’s curious that the family of Escobar tries now to wash the good name of such a character,” El Espectador editor-in-chief Fidel Cano Correa told RCN Radio. “We hope that this case doesn’t get repeated. It’s ridiculous… with an article where we remember the acts of Escobar in the 80s we don’t damage the good name of the lord of terror.”