Prefiero una tumba en ColombiaSoy consciente con lo que estoy haciendo, también se que esto es un gran delito. La pobreza me llevó a esta vida, aunque tarde ahora me arrepiento. Cuando era pobre mucha gente me humillaba, de alguna forma quería tener dinero, pero ahora estoy metido en la mafia y también sé que me busca el gobierno. Prefiero un cementerio aquí en Colombia y no una cárcel en los Estados Unidos, si me extraditan va a correr mucha sangre, eso a el gobierno se los aseguro. No quiere que me lleven prisionero. Yo quiero aquí quedarme con los míos, sentir que tengo cerca a mi madre, a mi esposa y también a mis hijos Aquí he cometido mis errores. Aquí los pagare. La pobreza me llevo a esta vida, pero ya es muy tarde para mi. Salirme del narcotráfico es muy difícil, porque de mi depende mucha gente. Lo único que le pido a la justicia es que me juzguen aquí, porque prefiero una tumba aquí en Colombia y no una cárcel en otro país. Prefiero un cementerio aquí en Colombia y no una cárcel en los Estados Unidos, si me extraditan va a correr mucha sangre, eso a el gobierno se los aseguro. No quiere que me lleven prisionero yo quiero aqui quedarme con los míos, sentir que tengo cerca a mi madre, a mi esposa y también a mis hijos |
The production of Colombian cocaine and the export of it has killed
tens of thousands of people, but is also feeding the children of tens
of thousands. One simple song by Uriel Henao knows exactly to explain
why the drug trade is so hard to exterminate.
Songs like this — the so called corridos prohibos — are popular from Mexico to Argentina. Los Tigres del Norte from Mexico being the most famous of all. They are basically the bad men telling stories just like Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash were doing in the U.S.
Prefiero una tumba en Colombia (I prefer a grave in Colombia) is not just a quote of Pablo Escobar (who was shot to pieces in Colombia, died and never had to go to the U.S.). It’s also a song that tells the story of a man involved in the mafia. A man, sounding as friendly as all Colombians, calmly and melodically explains how the poverty gave him little other option than to join the immense drug trade.
The man seems ready to pay for his crimes, but in Colombia. “Here is where I made my mistakes. Here I will pay for them,” he sings. If they want to extradite him “a lot of blood will flow. This I promise the government.”
The man, being able to provide for his family, because of his illegal activity can not just leave the drug business to go legit, nor will he hand himself over to find himself in a prison cell thousands of miles from his mother and wife and children.
According to the singer, the man never had much options and has little options left. He will continue his illegal activities and if he is threatened to be arrested and extradited, will rather be killed than to end up in the same United States so many other Colombians would love to go.
