“NOSOTROS LOS NARCOS”

Y cuando apenas íbamos recuperando un poco nuestra dignidad como colombianos en algunos sectores y con gente del exterior no tan ignorante sobre la realidad del mundo vuelven a aparecer estas películas de narcos, que ni idea quien las hace, ni interés absoluto tengo de verlas y vuelve la conversación a empezar:
– Ah, eres de Colombia….?
– 🙂 　 Lease sonrisa ….
Y empiezan a contar con entusiasmo. Oh, es incredible lo que pasa allá, estoy viendo la vida de Escobar y ….
No, por favor! Y así y todo queremos no ser estereotipados en el mundo. Condena pública para los que hacen esas producciones y confunden a la gente con la realidad de un país, que ha sufrido grandemente con el problema internacional de las drogas,

que tiene miles de problemas por resolver, que está lejos de ser el mejor país del mundo, como algunos nacionalistas insisten en creer,
pero que está lejos también de lo que muestran esas producciones sezgadas, a veces producidas sin un mínimo de investigación seria, y que ignoran sin que les importe la otra verdad del país.

Esto lo digo porque ahora la moda aqui es ver la vida de los narcos colombianos en Netflix. Y ante eso que hace uno? defenderse en la medida que se pueda no? _Oh si, pero es que los narcos en Colombia no eran ni son siquiera el 10 por ciento de la población, y el resto es gente muy, muy buena, trabajadora, honesta, y…A nosotros los colombianos no nos gustan las drogas, (sólo el alcohol)

y allá usualmente sólo se cultiva la hoja de coca por necesidad, porque los pobres campesinos no tienen muchas alternativas de sobrevivir, dígame usted, con esto de los precios de la agricultura, y sin subsidios para cultivar la yuca, y sin carreteras para sacarla, y la cocaina nadie sabe donde se hace,

no es que sea esta una actividad común del barrio y la ciudad, sino parte de cocinas escondidas en la selva…. bla, bla, bla…..Y una sóla defendiendo miles de aficionados a Netflix….haha
Y el tio o la tia que pregunta, escucha,, pero ah dificil tarea que es quitarle del todo la sonrisa sarcástica.

 

English version of the note originally written in Spanish
By Diana Leal

Just when we were recovering a little of our dignity as Colombian citizens in some sectors overseas, and among people who are not too ignorant about the reality of the world, some new movies and television series about “Colombian narcos” or Colombian drug dealers appear,
some or most of them produced by people without any real idea of what the topic is about (even ignorant Colombian T.V. and film producers), and who do not take the time or the effort to do some kind of decent research.

And with these shows, the same old conversation starts again:

“Where is that accent from?,” people often ask me.
“Oh, I am from Colombia.”
“Really!?”
Then some of them make a big smile and begin to tell me the story with enthusiasm.

“It is incredible what happens there,” they say, “I am watching the Colombian Narcos T.V. series, Colombian Drug Dealers!, or the life of Escobar on Netflix and,” blah,blah,blah. …

And here I am again trying to defend myself after the smiles:
“Well, drug dealers or people involved in those kind of drug activities are or were less than 5% of the population of a country of around 50 million people.”

“And the rest of the population are nice people, hard workers, intelligent, innocent!”

“We Colombians do not use drugs as a crutch as much as other countries.”
(We like only alcohol.)

“A small percentage of Colombian farmers are involved just in the production of the coca leaf, and it can be an agricultural activity. Where do you find the illegal part?”

And I continue talking, taking advantage of any good knowledge of the problem: “The real criminals are the ones who process the coca leaf to convert it into cocaine. It requires sophisticated laboratories which are secluded or hidden inside the forest, far away from our neighborhoods and our cities.”

It might look that I am going farther than the movies in my discussion or the television shows; I have not seeing them though because I feel certain repugnance about the topic but I have been in the forest, seeing the reality of the farmers. So, I continue saying:

_If some poor farmers or campesinos harvest the coca leaf, it is mostly because of the difficulties they have producing licit products. There are no good routes to connect rural areas with the cities; transportation is expensive and the customers for plantains or rice pay less than for what the coca leaf is used for. Ahaha….

But with all of these reasons it is still hard to convince someone about something up against a series on Netflix that maybe has convinced thousands already.

In any case if these films or television producers are Colombians how they do not want to be stereotyped as drug dealers in the world with this kind of bias propaganda that creates injustice to a country which has greatly suffered from the international drug conflict?

If they are not Colombians we are not happy with the truculent stories they produce to make money versus the confusion they create about the true reality of a country that has serious problems to solve. It is far from being the best country in the world, but is also far from being just what they show on these commercial productions.