Madrid Refuses Colombian Request to Remove 'Narcos' Billboard

Pablo Escobar is perhaps Colombia’s most well-known figure internationally, but Colombia has asked that a giant billboard portraying the infamous drug dealer for the Netflix series “Narcos” be removed from a central plaza in Madrid.

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Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin requested last week that the giant promotional billboard be taken down by authorities in the Spanish capital, but a spokeswoman said that the banner does not violate any laws or regulations, El Tiempo reported.

Holguin said that the Colombian embassy contacted Madrid officials and Netflix about the billboard which portrays Colombia's image with drug trafficking and violence.

“The efforts that Colombia made to turn the page on the Medellin cartel, on drugs, is something that we are over now, and the vision that the world has of Colombia now is different, but preconceived notions persist, and if we add this type of advertising, then great damage is done to our country,” Holguin said, according to El Espectador.

The giant billboard features Brazilian actor Wagner Moura who portrays infamous cocaine trafficker Escobar with the caption, “Oh, Blanca Navidad,” or Oh, White Christmas — a pun for cocaine, which Escobar made a fortune trafficking. The billboard sits in Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid’s most well-known spots.

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The Netflix series is based on Escobar's life as the world's most notorious drug dealers, and while the series has been highly popular, many have criticized the series for glamorizing drug lords and violence, which devastated Colombia for decades, with the aftershocks still being felt today.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, while acknowledging that the series has drawn praise internationally, argued “Escobar was an assassin who under no circumstances deserves to be exalted as a hero … Colombians lived this drama and we always suffer with that memory. It hurts us to be reminded of it,” he told Spanish Radio.

Escobar’s son has also hit out at Netflix for misrepresented a number of facts from his family’s real life story which does not properly represent Colombia as well as having a political bias against Colombia.

Santos and Holguin were in Madrid after Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway for his role in negotiating a peace deal between the government and the FARC guerrilla group.