The terrifying and fascinating story of Griselda Blanco, the cocaine baron who killed all her husbands

“The only man I ever feared was a woman named Griselda Blanco.” These words of Pablo Escobar formed the basis of the pre-credits of the Netflix series Griselda. A key member of the Medellin Cartel, this Colombian drug lord has been one of the most feared crime figures in the entire Americas for two decades. However, despite her “feats of arms”, her strength, a TV movie about the life of Catherine Zeta-Jones (Godmother of cocaine, 2017) and the rapper Bubba’s tribute to him, his story remains little known compared to that of famous drug lords Escobar or El Chapo. It counted without creators Narcos who are presenting a miniseries led by actress and producer Sofia Vergara Madrina (mother in Spanish). The six episodes mostly focus on building and running her empire in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s, but the entire life of this determined and bloodthirsty woman would be worth telling.

A destiny that is all mapped out

Born on February 15, 1943, in the port of Cartagena de Indias, Griselda moves three years later with her mother to the slums of Medellin and grows up in a context of violence that will determine her choices from an early age. Age. Legend has it that at the age of 11, he kidnapped a rich young boy for ransom and killed him in cold blood due to the parents’ lack of response. At the age of 14, she ran away from her abusive mother’s home, became a prostitute and stole. She quickly marries a pimp and counterfeiter who gives her three sons… before killing her. Then his fate changed. In the early 1970s, she married Alberto Bravo, a drug trafficker, with whom she emigrated to conquer a new market, the United States. He teaches her everything, introduces her to the tricks of the trade and makes her his right hand. Griselda excels and develops this pioneering sector of cocaine trafficking on American soil.

He hires “mules” from his former prostitute friends in Colombia to transport the drugs he has specially prepared, hidden in the lining of their bras. He amasses wealth, gaining power as his network grows. From their New York base, the couple gets the Americans addicted, and Griselda herself gets addicted to bazu, a paste of cocaine. Tracked by the DEA, he fled to Colombia in his private jet in the mid-1970s. She joined her husband, who, embezzling the funds, then succumbed to his deadly wrath; once again the Black Widow murders. her husband Also, the series begins with this marital murder.

The incurable drug dealer

1978 is a turning point in the life of a merciless drug dealer. accompanied by her third husband, Dario Sepulveda, she flew to Miami. Physically transformed from her drug-addicted, puffy-faced, boring body, she goes incognito, reestablishes her empire, and eventually rules a world of men who don’t want her. At the height of his fame, a network of 1,500 dealers sold 1,500 kg of the drug every month. He spends his fortune, which is estimated at 1.4 billion euros, on villas and rivers of diamonds and organizes parties for industry barons. His love of luxury is matched only by his ferocious appetite for blood. More than two hundred murders are attributed to him, including many punitive expeditions. His victims include bandits, rivals, but also civilians killed in cold blood by his henchmen, women, and children. “The bad decisions we make in life are either motivated by greed or fear.

Griselda ends up using the same tactics the men used against her, and that seals her fate, said Eric Newman, creator and executive producer of the Netflix series. Some women are so strongly shaped by the society against which they rebel that even in their attempts at emancipation they reproduce the very patterns they wish to abolish.” Ruthlessly, the “coke queen” will stop at nothing to establish her power. he is the leader of the Cocaine Cowboys, who have been pitting Florida’s police forces against drug traffickers since 1979 and for a decade. The carnage was so frequent that morgues, running out of space, would rent refrigerated trucks from… Burger King. “At the time, the idea that a woman could lead a cartel was unthinkable, simply because of the violence and brutality associated with that role. No one thought he was capable of the horrors he was guilty of. There is something fascinating about the worst mix of femininity and masculinity,” says Sofia Vergara, who is Colombian herself and has been running this serial project for ten years. If the production “glamorizes” the anti-heroine and dilutes her monstrosity to romanticize her moodiness, intimacy, and role as mother, Griselda was in fact relentless. Including with his close ones.

In 1983, she killed her third husband, Dario, after the latter fled the United States, and Griselda to make it to Colombia with their son, Michael Corleone, whose name is commemorated as a hero. Godfather. From the following year, the relations of the “coca queen” with the Medellin cartel worsened. his tendencies accentuated his paranoia, and the assassinations he ordered at the slightest dissent angered the barons, especially the powerful Ochoa brothers, who were determined to avenge the murder. from their niece. Griselda flees from Florida to Los Angeles, but after years of tracking, the DEA finally arrests her. In 1985, he was sentenced to ten years in prison, but continued to manage his affairs from his cell. Despite facing three new second-degree murder charges during his prison term, including that of a 2-year-old child, he narrowly avoided the death penalty after a mistrial but saw his sentence increased. Released in 2004 but deported from the United States, he returned to Medellín and stood aside. Not only is the cartel no more, but he chooses to enjoy his wealth discreetly so as not to suffer the same fate as his sons, who were killed upon arrival in Colombia. His past catches up with him in 2012. As he leaves the butcher’s shop, men on motorcycles shoot him twice in the head in the street. Ironically, this modus operandi, which he created according to legend, was his favorite to eliminate his enemies.

Griselda, By Eric Newman, with Sofia Vergara and Carole G, on Netflix from January 25th.