Drug lord's son speaks out against violence

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

Drug lord's son speaks out against violence

Sebastian Marroquin speaks in Calgary about the crimes of his father, Pablo Escobar, a drug lord killed in 1993.

Updated: Fri Apr. 27 2012 08:59:04

ctvcalgary.ca

For nearly 20 years, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was the more vicious and powerful criminal on Earth who controlled a billion dollar empire and a private army.

His son, Sebastian Marroquin, was in Calgary on Thursday speaking out about the violence caused by his father in an attempt to encourage the healing of the victims of his crimes.

Marroquin says a lot of people died because of his father.

For the nearly 20 years leading up to his death in 1993, Escobar ordered tens of thousands of murders and dozens of bombings.

One woman, Liliana Henao, is lucky to be alive.

"When I was in my college – I am a lawyer in my own country – the bomb – the second bomb that was near to my university."

The bomb exploded just metres away from her in her hometown of Medillin, Colombia.

Now, Marroquin is trying to atone for his father's crimes and break the cycle of violence.

As part of Victims of Violence Awareness week, he is presenting a film about his life called ‘Sins of my Father'.

"It's a moral responsibility that I feel that I need to do something towards those victims," Marroquin said.

He knows that he can't undo the horrors of his father's past, but he hopes that the act of apologizing does help heal the wounds.

Marroquin will also be speaking as part of a panel on Friday discussing restorative justice and the impact of crime on victims' families.