Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism

Abstract

Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism: Profiting from Pablo documents the story of violence that took place in Medellín in the 1980s and 1990s, and critically examines the position of its victims. Drawing on unique empirical material, the book addresses the consequences, for the victims of mass drug violence and for the present nature of the city, of the commercial exploitation of the city’s violent past. The book describes how the city’s suffering has been appropriated by commercial forces to provide entertainment for global audiences. The profiting referred to in the title includes profits made by the global entertainment industry from the immense popularity of narco-series, as well as those made by Medellín’s tourism industry, which offers Escobar-themed tours, souvenirs, and collectibles, as well as less visible profits made by political and social actors who engage in the global mythmaking surrounding Escobar. The book offers a critique of how the global market economy allows unequal narrative power to those engaged in the processes of collective memory construction. Through interviews with those directly affected by drug violence, we show that these cultural forces have immediate symbolic and material consequences. Powerful commercial actors, such as Netflix, have turned one of the main perpetrators of the violence into a global icon. Victims of drug violence, on the other hand, not only face the possibility of their losses being consigned to oblivion, but are also excluded from cosmopolitan notions of justice and struggle against impunity.

Rosa del Olmo Prize: Introductory Essay

“…She was astute and farsighted in her views about the then growing attention being paid to drugs operations in Medellin and Miami arguing that, 'the whole picture is much more complicated' than many assumed and that 'for reasons that should be explored, the mass media have played an important role in creating a monster image, distorting how the industry really functions and obscuring who profits the most from it ' (p. 110-111). This is a point that is today echoed in the recent work of Franko and Goyes (2023). We should see such work as part of del Olmo's legacy-as much as the work she helped to initiate on ' "social harms" such as ecological harm, food fraud, dumping of pharmaceuticals, violations of industrial security mechanisms, and administrative corruption ' (p. 112).…”