White lines go away: Colombia asks Madrid to remove Escobar poster

COLOMBIAN president Juan Manuel Santos, who is currently visiting Spain after receiving the Nobel peace prize, has said that infamous drug warlord Pablo Escobar should not be “exalted as a hero.”

His comments come after Colombian foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin made a personal call to Madrid City Council to request removal of an enormous poster advertising the Netflix TV series ‘Narcos.’

“Pablo Escobar was an assassin who does not deserve to be exalted as a hero under any circumstances,” Santos said in a radio interview.

The offending poster is located in Puerta del Sol in the centre of the Spanish capital, and displays an image of Pablo Escobar, played by Wagner Moura, alongside the legend “Oh, White Christmas.”

Aside from the clear reference to class A drugs, Holguin has criticised Netflix and Madrid for portraying her country in what she believes is a negative light.

However, a spokesperson for Madrid Council has said that there are no immediate plans to remove the publicity, since it does not breach municipal advertising laws and does not promote drug abuse.

Narcos is among the most popular series broadcast by the online platform, and Santos was keen to praise it, as he added: “As a production Narcos is a very good series, but the problem is that we Colombians lived through the drama of Pablo Escobar and we still suffer from the memory of a man who ordered the killing of thousands.”