‘Agent Peña, how much do you know about the Cali
Cartel?’ was a question directed from the DEA
Operations staff in US to Javier Peña, the last words of Season 2 of Narcos
(click here for accessing the review of the first two seasons). This story’s
entire focus is on the Cali Cartel, which had a very minor role in the Pablo
Escobar saga as the patron’s main rival.
Javier Peña is
now the narrator in the story and is sharing some light moments back home in
Texas before leaving for Bogotá. He has now been promoted and he has two Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents under him – Chris Feistl and Daniel Van
Ness. This is the first time we get to see Peña as the boss - who plays very tough in front of his
subordinates but actually tries to facilitate easier working for them from
behind the scenes. It also brings out his courage, being in a more responsible
position, he is often seen to take on powerful people within the US Government
and the Colombian government.
Cali Cartel was
very unlike Escobar’s Medellín Cartel – while Escobar channelled his excess
funds to the people of Medellín to gain public support, the Cali Cartel ran
banks and were in good touch with the elites. The story revolves around the
patriarchs of the cartel – the Rodríguez brothers (Gilberto and Miguel), Chepe
(their man in New York) and Pacho Herrera. With Escobar’s fall, Cali’s cocaine
business flourishes even more but then, Gilberto makes a revelation, that in
six months, the cartel is going to surrender to the police under a deal and in
these six months, they are going to maximise their wealth.
The story
showcases a lot of aspects here, such as how the Rodríguez who were so united –
start to see cracks in their relationship as a crisis emerges – there is ego clash,
the need to show who is a superior boss, among various other things. On the
other side there is Peña, who tries his best not to repeat his past of
employing any means to justify the ends but sometimes he is forced to give in.
There is also the continued story of corruption in Colombia’s police force in
Cali and also among politicians, at the very top level. The frequent arguments
between Peña and the Stechner (the CIA agent in Colombia) was definitely one of
the highlights of the season.
Another side to
the story is that of a security officer of the Cali Cartel – Jorge Salcedo.
Cali uses high end technology and Salcedo is an engineer who is in charge of
the security of Miguel Rodríguez. Unlike the traditional security men, does not
carry a gun and instead, watches what is happening by tapping phones, going
through computer records, etc. He wishes to leave the cartel and start his own
firm but is unable to come out of the cartel and the show brings out the
problems he faces in his personal life owing to the continued association of
his with the Cartel.
An aspect that
could have been better was to have focused a little more on Feistl and Van Ness
who were merely being Peña’s puppets. Even Feistl was occasionally shown to be
an intelligent person and someone with a strong sense of judgement but Van Ness
seemed a mere addition to the whole plot.
However, I would
say that this scored on fact checking better than the previous two seasons
wherein most of the main characters were in fact real, barring the fact that it
was not Javier Peña who was involved in bringing down the Cali Cartel as he had
returned to US along with Steve Murphy after bringing down Escobar.
The producers of
the series had a good story to tell, with characters built with good amount of
detail, especially Jorge Salcedo and Javier Peña, but then, one could say that
it was a little too short and the mighty cartel fell apart in quick succession.
However, out of that, serendipitously, there was extreme pace at which the
season was carried out keeping the viewer gripped till the very end.
On that note, I
would award the series a rating of seven on ten.
Rating – 7/10
Have
a nice day,
Andy
Andy
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