My whole life I saw how the violence my father created had come back to my family and I thought that I would only make things worse for my mother and my sister if I sought to avenge my father. I had to dare to take a path of peace.

What we experience in Colombia is fratricide, we fight ourselves and it demonstrates the priority of hatred over peace and reconciliation.

For every stone that [Pablo Escobar] threw, he would get many thrown back at him and us, his family, because we were the most vulnerable. In these types of extreme situations, we learned about the consequences of violence and that is why we did not go down the same path.

I think one has to be aware that a change needs to be made to improve one's life and then there will always be alternatives and choices that can lead you away from a life of violence.

I am convinced that we all have the decision to act on a daily basis.

It was very difficult to go farther than that in the arguments with my father because he would always have a story or a justification to tell you, which I never considered valid because there is not an excuse for violence.

Sadly, [Pablo Escobar] ended up throwing away the one opportunity he had. I naively thought, as a son and as many other Colombians, that he would take this opportunity to make amends with the country.