I would argue with my father [Pablo Escobar] about his violent attitude and I would tell him to stop his violent ways and to think about peace as an alternative, especially given the many problems he was having. However, he would reply almost immediately by telling me "you are forgetting that the first bomb that exploded in Colombia was an attempt against you, your sister, and your mother - I did not invent narcoterrorism, narcoterrorism was first used against my family.

When I was 7 years old and my father [Pablo Escobar] tells me "my profession is that of a bandido (a bandit) that is what I do" - these are the words he tells me after the assassination of the Minister of Justice ordered by my father himself in 1984 - it's very difficult to react to that when you are only 7 years old because you don't realize the significance of the word bandido.

I can understand how people would despise my image and my father's persona. My father's image amongst the poorest of people, those forgotten by the state, still remains a respected image. Whether we like it or not, my father was an important figure who filled a vacuum left by the state amongst the lower social classes.

It's important to learn from the past and people's experiences, not only from my father's [Pablo Escobar] as a drug dealer, but from others that have ended just the way he did.

What I criticize is the message that the United States is sending to the youth of the world - to those of us who invite people to leave the ways of violence and the drug trade, we are not given a visa but those that sell drugs and weapons, yes.

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.

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.