….In fact, Marroquin says, he can’t forget about his father’s victims.
And that made him want to do more — to meet the young men who lost
their fathers to Escobar’s henchmen. Entel’s film provided him with the
opportunity.
In the documentary, Marroquin is filmed writing a
letter that went to the three sons of the presidential candidate,
Galan, and to the oldest son of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla,
who was murdered in 1984.
The letter asks how to make amends for so much violence; it struck a chord.
Rodrigo
Lara Restrepo, the former minister’s son, says of the letter: “It was
an act of humanity … and we thought we had to respond with another act
of humanity.”
He and the Galans decided to receive Marroquin in
Colombia last year. Marroquin broke the tension by apologizing for his
father’s murderous spree.
Lara saw it as an important act of peace.
“And
after I met him and I gave him a hug, I thought to myself that I was a
better person, because I was able to pardon,” Lara says.
Lara said it also made him think beyond his own pain to the unsettled acrimony among his countrymen.
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