A central character in Narcos Season 3 is Jorge Salcedo and if you are wondering whether the character is real, the answer is yes. Salcedo helped bring down the Cali Cartel with his inside knowledge of the drug trafficking organization. The real Jorge Salcedo helped separate fact from fiction in a recent interview about the Netflix hit series.
Warning: there are Narcos Season 3 spoilers ahead.
Matias Varela is the actor that portrays Salcedo. Varela, 37, is a Swedish actor who was born in Spain. If you have finished the season, you will know that Salcedo played a central role in bringing down the Cali Cartel and that he is currently in witness protection in the United States.
The real Jorge Salcedo revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the producers and writers of Narcos consulted him about the events that he witnessed while he working as head of security for the Cali Cartel. A non-fiction book by journalist William A. Rempel details how Jorge Salcedo was torn by the morality of working with the Cali Cartel knowing that his only option was to help bring them down.
Rempel says the following about Salcedo in an excerpt of his book At the Devil’s Table: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel .
“Jorge tries to turn a blind eye to the violence, corruption, and brutality that surround him, and he struggles privately to preserve his integrity even as he is drawn deeper into the web of cartel operations.”
When asked about the accuracy of the show, Jorge tells EW that the storyline is the same as what actually happened. However, Salcedo adds that Na rcos takes creative license in adding his character in situations that he may have only been a witness or heard about the activity.
The real Salcedo reveals that the gruesome scene in which Pacho Herrea pulls apart a man’s limbs with motorbikes was very close to the truth. The only difference being that Pacho and his henchmen used Land Cruisers instead of motorbikes.
The scene where Jorge is lured into the farmhouse where men had been executed also really happened. However, Salcedo was brought there to secure the location but heard screaming from the outside. He tells the publication that he did not go near the screams as his character does in Narcos .
Salcedo talks about other scenes during the interview and his life in the witness protection program.
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