'Matarife', the docuseries on the dark history of Álvaro Uribe that triumphs on the internet

A borrowed camera, the narrow basement of a restaurant, and the support of three friends: that was all that Daniel Mendoza (Bogotá, 1978) needed to film the first season of the web series

Matarife

, which first aired in May 2020 and reveals the relationship between politicians, drug traffickers and paramilitaries in the last 40 years of Colombia. The documentary, which has had unprecedented success in his country and accumulates more than 35 million visits on the official channel, denounces former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and his alleged links with drug trafficking. “I published three research articles that went viral in the digital medium

La Nueva Prensa

about Uribe's career and his threads with corruption, that was the genesis, ”Mendoza explains one September afternoon in Madrid. This lawyer, journalist and criminalist calls the senator a "mafioso and genocidal" based on journalistic investigations, his own and other professional colleagues such as the renowned Gonzalo Guillén, who exhibits in the series.

The media interest that

Matarife

aroused

led him to release the second season in July 2021; the third will arrive next year. His intention, he assures, is the same as when he began: "Use information to awaken the collective unconscious of Colombian society." In the documentary, Mendoza displays cases of corruption in the history of Colombia, such as

false positives

,

which are executions of civilians at the hands of the Army. The Government granted a series of rewards for each corpse and the agents passed off as combat casualties of members of illegal armed groups the murders they committed. Mendoza explains how in Álvaro Uribe's Executive, more than 4,000 Colombian civilians were killed by agents of the State security forces.

Matarife

also narrates the alliances of certain drug traffickers with the political and economic elite of Colombia and explains the recent history of the country through social unrest, the murders of activists, the silencing of information and criticism of a power apparatus that Mendoza calls of criminal.

More information

• Álvaro Uribe, the political shadow of Colombia

The germ of

Matarife

dates back to the origins of Daniel Mendoza, who was born into a family of the Colombian elite and was a member of the select club El Nogal, a social center where high-ranking officials of the corrupt power met who agreed to operations to enrich themselves .

In El Nogal,

that acts as a common thread in the series,

Mendoza

he saw the relations between drug trafficking and the

country's

jet set

, with Uribe in command: "I denounced him and they threw me out of the institution." On September 14, the court declared the expulsion null and void, a victory that Mendoza celebrates as a triumph for freedom of expression. The creator thus justifies his involvement in the audiovisual product: "I speak of what I know from the inside, with concrete data on criminals, drug traffickers and paramilitaries who have crossed my path."

The series stands out for a dynamic narrative that resembles the

action

thriller

and combines denunciation and aesthetics: "You can inform and move at the same time, to awaken the critical side of society you have to generate emotions in people", defends Mendoza, who believes he has improved the scripts, photography, and music in season two.

The first presented brief audiovisual pills of less than 10 minutes, while the second presents chapters of almost 40. The brevity was key at the beginning, because his series, Mendoza emphasizes, was aimed at the citizen who has only a few minutes on the subway: “I wanted capture the attention of the student, the worker, those below ”.

A creator in exile: "I live in Europe, but I exist in Colombia"

For Daniel Mendoza, the main purpose of his work is to make Colombia lose its fear of Uribe, and that is why he appears in both seasons showing his face, as the main protagonist and thread of the story: “I decided to expose myself because it was the only way to show that we were not afraid of him ”.

The price to pay, he acknowledges, has been very high.

Mendoza has been threatened with death and persecuted by the worst drug trafficking and paramilitary cartels, for which he spent months moving from one place to another hiding in the trunk of his friends' cars.

Daniel Mendoza, on the 'set' of filming the series 'Matarife' in Colombia, facilitated by Daniel Mendoza

In March 2020, when he denounced that in the elections that brought Iván Duque to the presidency there was a vote buying in which Uribe intervened in association with the Caribbean coast cartel, the situation was already unsustainable: “The Foundation for the Freedom of the Press and several progressive senators asked for my protection, but my life in Colombia was a permanent flight, ”recalls Mendoza.

Finally, he had to leave his country last May and go into exile in Europe.

Through Amnesty International, the French government allowed him to take refuge in the French embassy, ​​until they finally took him out of Colombia: “The first thing I thought when the plane doors closed was that I was not going to die.

The second thought was that I should do the second season now. "

More information

• Colombia faces the last year of Duque's mandate without a clear legacy

These conditions were a demonic challenge, in the words of the creator, to carry out the work: "It occurred to me to locate scenes in France, and the plot is developed with a format and a narrative more digestible for the international public."

The first, he explains, was directed almost exclusively to Colombian society, while the second aims to cover a more diverse audience.

"My series is a revolutionary weapon that seeks to denounce a corrupt system," summarizes Mendoza, who laments the current socio-political situation in Colombia.

Numerous organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, verified the police repression in April 2021, where the police killed dozens of young protesters.

The creator of

Matarife

he is clear that "we must communicate to the world what is happening in our country, whatever the cost."

Mendoza acknowledges that doing this series has complicated his life forever but defends his choice and claims to be proud of the result: “We all left our lives on something and I chose to do it in this project for which I had to go into exile.

What if I regret it?

Yes, I regret it every day, but I also know that I would leave my life in him again if he were born tomorrow ”.

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