😍 2022-09-22 01:30:15 – Paris/France.
A unionized drug dealer in Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Telemundo, which is a new dispute over depictions of drug dealers on TV.
Sandra Ávila Beltrán, once dubbed Mexico's 'Queen of the Pacific', continued the platform of Streaming and the television channel, demanding 40% royalties on the Spanish-language series “La Reina del South”, co-produced by Netflix and Telemundo.
According to documents obtained by Mexican newspaper Milenio, Ávila claims media companies "exploited" her image to promote the second season of the drug-trafficking series. Although Ávila filed the claim with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) in January of this year, the case was made public a short time ago.
In communication with InSight Crime, the IMPI confirmed that this body is evaluating whether the use of Ávila's image has been made within the legal framework or whether there has been an infraction. As this is an administrative process, the IMPI clarified that it cannot be considered a trial, as many international media incorrectly reported.
However, Ávila's lawyer, Israel Razo Reyes, reportedly told Milenio that his client's compensation claim before the IMPI is a preliminary step to legal action.
The images used by the companies correspond to the capture of Ávila in 2007 and his extradition to the United States in 2012. Razo maintains that the use of said images without authorization in the promotion of the second season of the series during a 2019 Noticias Telemundo broadcast directly affected his client's reputation, as he claims Ávila was never accused of running a drug cartel.
However, Ávila, who comes from a family linked to the Guadalajara cartel, pleaded guilty in a US court in 2013 as an aide and accomplice to her boyfriend, Juan Diego Espinosa Ramírez. He was part of the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia and served as a liaison with groups in Mexico, particularly the Sinaloa Cartel.
Upon his return to Mexico, Ávila was also charged with money laundering, but in 2015 his sentence was overturned.
He has since taken to TikTok to defend his innocence.
Do these claims have a legal basis?
Ávila's claims have brought to light the gray areas around TV adaptations of real-life characters and episodes associated with organized crime. Based on a book of the same title, "La Reina del Sur" tells the story of Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican woman who falls in love with a cartel pilot, who eventually becomes the head of an international drug trafficking organization.
Despite several important differences between the character of Mendoza and Ávila, several media have stated that Ávila inspired the character from which the book takes its name, but this is not what prompted the request for compensation.
The objective of the lawsuit before the IMPI is that the agency “issue a statement determining that the violation has been committed or not (use of its image without its consent)”, as commented by the Mexican lawyer of the property intellectual, José Antonio Aguilar, in exchange with InSight Crime.
“Even if there are popular or social rumors or indications that this person is dedicated to drug trafficking, until he has a final conviction, he will be innocent. […] If it is within the legal hypothesis and if it demonstrates it duly, it could obtain a favorable resolution, ”explained Aguilar.
SEE ALSO: "Narcos México": Netflix's keys to crime news
According to the lawyer, Ávila and his legal team would have to prove that the use of his image exceeded the legal parameters for the benefit of Netflix and Telemundo.
But even if the IMPI sides with Ávila, there is no guarantee that it will receive 40% of the royalties from the production. “That is left to the discretion of the IMPI,” Aguilar commented.
And Razo, Ávila's lawyer, told Milenio that the demand goes beyond the economic claim. "What we want is to create a precedent, it is that the image of people cannot be used lightly [...] They know what they are going to stick to," he said. he concluded.
On the other hand, the coordinated legal defense of Netflix and Telemundo responded to the lawsuit, pointing out that as a public figure, Ávila is a character of public interest and therefore is not entitled to the royalties of the series for the use of pictures.
Louis P. Petrich, lead defense attorney for Netflix in Vallejo v. "Narcos" said in an exchange with InSight Crime that, for Ávila's lawsuit against US media companies to succeed, "a publicity or defamation lawsuit would require [Ávila] to show that the public would have reason to believe that the series describes her and not that she is simply inspired by certain aspects of her life.
This can be difficult to prove. The character's creator, author Arturo Pérez-Reverte, flatly denied rumors that "The Queen of the South" was inspired by Ávila. The "Queen of the South" is "a fictional character constructed through visits and conversations with drug addicts". traffickers of a much higher category [en diversos países] and that it was impossible – and that is why I wrote the novel, to make it possible – for a woman to achieve such a degree of power in such a closed world and macho as drug trafficking was then,” the author wrote in 2020, describing Ávila as a petty criminal.
He also ruled out similarities in the aliases they used in the underworld. “Every time a woman linked to drug trafficking is arrested in Mexico, the media there come out on top,” he said.
Petrich also pointed to other television characters and songs allegedly inspired by Ávila, against which she has not taken any legal action. However, these did not use the image of the woman.
A decision in favor of Ávila could lead to a series of compensation lawsuits, lawsuits and stories related to organized crime.
Judges “apply the law; whether it's fair or not is another matter,” Aguilar told InSight Crime.
Similar lawsuits
In a conversation with InSight Crime, Michael Lettieri, co-founder of the Mexico Violence Research Project, noted that the lines between these series and their subjects are blurring.
"Everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie, because there's money involved," Lettieri told InSight Crime, referring to the different industries that profit from the drug culture.
SEE ALSO: 'Somos': a massacre in Mexico told by its victims
The truth is that “La Reina del Sur” is not the first drug series to face lawsuits or to receive threats of legal action.
At the end of 2021, el hijo del jefe del Cartel de Cali, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, announced that he asked the producers of the series “El Cartel de los Sapos: los orígenes”, produced by Caracol and transmitted on Netflix, for the retrato de his father. He also argued that the series plagiarized two books by his authorship about his family.
Netflix's "Narcos" franchise has also been affected. In 2021, the son of an army general and the children of a well-known businessman and politician announced that they would sue 'Narcos México' for presenting their parents as corrupt officials in the series . Similarly, in 2020, the doctor accused and then acquitted of participating in the death of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena also announced that he would be filing a lawsuit. in court against Netflix.
In 2018, Colombian journalist Virginia Vallejo, who had a love affair with Pablo Escobar, appeared in the series "Narcos", also sued Netflix. Vallejo claimed that the producers of the series used, without his consent, several facts reported in his book about his relationship with the former boss of the Medellin cartel. Vallejo lost the case.
And in 2017, Escobar's brother demanded a $1 billion payment from Netflix for the use of his brother's name and story on the show. He eventually withdrew the lawsuit.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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