Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s crime drama series ‘Baby Bandito,’ Felipe Muñoz AKA Panda is the best friend of Kevin Tapia, the protagonist. Panda is the constant companion of Kevin as he accompanies the latter through thick and thin. Whenever Kevin gets entangled in trouble, Panda follows his best friend to protect him. Eventually, they start to share a brotherly relationship, which gets threatened by Génesis, Kevin’s girlfriend. As Kevin starts to spend a major part of his life with her, Panda gets ignored, which deeply hurts his feelings. Even though the Chilean show is based on a true story, Panda doesn’t have a real-life counterpart!
Panda is a Fictional Character
Panda is not based on a real robber. A boy named Felipe Muñoz or Panda was not involved in the 2014 heist that happened at the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile, which is the inspiration behind the crime drama. Having said that, Panda can be paralleled with Fabián Olguín, the brother of Kevin Olguín Sepúlveda, the real-life counterpart of Kevin Tapia. Fabián was arrested by the authorities after the heist as an alleged member of the gang of robbers who stole six billion Chilean pesos from a security truck at the airport. He was accused of being the weapon supplier to the robbers.
The prosecution also alleged that Fabián facilitated the escape of the robbers after the heist by opening a gate that was located adjacent to the airport. However, the court acquitted Fabián due to insufficient evidence to prove that he was involved in the robbery. In the show, Panda is one of the robbers who actually steals six billion pesos from a security truck. In reality, Fabián was never accused of directly robbing money from the truck. Unlike Panda and Kevin in the series, Fabián and Kevin Olguín are brothers in real life. Still, in the crime drama, Panda is the one who becomes a brother figure in the life of his best friend.
Having said that, Panda’s storyline is heavily fictional. There are no reports that state that the Olguín brothers were connected with a crime family, which is known as the Butchers in the show. In the Chilean drama, Panda grows jealous of Kevin, who lives a flashy life in Europe after eloping from the country, the authorities, and the Butchers who are trying to hunt down the robbers. Feeling betrayed, Panda then exacts his vengeance on Kevin by leading the members of the crime family to his best friend. In reality, there’s no evidence to state that Fabián had done anything to threaten his brother Kevin’s life. The entire storyline involving Panda, Kevin, and the Butchers can be fictional.
Read More: Baby Bandito: Do Kevin and Génesis End Up Together?
