Sumith Prasad
While reigning the Miami drug scene as its “Godmother,” Griselda Blanco ends up having intimate relationships with both men and women in Netflix’s crime drama series ‘Griselda.’ In the second half of the show, Griselda throws a party to celebrate the birthday of her third husband Darío Sepúlveda. As the party progresses, Marta Ochoa leads Griselda to the hands of another woman for a sexual encounter. After the party, Griselda and Marta get together again, only for them to have crack cocaine and kiss. The biographical series succeeds in opening a window to the life and lifestyle of the feared drug trafficker!
Griselda Blanco’s Sexuality
According to reports, Griselda Blanco was bisexual. Former DEA agent Bob Palombo revealed that the drug trafficker used to arrange orgies. The then-law enforcement officer learned all about it from Max Mermelstein, who worked for the Medellín Cartel before becoming a witness against them. “She [Griselda] was seeing the ghosts of people past, and she had a hell of a time sleeping at night. Max would tell us she would oftentimes have these young females that she would employ to come and sleep with her; and then the actual sexual encounters with some of these females during some of the wild during the wild orgy parties that she threw in Miami,” Palombo told The Independent.
The bisexual orgies were not all. Griselda allegedly used to force men and women to have sex at gunpoint. The drug trafficker even fancied having a relationship with Jorge “Rivi” Ayala-Rivera, her top hitman in the 1980s. “She [Griselda] also wanted Ayala to be her next husband or at least lover, something about which Darío Sepúlveda was in no position to argue. It was a privilege Ayala declined, later saying, ‘I told her, “Griselda, I’ll kill for you, but that’s where I draw the line, because everyone who f***s you, ends up dead,”’” reads James Morton’s ‘The Mammoth Book of Gangs.’ Griselda didn’t give the privilege of having multiple partners to her husband Darío. According to Vice, she killed eight strippers believing that they had sex with him.
Sofía Vergara, who plays Griselda in the crime drama, is not bisexual like her character. However, she is an ally and advocate of queer rights. She did a PSA for GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. “[…] we should all be tolerant and respectful of people’s sexuality. We have to appreciate each other’s differences and accept people who have the courage to accept themselves. That’s beautiful,” Vergara told The Advocate about promoting allyship.
Griselda’s Relationship With Marta Ochoa
There are no reports available to confirm that Griselda and Marta Ochoa had a sexual relationship. Even Max Mermelstein, who was involved with Griselda and the Ochoas alike, didn’t talk about Griselda having a dalliance with Marta. However, Max claimed that the “Godmother” was the one behind Marta’s death. “Marta Ochoa Salderriega, first cousin to the three powerful Ochoa brothers, was a primary source of cocaine for Griselda. Griselda had Marta killed for the $1.8 million that Griselda owed her. First, they tortured Marta to find out where Rafael Salazar was. They tore out her fingernails, burned her with cigarettes, and beat her, but it did no good. Marta didn’t know where Salazar was. So, they shot her,” Max told the Sun Sentinel.
Griselda and Marta’s kiss can be a fictional detail created by the writers of the series. Although the crime drama is based on Griselda’s life, several fictional details were integrated into real-life occurrences. “It’s what we imagine to be the reason for some of her moves. Why she did what she did,” co-creator Eric Newman told The Telegraph.
Read More: Griselda Blanco’s Son Michael Corleone Blanco is Now a Businessman
