By Carolina Moreno

It’s Homer, like you’ve never seen him before.
Italian artist aleXandro Palombo transforms the clueless Simpson’s character into some of history’s most ruthless drug lords. In his “Stop The Drug War” art series, he reflects on the thousands of innocent victims killed in the violent struggle against the illicit drug trade, which is now being legalized by the governments that once fought against it.
Palombo’s images aim to draw attention to both the drug war that has caused more than 60,000 deaths in Mexico alone and the legalization of drugs, which has has become a popular topic after Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize the production and sale of marijuana and two American states also decriminalized the drug.

The Italy-based artist chose Colombia’s infamous Pablo Escobar and Mexico’s “El Chapo” as the protagonists of the ongoing drug war that has plagued the world, and especially the Americas, for several decades. The two loathed and adored figures of recent history are portrayed as both criminals and prophets in the art series.
"Pablo Escobar was a ruthless drug dealer responsible for the massacres of his fellow civilians and officers, but he was also a drug trafficker that was in favor of drug legalization, and his idea was prophetic,” Palombo said in a press release. “If, 30 years ago, the institutions of various countries would have taken the path of the drug legalization, would have there been all that blood shed and a drug dealer as powerful as ‘El Chapo’ today?”
In one of the illustrations Escobar is kneeling in front of images of his victims -- the director of the newspaper El Espectador, Senator Luis Carlos Galán, the passengers on an Avianca flight and more -- and later he dons Jesus’ thorn crown and pose to depict how the drug lord had predicted drug legalization.
"They accuse me of drug trafficking. This is an activity that at this moment in history... has been declared illegal... but over the long haul and in the future will tend toward legalization," Escobar said in an interview released on the 20th anniversary of his death.
“El Chapo” and President Barack Obama also make appearances in the art series to show how the illicit drug trade that once filled the wallets of drug traffickers is now generating profits in the U.S., after marijuana was legalized in Washington and Colorado.
Check out the full series below: