Sofia Vergara Recounts Her Brother's Murder by Colombian Cartel: 'It Destroyed My Family'

Actress Sofia Vergara received positive critical acclaim for her portrayal of Griselda Blanco in a 2023 Netflix miniseries about the Colombian drug lord. Perhaps part of her success in the role is due to the fact that the violence of the Colombian drug trade was nothing new to the actress, whose own brother’s murder 25 years ago was connected to the Colombian cartel.

Vergara revisited the traumatic loss in a new Variety cover story, where she discussed the impact of losing her late brother, who died in the '90s after an attempted kidnapping.

"It destroyed my family," Vergara told the publication. "It destroyed my mom. It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed."

At the time of her older brother's murder, Vergara was raising her son Manolo, before moving her mother, Margarita, sister, Sandra, and younger brother, Julio, to the United States.

"It was hard, because I had to take responsibility for my whole family," she continued.

In a 2011 interview with Parade, Vergara recalled that after her brother's death, their father, Julio Sr. chose to remain in Colombia until his death in 2009. She revealed that her younger brother also had a brief struggle with drug addiction.

"Now he’s like another person. To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that’s the worst punishment," she told Parade, adding that she planned to send him to Colombia to receive care.

In 2019, Vergara was a guest on former E! show Hollywood Medium, where host Tyler Henry claimed to have connected with her late brother, as seen around the 4:00-minute mark of the video below.