Many characters are seen smoking, which was a very common practice in the 1940s and was not censored in the media during the 1980s, when the miniseries was broadcast on television.
Many characters are seen drinking in a bar at noon and afternoon hours. Many of the reasons that generated the riot in Bogota are presumed to be due to the fact that in the hours in which the leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán was assassinated, many people were exacerbated by alcohol consumption.