Diario Extra – Demolition of Monaco, symbol of the power of Pablo Escobar

Medellin, Colombia. (EFE) – The Monaco building, symbol of the power and ostentation of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, located in one of the affluent neighborhoods of Medellín, will be demolished this Friday, twenty-five years after the death of the capo, to close a painful chapter of this Colombian city.

Dozens of experts have been working for several days to prepare for the implosion of the eight-story building that was the residence of Escobar and his family and which, since his death on November 2, 1993, has attracted tourists in the "narcotours".

In the area occupied by the building, in the area of ​​El Poblado, a park will be built in memory of the victims of narcoterrorism with which Escobar attempted to subjugate society and the Colombian state in the 80s and 90s of the last century. .

"It was the home of Escobar and his family, and we will dismantle this building to build the first memorial to be held in Medellin in the honor of the victims," ​​Efe Manuel Villa told reporters. , private secretary of the office of the mayor of Medellin.

The head of the demolition project in Monaco said the goal was to start telling the story of the "right side" of the fall of the "symbol of the aggressors and the illegality".

This building, which is now in ruins, was the residence of the chief of the drug cartel in Medellín and the target of a car bomb attack committed in 1988 by the rivals of the Cali cartel, in one of the bloodiest episodes of the city.

Escobar chose the district of Santa María de los Ángeles, part of El Poblado, as the construction site of Monaco in 1986, named in honor of the principality, and residence of several of his parents and bodyguards.

Besides the 12 apartments, two swimming pools, 34 parking spaces and a football pitch, the boss ordered the construction of a two-level penthouse in the 5,000-square-meter property where he lived with his wife and his two children.

The war between the cartels of Medellin and Cali left traces in this building because of the terrorist attack of January 13, 1988, which left three dead and ten wounded and left in the open, among the ruins of the property, a collection of dozens of cars. Sports Escobar.

After the attack, the corporal left his bunker, which was later the headquarters of the Christian Association of Assistance and Rehabilitation (Asocar) and the National Narcotics Directorate, an entity that administers goods confiscated from drug traffickers.

It also became the administrative and financial headquarters of the Colombian prosecutor's office, which, in 2000, carried the explosion of another bomb, directed on this occasion against members of the body of investigation technique (CTI) of this entity.

In 2008, the Monaco was the subject of an expropriation process and was handed over to the Colombian police, for ten years after pbading into the hands of the mayor's office of Medellín as part of from an agreement with the Society of Special Property (SAE), which ultimately allowed the creation of the demolition.

The implosion scheduled for Friday, which will reduce the rubble in just three seconds, is part of the initiative "Medellín embraces its history", led by local authorities to pay tribute to the victims of narco-terrorism in the city .

According to Federico Gutiérrez, Mayor of Medellín, the reconstruction of this "ruined" building would require an investment of about 40,000 million pesos (about $ 12.8 million), "ten times more than what it will cost. demolition and construction of the park.

"It is not enough to erase the story, but to come back to tell it on the right side, on the side of the victims," ​​Gutiérrez said of the demolition of Monaco, Escobar Fortress that will cease to attract tourism, rejected by the mayor and the city openly

In the call for demolition, the mayor recalls that in 1991 Medellin was "the most violent city in the world", with 381 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, and that its inhabitants lived "in the midst of fear and fear, but past what makes our present so precious. "

"Today, Medellín is fascinating because it has resurfaced and changed and today we are an example of innovation and social inclusion and we continue to progress in the processes of urban renewal that allows us to build a city based on trust, "he added.

For Lucero Gómez Restrepo, a resident of the area, "it is time to abandon narcotism in an abandoned building, with which many people have the example of Escobar".

The Corporado organization, which brings together the residents of El Poblado, also stressed that it was "very important that the building be demolished", so that it "ceases to be a reference in the field of drug trafficking" in a city that is an example of innovation and security. resilience