In war against "narcotics", Colombia demolished an emblematic building of Pablo Escobar

BLACK SYMBOL IN MEDELLIN

"The great references that our children must know (…) are those who represent values ​​and not anti-values," said the mayor of Medellín before the demolition. [ Ver fotogalería ]

(23/02/2019) A controlled detonation demolished on Friday the building of Monaco, the former fortress of the deceased. narcotrafic Pablo Escobar in Medellín, in another battle of the war that Colombia waged against the so-called "narcotism" and the glorification of the figure of this capo that has caused tens of thousands of deaths. On its ruins, a monument will now be erected to commemorate the victims of narcoterrorism who bled Colombia for almost a decade.

Although one sector of society is opposed to demolition, the government is launching a campaign to explain that this is not "erase history" but "transform it". This act "means the defeat of the culture of illegality (…) This means that the story will not be written according to the authors," said Colombian President Iván Duque a few hours before the demolition . The new 5,000 square meter space will give tribute to the victims of "narco-terrorism", as it is known the unending truce of cartels against the state in the 80s and 90s.

Twenty-five years after Escobar's death at the hands of the police, the jagged skeleton of his former home remained a mandatory stop on the tourist routes. Every day, groups of spectators visited the unoccupied white bunker that the cocaine baron had built in El Poblado, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Medellín. As part of the government initiative, since 2018, visitors had been a building covered with posters reminding journalists, civilians or judges killed by order of the capo. "Respect our pain, honor our victims (1983-1994) 46,612 fewer lives," read one of the warnings that covered the building until last week.

Narcohérence

MEDELLIN. In the streets of the city, Pablo Escobar is omnipresent in stamps, mugs, t-shirts, keyrings and all kinds of souvenirs made by informal merchants and offered to a large part of the 1.9 million visitors that the city has received in recent years. two years.

The Monaco building was also a reference for the first car bomb that exploded in Colombia. In 1988, the Cali cartel attacked the structure, with Escobar and his family in the interior. The blast hit the ear of the drug lord's daughter and unleashed a bloody war between cartels. The attack also harmed the ego of this narcotics trafficker, as the explosives damaged his valuable collections of cars and art.

"Curiously, the Monaco building is the only place where Pablo Escobar was a victim," says Alonso Salazar, former mayor of Medellín and author of the book "The parable of Pablo". "Destroying material goods is relatively easy, the most difficult thing we have to do is to rebuild ourselves into a society where legality and ethics are stronger," he added.

al "The crime of Da Vinci", As one of his victims called it, former vice president Francisco Santos, kidnapped by the Medellín cartel, is accused of having installed in the Colombian imagination the "narco culture". As part of this fight against the capo's shadow, the replica of the small plane in which Escobar carried his first shipment of cocaine to the United States was also removed from the Hacienda Napoles. Located in the north-west of the country, this vast farm is nowadays a leisure park.

Pablo Escobar has become one of the richest men in the world, according to Forbes, after founding an empire of crime and narco-terrorism. He died at the hands of the police during an escape attempt in 1993. Despite his fall and that of other drug lords, Colombia continues to be the main producer of cocaine and the United States its main market.

According to the official census, some 1,500 people and 147 domestic animals had to leave 638 properties. For Claudia Hencker, a retired 60-year-old resident of the place, "it's like it's the same," because if tourists came to see the Escobar building, in a few months they would would come to see the place where the building was. "It's like spending money inoficiosamente, because this corner will always be Pablo," he laments.

The cost of remodeling and adapting Monaco was $ 11 millionWhile demolishing and building the park required nearly $ 2.5 million, the town hall ruled out a different option to demolish it. However, the 443 houses that the capo built for families living in a landfill in Medellín continue, however. This kind of gesture earned him the nickname "Colombian Robin Hood" and the recognition of a minority sector of society.

25 years after his death, Escobar "lives"

In this simple two-story house in the Los Olivos neighborhood, police stuck Escobar, although he tried to escape by the roof.

Medellín is considered one of the most innovative cities in the world and is the cradle of successful artists, such as the painter Fernando Botero, the conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada or the Maluma singers and JBalvin. But that was not enough for the second-largest city in Colombia to leave behind the stigma left by the war on drug trafficking in the 1980s and 1990s, and it does not prevent it from remaining a destiny linked to Escobar, whose death was 25 years old.

The emporium built by the dreaded cartel chief of Medellin left in the city sites that today attract tourists, especially foreigners, who arrive driven by the handful of television series, books and movies that have been made about the life of this criminal, killed on December 2, 1993. "The tourists have changed over time.When the (Colombian) series came outThe model of evilMexicans, Argentineans, Chileans and Peruvians were the most numerous. Then, when did it begin?Narcos"From Netflix, Brazilians and Americans have begun to come, they are the ones who will do the most tour," says Oscar Cantor, spokesman for one of the agencies offering a tour of Escobar He scored in the hot city.

To the joy of the people, his famous kindness and this sung accent of "paisas" add up visits to the "Nápoles" Hacienda, where Escobar builds a zoo with African wildlife or the so-called "cathedral", a prison where the capo lived with all the comfort and which is today a resting place for the elderly. The tours, which also include the mafia's tomb, can last from four hours to six days. The price varies from 50 to 800 dollars. Iván Fiuza, a Brazilian who made the "narcotour" of Medellín, remembers that the travel company calls "Do not say his name"(Do not say its name), which perfectly reflects the duality with which these agencies operate: they are not illegal, but according to the local administration, they are not either ethical.

A.F.P / A.P / D.S.