Medellin was the Colombian city that suffered the most from terrifying violence while Pablo Escobar was alive, running his drug cartel. Although the violence began to subside nearly 25 years ago, it is still fresh in the minds of visitors (like me), wondering if the streets of Medellin are safe now. The drug dealers' soldiers routinely killed innocent people on the street, in their homes, and detonated lethal bombs in public places. Although most of the rubble and damaged buildings have been cleaned up and repaired, the emotional scars are still healing. My Medellin guide was a teenager during Escobar's reign. Social life during her high school years was mostly spent inside. Her parents, like those of her friends, would not let their children go to outdoor concerts or other gatherings, for fear that yet another bomb would explode, pointlessly slaughtering innocent people -- as a reminder of the drug dealers' power.
There is a poignant visual portrayal of the violence in the form of sculpture created by world-famous sculptor Fernando Botero, whose hometown is Medellin. In the downtown area, there is a park called Parque San Antonio. Actually, less of a tree sanctuary and more like a large concrete, block-wide expanse, the park is a platform surrounded by stores, an amphitheater and transportation terminals. Fernando Botero had installed a large bronze sculpture of a pigeon.
In 1995, during an outdoor concert performance, a bomb was placed in the structure. Its explosion killed 25 people, some of whom were children. In the aftermath, as the authorities began to curtail the drug dealers' violence, the city decided to leave the ripped-apart metal wreck as a reminder and memorial.
Fernando Botero provided a new, replacement pigeon, insisting that it be placed alongside the destroyed version, as a visual symbol of triumph for peace.
We (actually, my husband) noticed another interesting signal that the drug lords have lost their grip. That is, when driving along the high speed freeway out of Medellin, it is curious to see soldiers standing on the roadside just before an exit ramp. The soldiers are fully dressed in military camouflage uniforms, hold machine guns across their bodies, have one fist up in the air, with the thumb extended upward. It looks like they are trying to hitch a ride. Actually, as our local guide explained, no. The "thumb's up" is a signal that it is safe to get off the highway at that exit ramp. Without that reassurance, drivers would not know whether they might be ambushed if they left the freeway for a local road.
There is a poignant visual portrayal of the violence in the form of sculpture created by world-famous sculptor Fernando Botero, whose hometown is Medellin. In the downtown area, there is a park called Parque San Antonio. Actually, less of a tree sanctuary and more like a large concrete, block-wide expanse, the park is a platform surrounded by stores, an amphitheater and transportation terminals. Fernando Botero had installed a large bronze sculpture of a pigeon.
In 1995, during an outdoor concert performance, a bomb was placed in the structure. Its explosion killed 25 people, some of whom were children. In the aftermath, as the authorities began to curtail the drug dealers' violence, the city decided to leave the ripped-apart metal wreck as a reminder and memorial.
Fernando Botero provided a new, replacement pigeon, insisting that it be placed alongside the destroyed version, as a visual symbol of triumph for peace.
We (actually, my husband) noticed another interesting signal that the drug lords have lost their grip. That is, when driving along the high speed freeway out of Medellin, it is curious to see soldiers standing on the roadside just before an exit ramp. The soldiers are fully dressed in military camouflage uniforms, hold machine guns across their bodies, have one fist up in the air, with the thumb extended upward. It looks like they are trying to hitch a ride. Actually, as our local guide explained, no. The "thumb's up" is a signal that it is safe to get off the highway at that exit ramp. Without that reassurance, drivers would not know whether they might be ambushed if they left the freeway for a local road.
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| La Posada, abandoned estate of Carlos Lehder, a former billionaire drug lord in Coffee Country, near Armenia, Colombia. He was extradited and is in jail in the United States. |