Bolívar Loses His Sword - Once Again

Simon Bolivar, swordless, on Plaza Bolivar.

In January 1974, the M-19 guerrillas introduced themselves to Colombia with a dramatic gesture: They invaded the Quinta de Bolívar in La Candelaria and stole Libertador Simon Bolivar's sword.

Simon's swordless
sword hand.

With the sort of dramatic, media-friendly flourish the M-19 were known for, they then announced
that 'Bolivar's sword had returned to battle' - presumably for democracy, sovereignty and social justice.

In the M-19's hands, the sword seems to have been hidden in a brothel, in the homes of various Colombian artists and intellectuals, and then smuggled to revolutionary Cuba. Meanwhile, after several more dramatic actions, the M-19's career turned tragic in 1985 when its assault on the Justice Palace became a bloodbath.

When the M-19 signed a peace treaty with the government and demobilized in 1991, its leaders gave back to the Colombian nation what they claimed was the same sword they had stolen.

Today may be a less dramatic and idealistic time for Coombia. So, perhaps appropriately, one of Bolivar's swords was stolen last week, apparently for much more pragmatic reasons.

A missing manhole cover on Plaza San Victorino, which someone has covered with a piece of concrete.

The sword in question this time is the one on Plaza Bolivar, in front of City Hall, the Supreme Court and Congress. But, rather than a symbol of revolution, this blade apparently was taken to a scrap dealer, who tossed it onto a heap of metal to be melted down.

It's a mystery how the sword was stolen on Colombia's most important public plaza, which is

A plastic non-recyclable manhole cover
on Jimenez Ave., near where a girl fell thru
and drowned several years ago.

patrolled by guards and monitored by cameras. Authorities vowed to capture the culprit.

Sadly, the incident was no aberration. In Bogotá, virtually any piece of metal which can be picked up or ripped away from its moorings will be, often by crack addicts desperate to buy another hit.

The other day, the doorhandle disappeared from our house. A few years ago, when I lived around the corner, someone ripped stole our metal plate house number.

Unfortunately, metal theft can cause more than just inconvenience. A couple of years ago, a little girl fell into a manhole whose cover had been stolen and drowned in an underground river.

In a city with lots of poverty and drug addiction and poor law enforcement, this is not an easy problem to solve. But authorities could make selling stolen scrap more difficult by doing sting operations. Since nobody has the right to sell a city manhole cover, any scrap dealer who buys one is committing a crime, and should have his business shut down.

Several years ago, someone stole one of Saint Frances de Assisi's adoring animals from a plaza in north Bogotá. Was the poor metal deer melted down?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

St. Francis' Lost Deer

The wolf has lost its companion. 

St. Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1181 to 1226, became the patron saint of animals and the environment. But in Bogotá it seems that crime, poverty and have proved stronger than the Saint's love.

Since 1983, a bronze statue of the saint with outstreched arms blessing a deer and a wolf has stood beside the Church of the Porciúncula on Carrera 11 and Calle 72. The saint is still there. But since one day in early March the deer has been gone, pried off of its base by thieves who most likely sold it as scrap metal.

This is not Bogotá's only animal victim of the scrap sellers. The Monument to Life and Disarmament in Parque Tercer Milenio has lost almost all of its doves.

See Also: The Sad State of Recycling in Bogotá

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Holey Streets

Entrance to another world? For awhile, someone was living inside this open sewer near Palo Quemao. 

You've jumped over them or skipped around them on Bogotá's streets and sidewalks. Maybe you've almost broken your leg in one. And you've wondered what could possibly have happened to half of the city's sewer lids.

Don't fall in! Someone inserted a cardboard roll
into this sewer entrance.

In fact, many of the sewer lids have been stolen, to be sold to scrap dealers who melt them down for the metal. I've heard that some thieves even have vehicles with round holes cut into the floor. They stop over a sewer lid, probably at night, and steal it without even getting out of the car - and without anybody noticing, until after they've driven away.

The city responded a few years ago by importing from Mexico plastic lids with the words 'Non-Recyclable' written on them. Later, a Bogotá company started making them. But these plastic lids have disappeared, too.

Now, El Tiempo newspaper has lifted the lid on the sewer lid market, thanks to some tracing chips hidden in some of the imported lids. It turns out that the plastic lids are being trafficked to  a hardware store in the city of Neiva, which sold them to the city for about 500,000 pesos each - even tho many still carried the name Acueducts of Bogotá on them.

Please don't steal me! A non-recyclable plastic sewer lid.
This one's  on the street, but is it on its way to Neiva?

An official of the Neiva Public Companies told El Tiempo that "it was possible we were fooled." Or that they kept their eyes shut.

All of which just begs the question of why they don't just do some sting operations. Unlike a bicycle, a cell phone or a stereo, any private person who buys or sells a sewer lid is by nature a criminal. So, why not hire someone to visit scrap dealers offering cheap sewer lids. Any scrap dealer who buys should be fined, and if he does it again, get his business shut down.

That should save the city money - and also the legs of many pedestrians.

Watch out for me!

An iron and cement lid. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours