To Those Who Have Much, More

Julio Santo Domingo (seated), with his son and heir Alejandro.

In a nation which still has one of the world's most unequal distributions of property and income, it hasn't seemed to make waves that one of its two richest families, the Santo Domingos, has suddenly become billions of dollars richer - without breaking a sweat.

The family patriarch, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, who died in 2011, possessed a fortune of $8 billion dollars, with a business empire including the El Espectador newspaper, Caracol TV and radio and 14% of the SABMiller beer company.

It was the SABMiller interest which contributed the new billions this week, when the world's largest beer maker, InBev, bought the company for $104.2 billion dollars. According to El Tiempo, the interest which cost the Santo Domingos $7.8 billion in 2005 is now worth $14.8 billion.

The new company, AB InBev, will control 30% of the world's beer sales, including Bavaria's 98%
chokehold on the Colombian market. The combined companies control 61% of Latin America's beer sales.

Don't be surprised if the decrease in competition means paying more for your pola. The Wall Street Journal, no critic of capitalism, says the fusion "prepares the ground for an increase in beer prices all over the the world."

Call it the fulfillment of the Bible's Parable of the Talents: For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Parque Central Bavaria

Parque Central Bavaria is a trendy shopping, restaurant and office complex in central Bogotá, located across Seventh Ave. from the National Museum and in the neighborhood known as the Centro Internacional.

The Bavaria complex has interesting roots. The brewery was founded by Jewish-German immigrant Siegfried Kopp, who built a reputation as a good employer. In fact, he helped create the La Perseverancia neighborhood on the hillside overlooking the brewery for his workers. Today, Kopp's grave in the Central Cemetery has become a pilgrimage site for believers, who call him a saint.

The German architecture is evident on the original buildings. 

The Bavaria complex won several awards during the 1960s as an example of urban renewal.

As I walked through snapping photos, one of the guards halted me:

'Photography is prohibited here!' he told me.
'What possible reason could there be for that?' I asked him.
He stayed quiet, shamed by the senselessness of the rule he was asked to enforce. 'That's what they told me,' he said.

Anyway, see more pics here.

In 2005, Bavaria was purchased by SABMiller, ending 116 years of independence.

A  front view of the old brewery building.

The Bavaria complex's park provides a patch of green near the city's center. 

Nearby, office/apartment towers are going up. Nice to see investment in central Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours