What to do With Narco Art?

Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt at work.
(Photo: Colartes)

During his long life, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, one of his era's most accomplished Colombian sculptors, created works for airports, plazas and museums, commemorating themes of religion, liberty and human rights across Colombia and Mexico,where he lived for 25 years.

But Arenas, who lived from 1919 to 1995, also made one sculpture paying tribute to one of the worst people Colombia has produced: narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar. Now, Colombia may have to decide what to about an artwork which represents the intersection of wealth, crime, art and even sexuality.

The sculpture, called La Familia hangs on a wall of Escobar's El Monaco apartment building in Medellin. It isn't one of the artist's most distinguished works: It portrays sexualized figures standing one atop another, the woman a stereotypicaly voluptuous narcotrafficker's fantasy.

Medellin now plans to demolish the Monaco building in an
effort to change its narco-city image. That's a questionable policy in an era when historical memory is gaining importance. After all, the narcos' extravagant lifestyle demonstrates what happens when a sought-after commodity is prohibited: It makes vicious criminals rich.

La Familia, on a wall of the
El Monaco building in Medellin.

Many narcos, altho not known for their appreciation of fine culture, did collect expensive artworks to show off and to launder their millions. After their deaths or arrests, the art was generally seized and auctioned off by authorities as the ill-gotten gains of criminal enterprise. (However, Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto did recently - and incomprehensibly - win a lawsuit against the government for the value of art and other valuables confiscated from his apartment after the Medellin cartel's collapse in the early 1990s.) Those objects have reentered the world's art market carrying little taint from dirty money.

But what about art created as a tribute to a vicious criminal?

There's no word about why Arenas created the work for Escobar. Did he fear him? Did he admire the man's criminal accomplishments, or his pretentions of nationalist politics? Or did Betancourt just need the money?

According to news reports, Arenas' sculpture may go to Medellin's 'Museo de la Memoria,' which is to commemorate the victims of Medellin's violence. But that hardly seems like an appropriate abode for an eroticized tribute to a mass murderer.

Prometheuus Unchained, in the Casa del Museo de Antioquia.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

'Francis in the Land of the Narcos'

'Francis in the Fatherland of the Narcos,' in Spain's
El Mundo newspaper was not appreciated in Colombia.

,No nation likes to be labeled a 'narco state' - even when there's an element of truth in it. So, when Spain's El Mundo newspaper ran a story about the Pope's visit entitled 'Francisco in the Fatherland of the Narcos,' it generated lots of anger here.

Of course, if any nation ever was a narcoland, it was Colombia back in the '80s and '90s, when Escobar, his associates and his rivals in Cali kidnapped and assasinated politicians almost at will and even threatened to destroy the state. Today, despite record levels of cocaine production, Colombia has left the narcos era behind.

But, altho Colombia doesn't appreciate being reminded of Escobar & Co., some Colombians don't mind making money off of that legacy.

This Medellin tour promises that it's the real, original Escobar tour - and promises to contribute part of its income (but not how much) to social causes. This tour has 'EVERYTHING IN EXTREMES: POWER, MONEY, BETRAYAL, DRUGS, WOMEN, CRIMES, ARRESTS, ESCAPES, HIS OWN ZOO AND ALSO HIS OBSCURE DEATH.' the website points out, before veering away from the drama and violence to point out that many Colombians were impacted by the drug trade, and boasting that theirs is 'The tour accepted and recognized by local people.'

The scale of the tragedy from the narcos era would be hard to overestimate. Some say that Escobar killed 50,000 people, thru bombings, assassinations and general mayhem. Adding to that the other cartels and the general atmosphere of violence produced a homicide rate hundreds of times higher than that of a 'normal' European nation.

Here in Bogotá, the Colombian mafia tour makes no bones about what it's about:

While the 'Heroes tour', subtitled 'Colombia vs. Pablo Escobar', seems to aim to ignore Escobar by focusing on him.

Colombian television has never shied away from making miniseries about drugs, cartels, guerrillas and paramilitaries. However, there seems to be a bit of resentment against Netflix, which is making the real money with its Narcos series.

A Bogotá billboard advertising Netflix' Narcos series points out that the Medellin cartel emphasized violence, and the Cali cartel corruption.

As for the El Mundo article, it was actually a thoughtful piece about Medellin's renaissance and the city's role in Catholic Church history, particularly in the development of Liberation Theology. And the newspaper's editor admitted that the headline was designed to attract clicks. Such is the desperate nature of today's newspaper business.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is Medellin the New Bogotá?

Cable cars sail past the Biblioteca España in Medellin, which is a contender for 'the world's most innovative city' title.
(Photo: Arquitectura Medellin on Flickr)

A decade ago, it was Bogotá which was de moda. International publications loved to send correspondents here to write glowing reports about the city's eccentric, innovative mayors and progressive urban policies, which contrasted so strongly with Colombia's drug-and-guerrillas international image.

Still not perfect: Medellin's impoverished,
troubled and violent Comuna 13. (Photo: Wikipedia.com)

But today La Ciclovia's no longer so novel, Bogotá's Ciclorutas are in disrepair and mayors Antanus Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa have been replaced by Samuel Moreno, now in prison, and Gustavo Petro, now under siege for mismanaging the city's garbage collection service.

Instead, Medellin is now in fashion. Colombia's second city, still known mostly for Pablo Escobar and violent hillside slums, makes a great story thanks to its modern subway, cable cars swaying over those violent comunas and beautiful mountain-top library.

Probably, the shift is deserved. Medellin's subway has renewed the city's image, as well as transporting millions smoothly past traffic jams and dangerous neighborhoods. (But whether a subway would be the best option for a larger, flatter city like Bogotá is another question.) The cable cars and library, besides providing new services for residents of poor neighborhoods, have also helped reduce homicide rates, according to studies.



Coming to Bogotá? A Medellin light rail station.

Despite its stumbles, tho, Bogotá hasn't stood still. The city's expanded its TransMilenio bus system, created new parks and libraries, and cut its poverty and homicide rates are dropping.
Medellin is now a finalist, along with New York and Jerusalem, for the Wall Street Journal's 'the world's most innovative city' award. The winner won't be chosen scientifically, tho: apparently, people can vote as many times as they wish. With that policy, the highly-wired populations of New York and Israel have huge advantages.

Vote early, vote often for Medellin at:

http://online.wsj.com/ad/cityoftheyear

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Pablo Escobar: Tourist Attraction

Fernando Botero painting of Pablo Escobar shot down on a Medellin rooftop. Today, Escobar tours take visitors to the site. 

The DAS building in Bogotá,
car bombed by Escobar in 1989.

There's a tremendous irony in the fact that legendary cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar's story has become a tourist attraction: after all, the tremendous violence the man unleashed made Colombia a no-go territory for tourists during Escobar's reign, and the cocaine trade continues sullying Colombia's international reputation, even tho the country's since become much more stable and secure.

Tourists visit Escobar's tomb, the site where he was shot dead on a Medellin rooftop and even meet his brother Roberto, who participated in the drug cartel, went to prison and now defend's his brother Pablo's legacy. Colombian authorities reportedly don't like the Escobar tourism, fearing that it will damage the country's image.

But Escobar is perhaps the most famous (or infamous) Colombian, making him a legitimate object of interest. But he should be portrayed as the terror he was, not the Robin Hood he pretended to be. Escobar did play Santa for children at Christmas, build neighborhoods for the poor of Medellin and provide jobs - but all of that was paid for by the sales of massive amounts of cocaine which ruined the lives of mostly poor people in the cities of the United States and Europe. And Escobar protected his drug empire with assassinations, car bombings and general terror here in Colombia. 

Entrance to Hacienda Napoles,
Escobar's playland outside of Medelli.

People from Medellin have described to me the fear they lived in during the Escobar era, when any car could contain a bomb and one could get caught in cartel crossfire on any street.

Escobar as a tourist himself,
in front of the White House
in Washington D.C.

Here in Bogotá, too, Escobar left a trail of mayhem and death. He helped finance the M-19's 1985 attack on the Justice Palace, which ended with about 100 people dead, the 1989 bombing of the DAS police headquarters, which killed about 70 people and the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan the same year. In 1989 Escobar also bombed a plane, killing all 110 people on board.

Botero painting of a car bomb exploding. 

Some people idolize Escobar because he defied the authorities - but Escobar was no hero. Rather, he lived in luxury, partying with actresses, while others died and went to prison doing his dirty work. 

 But, like the drug trade itself, Escobar tourism is inevitable. As long as the fascination with him exists, as it always will, someone will fill the demand. And, like the drug trade itself, Escobar tourism should be legal, tax-paying and perhaps regulated. 

While others suffered: Escobar
with one of his many women. 

Colombia is a free country, and those who describe Escobar as a hero have a right to - but open discussion should make the ugly truth about him win out.

Related posts:

Guillermo Cano, Journalistic Martyr

Pablo Escobar, Still Making News

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours