Cribs of the rich and dangerous
The cribs of Colombia’s rich and dangerous are to become tourist attractions thanks to new tougher legislation on the confiscation of properties owned by the country’s powerful drug barons.
Handed the task of maintaining thousands of opulently decorated mansions, many or which were built with blood stained drug money, government figures have said they would like these shrines to cocaine to become tourist attractions to help pay for the cost of their upkeep.
A handful of the luxurious former shag-pads of the country’s capos have already made it into some of the country’s unofficial tourist guidebooks.
The famous Napoles ranch – owned by the daddy of the former cartel bosses, Pablo Escobar – fully equipped with zoo, opened the way, followed by the 3,000-acre ranch of his number two in Bogota, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.
Gacha, or the ‘Mexican’s’ properties in Isla Palma in the archipelago of San Bernardo and a host of lavish beach houses in San Andres now form part of the country’s leading hotel chain, Decameron.
The master bedroom of his pad in Isla Palma was designed to sleep more than 50 for those intimate evenings at home with friends and family.
A giant Jacuzzi at the end of the pier, where the yachts of his associates would berth for his infamous weekend parties accommodated up to 40 close friends.
Gacha’s properties in San Andres are some of the most extravagant beach-front properties in the country, lavished in marble and sporting spectacular swimming pools and beaches.
Meanwhile his Hope Ranch, some 70 km north of Bogota, has been open to tourism for a year. Until last month, there was also a fully functional gold mine operating on the property.
Tastefully decorated in the form of a ship, the maritime theme of the park has attracted thousands of visitors prepared to pay the $0.90 entrance fee to help the government maintain the property.
Since the hardline president Alvaro Uribe Velez passed new laws on the capture of properties of drug smugglers and money launderers the government has been presented the headache of what to do with more than 1,000 confiscated properties. His government has appropriated assets worth more than $200m but has yet to find ways to make them work for the Colombian people.
The latest batch of luxury beach pads, office buildings and yachts to be arrested by the authorities were those of the Orejuela family who run the most powerful cartel in Colombia today, in Cali. Uribe ordered the arrest of more than 250 different assets of the family in May.
As the list of properties mounts, the tourist appeal of such a portfolio is mounting.
Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas, director of Colombia's National Drug Directorate, which oversees the drug property seizures said recently: "I'd like to see Colombia become a type of museum of crime.
"People are attracted by the drug trade, and they enjoy coming to places like this (Hope Ranch)."
By Benny Blanco
2004-09-09 04:09:23