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A portion of Pablo Escobar's once-lavish ranch – a representation of the narco-trafficker's enormous wealth and residence to his well-known “cocaine hippos” – is being granted to women scarred by Colombia's armed conflict, declared the president.

Escobar, Colombia's most notorious drug trafficker and past chief of the dominant Medellín cartel, became one of the most affluent people in the world in the eighties, with assessments placing his fortune at around $25bn.

The Opulent Ranch: Nápoles Estate

He allocated a portion of his fortune in outfitting his ranch in the Antioquia region. Along with filling it with classic cars and rare creatures – striped horses, giraffes, hopping marsupials and the hippos – he built an landing strip, multiple pools and a 1,000-seat bullfighting arena. On top of the entryway, the drug lord also placed a model aircraft, modelled on the one he supposedly employed for his first cocaine shipment to the United States.

Aftermath

After Escobar was killed in a armed confrontation with police in the city of Medellín in the year 1993, his playground was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Afterward acquired by the state and contracted to regional leaders, who for a while converted it as a tourist attraction.

Now, a section of the property has been reallocated once more and awarded to affected individuals of the nation's decades-long armed conflict.

“We have started to take back the Nápoles estate for the affected people,” the president posted online.

Land Allocation

The administration has stated that approximately 300 acres of the territory has been granted to local female farmers. A senior official, chief of the state property institution, called the decision “a historic victory for the women who persistently struggled”.

“It is an immense joy to finally celebrate,” stated one beneficiary, an awardee, in a video shared by the government-operated land authority. “I feel very happy because at present there are female individuals who have hope, who have property permanently.”

Territorial Issues

Land disputes have historically fueled unrest in the nation, with drug traffickers and guerrillas expelling by force farmers to enlarge their domains and cultivate coca, the vegetation used to produce cocaine.

Laura Bonilla, assistant head of the a peace organization, commented that Escobar “purchased and took” the land and sought to make it an “domain largely autonomous from Colombia, with its own laws and even its unique environment”.

Government Initiative

Several months ago, Gustavo Petro, the country's first leftist president, put forward restoring a portion to agricultural workers. “That property has so many deaths that it ought to be restored to the population,” he said, adding that the estate's “genuine owners” were the rural farmers.

Objections and Rallying

However certain community members and commercial operators resisted the proposal, stating it threatened the area's financial stability; the amusement park brings in more than one million travelers annually. A demonstration later saw around 1,500 people block the key roadway.

Progressing Ahead

In spite of the resistance, the project has been put into action. “The move by Petro was to return the territory, and also the dignity, to those who had lost everything,” Bonilla commented.

Remaining Issue

In spite of the allocation of the land, the growing population of feral hippos continue to wander, destroying farmland and attacking nearby villages – a last corner of his criminal legacy that has not been controlled.