Colombia has lived through three periods of violence:  bipartisan, revolutionary and drug-related.

Over the last seventy years Colombia has suffered from : the power struggle between liberals and conservatives, the war between guerilla groups and the era of the rise of narcotraficking and paramilitary mafias.

In a climate of violence and injustice when it’s normal to despise anything government-related, people tend to identify with icons from humble backgrounds like the boxer, Miguel “Happy” Lora, the vallenato singer, Diomedes Díaz, or the drug trafficker, Pablo Escobar.

This is how drug traffickers have imposed their style and ethics on Colombian society, where “narco culture” came from and how, by the latter half of the 20th century, this culture became more than embedded in society.

 

 

During the Eighties there was a strong linguistic and cultural bond with Mexico, mainly due to musical and cinematic productions that were hugely popular across Latin America, especially Ranchera and Corrido.

The Corrido was originally revolutionary and their lyrics told of heroic deeds from the Mexican Revolution. However, as time went on, these songs became odes to the exploits of Mexican and Colombian drug lords.

The narcotraffickers were brave, fearless people who shared their huge fortunes with their friends and donated money to the poor. They also “employed” youths as contract killers. In their heyday they created a false economy so that their free trade enterprises wouldn’t affect local capital. And because they were creating so much money, the resulting violence was tolerated. All these tales are told in the Corridos which exalt their boastful “noone dare mess with me”  and “I can take anyone” attitude.

In some ways the Vallenato does the same thing. Although its roots are three traditional rhythms (puya, merengue and paseo), the Vallenato was financed by the paramilitaries who also wanted the stories of their exploits in the drug trade and the war to be told.

 

 

Their appearance betrayed a lcertain ack of judgement with respect to art, fashion etc… They decorated their houses in eclectic styles which many would call “bad taste” while their women would dress in bizarre fashions and sign up for plastic surgery like famous celebrities.

The upper and middle classes like to combine their drugs with rock, techno music, Salsa and sometimes Vallenato (a juvenile, petite bourgeoisie version known as Neovallenato). The Corrido belongs exclusively to the masses and to anyone involved in the mafias.

The ethics and aesthetic of the mafias are extolled on radio, TV soap operas and on billboards. Narco culture is on display in all the most common public places: bars, buses, shopping centres, on the front of people’s houses and in windows.

This doesn’t only happen in towns but in the countryside as well and across social classes. It’s not unusual to hear of models or TV celebrities going out with drug lords or prostituting themselves for huge amounts of money.

Getting your teeth fixed, a boob or nose job are increasingly common among the middle classes. From an ethics standpoint, as a result of watching TV soap operas, families are increasingly impressed by arrogant, braggadocious posturing. This is how Colombian society became impregnated by narco culture, which is both popular and media-driven at the same time as the lines separating the two are not well defined.

If during the 20th century narco ethics still stood for transgression against an exclusive system to some degree, by the 21st there was nothing anti-establishment about their attitude : now this same attitude is promoted to an extent by the government itself.

 


This process is explained by Óscar Mejía Quintana in his article about Colombia’s democratic culture. A generalised hatred of the FARC and the traditional parties was the result of the failure of the 1999 peace process.

The country’s deep-seated conservatism led to the election of Álvaro Uribe Vélez as president and the sacrifice of constitutional guarantees and freedom of expression. This included governmental authoritarianism and the legitimisation of the culture of strength, a return to arms and intolerance. While not new to Colombian society, these values were legitimised by the election of Uribe.

It’s not unusual to see how these values persist today in everyday situations. Irrespective of social class, many families teach their sons the ideals of being “macho, defiant, pushy, passionate, strong”.

Against a background of social exclusion, promoting these values incites urban violence and may explain the growing arrogant self-confidence of the guerillas, whose role today is not so different from that of the narcotraffickers and paramilitaries who were supposed to have been exterminated from Colombian society, but who, in reality, still survive.