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A segment of Pablo Escobar's once-lavish ranch – a symbol of the narco-trafficker's enormous wealth and residence to his infamous “cocaine hippos” – is being given to women impacted by the country's internal struggle, stated the president.

Escobar, Colombia's most infamous drug trafficker and former head of the powerful Medellín drug cartel, became one of the most affluent people in the planet in the 1980s, with estimates placing his wealth at around 25 billion dollars.

The Opulent Estate: Nápoles Estate

He invested part of his riches in furnishing his Hacienda Nápoles in northwest Antioquia. As well as populating it with antique vehicles and unusual wildlife – striped horses, tall mammals, hopping marsupials and the hippopotamuses – he installed an airstrip, various swimming pools and a thousand-seat bull ring. On top of the main gate, the drug lord also mounted a model aircraft, based on the one he allegedly used for his initial drug transport to the United States.

After Escobar's Death

After Escobar was killed in a armed confrontation with police in Medellín in 1993, his playground was left deserted and became dilapidated. Afterward taken over by the government and leased to municipal officials, who for a while transformed it as a tourist attraction.

Currently, a portion of the land has been given a new use and awarded to affected individuals of Colombia's decades-long internal conflict.

“We have begun to recover the ranch for the affected people,” the president stated in a social media message.

Granting Property

The authorities has said that approximately 300 acres of the land has been awarded to female agricultural workers. The director, director of the state property institution, called the decision “an unprecedented success for the women who persistently struggled”.

“It is tremendous pleasure to finally celebrate,” remarked a recipient, one of the beneficiaries, in a recording shared by the government-operated property agency. “I am delighted because now there are women who have hope, who have land for life.”

Property Conflicts

Land disputes have consistently contributed to turmoil in Colombia, with cartel members and insurgents forcibly evicting rural residents to increase their land holdings and produce coca, the crop used to manufacture cocaine.

A analyst, assistant head of the a peace organization, said that Escobar “purchased and took” the territory and sought to make it an “realm largely autonomous from Colombia, with its own laws and even its unique environment”.

Government Initiative

In May, Petro, the country's first leftist president, put forward giving back a section to farmers. “That hacienda has numerous fatalities that it must be returned to the citizens,” he stated, noting that the estate's “genuine owners” were the rural farmers.

Opposition and Protests

But some local residents and entrepreneurs resisted the proposal, stating it jeopardized the area's financial stability; the theme park draws over a million visitors per year. A demonstration subsequently involved nearly 1,500 people close the main highway.

Progressing Ahead

Despite the opposition, the initiative has been put into action. “The move by Petro was to give back the land, and also the dignity, to those who had lost everything,” the analyst said.

Remaining Issue

Regardless of the granting of the territory, the expanding group of untamed hippos roam on, damaging agriculture and threatening surrounding settlements – a final remnant of the drug lord's domain that has yet to be contained.