President Ivan Duque is set to kill more people than Pablo Escobar, which raises the question what exactly makes him morally superior to Colombia’s most infamous narcoterrorist.
I wouldn’t dare deny that Escobar was a terrorist – he got like 3,000 to 4,000 people killed.
Former President Juan Manuel Santos got a lot more people killed as defense minister and president, yet he got a Nobel Peace Prize.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, a former cartel associate, got even more people killed. He was given a Medal of Honor.
I always found it odd that Escobar has a neighborhood named after him in Medellin until Uribe got his Medal of Honor and Santos got his Nobel Peace prize.
Being responsible for piles of dead Colombians apparently is no big thing, because someone will always find a justification.
Escobar gave Medellin a bunch of football fields, Uribe fought terrorism and Santos took the decision to stop killing Colombians.
Maybe Duque will get the John Bates Clark Medal for drastically lowering Colombia’s poverty and unemployment rates, despite ignoring the country’s healthcare system before exposing the population to a potentially fatal virus.
So far, the piles of dead Colombians that got the narcos and presidents their recognition never seemed to bother anyone – they just don’t matter.
I too will die and quickly be forgotten, some random guy disdainfully told me the other week. I thought this was quite redundant, being a journalist in Colombia during a pandemic and without health insurance.
In fact, I’m in a country where the rule is to deny people the right to life or to commemorate the dead, particularly those who were killed on the watch of patriots like Escobar, Santos, Uribe, Mono Jojoy or Carlos Castaño.
Anyone who has the audacity to defend life as if we matter, or tries to commemorate the dead as if they mattered, will die too.
So hail, Duque, those who are about to die salute you.