Outside Magazine

First, the DJ starts playing. Then the bats come out. It could be a coincidence, or it could be that bats like electronica. The graffiti artists definitely don’t like the music; they clear the dance floor pronto, leaving the bats to flutter to the rhythm. I’m using the term dance floor loosely here. It’s a slab of concrete in the center of an abandoned rum distillery in the middle of the Colombian jungle. Dictador, a premium Colombian rum brand, has invited a dozen of the world’s most renowned graffiti artists to paint the tanks and walls of its former distillery. For the past two days, I’ve been watching them create massive murals while enduring the country’s infamous heat. Dictador’s owners want to use this project to raise money for conservation in Colombia. The artists will produce bonus canvases for auction; the proceeds will go to Conservation International, a nonprofit that’s helping Colombia establish policies to protect its mountains.

It’s a strange project, but Colombia is in a weird place right now. The country was devastated by a half-century-long civil war, which had the inadvertent effect of preserving vast landscapes that were once controlled by rebels. Since the 2016 peace treaty, the country is enjoying its first break from wide-scale violence in a generation and is now trying to figure out what to do with all that pristine land. Meanwhile, deforestation and development have ramped up significantly since the peace treaty was signed. Call it an identity crisis. 

And, oh yeah, the war is over, but while most of the country is trying to move on, there is still some lingering tension where bad guys don’t want to give up their bad-guy ways. Most of the violence is in remote rural areas that the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, used to control, particularly the regions that border Venezuela and Ecuador. Cocaine production has hit an all-time high, and 3,000 militants have decided to ignore the peace treaty and continue fighting. Some of them don’t take too well to the government creating parks and preserving land where they’re growing or transporting coca. Call it a postwar hangover. But cities like Bogotá and the coastal towns where tourists venture are generally considered safe for travelers. (The U.S. State Department has softened its travel advisory for most of Colombia, labeling it a Level 2 risk, on par with Germany, Denmark, Burma, and Spain, but there are certain regions of the country that the government flags as being too violent for Americans to visit.)