Colombia has handed over a portion of the legendary Hacienda Napoles—Pablo Escobar's sprawling ranch best known for its "cocaine hippos"—to women who've survived the country's decades-long armed conflict. President Gustavo Petro announced the move on Wednesday, part of a larger land-redistribution push that includes properties once tied to drug lords, reports CBS News. The late Escobar's former 10,000-acre estate, packed with exotic animals and a replica plane, became a symbol of both his wealth and the excesses of the drug trade before the government took it over after his death in 1993.
The state had leased the property to local authorities, who turned much of it into a theme park and zoo, drawing tourists. The idea to redistribute the land to rural women farmers was first suggested by Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, in May. "That hacienda has so many deaths that it must be returned to the people," he said at the time, per the Guardian. He called local farmers the property's "genuine owners."
Now, 297 acres are back in the hands of the women farmers. Though they first received use of the land in 2017, police later evicted them, a decision that's now apparently been reversed. "Today there are women who have hope, who have land for life," one beneficiary, Millinery Correa, said in a statement. Land disputes have fueled Colombia's violent history, making the handover a notable step in ongoing land reform.
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Not everyone is pleased: Tour operators have protested, with El Pais noting that "all tourism in this area ... gravitates around" the Hacienda Napoles park. Meanwhile, Escobar's hippos—descendants of a handful he imported in the 1980s—continue to flourish, with around 150 now roaming the area and making occasional appearances in nearby towns. Declared an invasive species, the hippos present an expensive puzzle, with plans to send some abroad hampered by an estimated $3.5 million price tag.
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