New York City has had many mayors, but few, if any, as Ed Cook. Controller, reckless and self-proclaimed a “liberal with sanity”, he was in charge of ‘The Big Apple’ for three periods -from 1978 to 1989-.
His candid personality, but at the same time combative, helped him to win both supporters and detractors throughout the territory. When
He died in 2013, at the age of 88. Perceptions of his mandates were divided: some considered him such a complicated figure; while others extolled his role in having “saved” New York from financial collapse.
Magazine ‘Time’‘no mincing words or holding back’ once described it this way: “If New York is a taxi, Ed Koch is its driver: short-tempered, belligerent, opinionated, talkative, protective, outspoken, and possibly , crazy”.
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Koch gained fame and popularity in his country not only for his prankster and daring personality, but also for his strict tax policies. His years in power, according to ‘The Washington Post‘, were marked by racial tensions, political corruption, the escalation of HIV, a high crime rate and drug trafficking.
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It was precisely to combat this last aspect that the late US president decided to launch a proposal that was as controversial as it was implausible in 1988: bombing Medellín, which at that time stood as one of the main exporters of narcotics worldwide.
‘I agree with bombing Medellín’
Currently, New York is one of the most prosperous and attractive cities for residents, tourists and outsiders; However, this was not always like that. By the late 1980s, one enemy was putting political leaders and citizens alike on the tightrope: it was crack and cocaine use, which was in full swing.
Arriving in the US earlier in the decade, this highly addictive cocaine compound, more affordable than its powdered form, had quickly created a national crisis. ‘The Guardian’.
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By March 1988, ‘The Times’ published an article in which he called Medellín one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In April 1989, ‘Rolling Stone’For his part, he pointed out: “In the city of Medellín, Colombia, cocaine is his business, his only business. What does it take to become the drug capital of the world? Hard work, marketing and an endless talent for assassination.”
If you want our planes and our tanks to bomb the coca crops, I approve of that.
Strategies to combat drug trafficking, which were so established in the 1980s thanks to the Medellín and Cali cartels, did not seem to be bearing fruit. It was, in the midst of this panorama, that Koch decided to make a controversial proposal that still echoes in the ears of the citizens of Antioquia.
“If you ask us to send tanks to bomb that city, what is it called? Medellín, I would also say yes. But I do not agree with sending economic aid or military aid as long as you continue to export drugs to the United States”, stated the then mayor of New York, in a long and detailed interview given to ‘Caracol Radio’ in 1988.
According to the alternative newspaper ‘Universo Centro’, the interview had been arranged by the then mayor-elect of Bogotá, Andrés Pastrana.. Its main objective was to turn all the attention to those topics that directly involved the two cities. Drug trafficking, of course, was one of them.
In the middle of the conversation, Koch made it clear that, although the idea was on the table, the final decision would have to be made by Colombia. The US city’s arsenal of war planes and tanks remained at the country’s disposal.
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“Well, that must be requested of you. I am not suggesting that we send war planes and tanks somewhere in Colombia on our own initiative. If you want our planes and our tanks to bomb the coca crops, I approve of that, I agree with that.”
In another fragment of the interview, the New York mayor made it clear that if he had to choose between the position of Colombians and the well-being of US citizens, the decision was clear: he would choose his nation. “They are first, they are ahead of their country,” he added.
Koch’s statements were somewhat overshadowed by the La Mejor Esquina Massacre, which took place in Córdoba on April 3, 1988. Even so, William Jaramillo Gómez, who at that time was the mayor of Medellín, came out to speak before the situation.
According to the previously cited alternative newspaper, the former president said: “I think that is part of the folklore of Mr. Koch’s electoral campaign for his re-election as mayor of New York. He has always been quite eloquent and on this occasion he took on powers that are the responsibility of the President of the Republic, very possibly due to the situation he has in New York in relation to drug use, because as ‘Time’ magazine said For several weeks now, the battle against consumption has been losing particularly in that capital, where the site called Jamaica has become Koch’s biggest headache. The rest is pure folklore.
Koch’s controversial proposal was reviewed in various national media outlets, including EL TIEMPO, The Spectator and The Colombian. The reaction of some even involved the creation of memes that, far from paying attention to the threat, what they did was downplay the situation.
In 2013, Koch died at the age of 88 from heart failure. His comic character, mixed with his rudeness and particular vision of the world, ended up immortalizing him in the history of New York City. The president did the same in Colombia, hand in hand with his daring proposal to bomb Medellín.
New York City recently announced the opening of five new drug centerswithin the framework of what some call the “fentanyl epidemic”.
“The opioid epidemic has already claimed the lives of thousands of New Yorkers (…) Today, a resident of our city loses their life in an overdose every three hours, therefore it is essential that we use all the tools at our disposal. scope to attack this problem,” Mayor Eric Adams told reporters.
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