<br /><div class="MsoNormal">Living in modern day Medellin came as a shock to Fernando, a writer who had left Medellin for many years who however, has returned to die there. He falls in love with a young man, Alexis, whom he later discovers is a <i>sicaro</i>. The time he spends with Alexis changes his morbid outlook, and once he is killed, he continues to live and falls in love once more with Wilmar, a kid identical to Alexis. Unfortunately, the gang violence catches up with Wilmar and he is also killed. The ending of film implies that Fernando, unable to cope with the continuous cycle of violence in Medellin, commits suicide.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The violence in Medellin seemed natural to the inhabitants. By the time, although fictionalized, Fernando returns violence is part of their daily lives. The murderous nature in Colombia dates back to the first half of the century. The central issue was agrarian reform. From 1930 to 46, Colombia had a relative stable, compared to its entire history, time of unity under a one-party system, the Liberal Party (Hylton, 31). Jorge Ellecer Gaitan sought to create a Colombia with the bases of multi-class, multi-ethnic, and anti-elitist (Hylton 31). The door had been open for the Liberals because the economic foundation of the Conservative party had declined, although they still had the blessings of the Catholic Church (32). Since then, these two parties have fought for power. But no matter who was in power, the Catholic Church still remained a force of authority. In the film, religion is an authoritative force in the structure of their lives. Both Fernando and Alexis, even though they live lives contrary to the conventional, they have complete reverence to the church, but most reverence, as seen in any Latin American culture, goes to La Virgen, or the Virgin Mary. </div><div class="MsoNormal">After the murder of Gaitan in 1948, the struggle for power took on a bloody phase in what is called <i>La Violencia</i> from 1946-57 (36). The Liberals resorted to the police, who would join the reputation of most Latin American countries in becoming corrupt. Once Laureano Gomez of the extreme wing of the Conservative party comes to power, he pushed political terror to unthinkable levels. By the mid-twentieth century, Colombians cannot turn to their police or their government to establish peace. Corruption in all levels leads to the rise of guerilla groups such as the FARC, EPL, and M-19 (71).<span> </span>The unorganized and weak function of the government gave power to the mafia in the 80's (68). Pablo Escobar was made an alternate Liberal deputy in Congress after cocaine had surpassed coffee as the main export (68). <span> </span>Ricardo Vargas used Escobar’s mafia power in modern Colombia to understand the politics of the time. To Vargas, the mafia was not a formal organization, but a form of behavior and a mode of power. His interpretation was that these mafia groups believed that they, as individual agents, could protect their selves and their assets better than the government could. Not all the violence in the film was directly related to Escobar, but corruption as state and local level produced the violent nature of modern Medellin.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4507342150998272570-1370861642670444037?l=aoutk475.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
