Posada Alemana (Spanish for "German Inn") was a hotel complex built by Colombian former drug lord Carlos Lehder, located between the towns of Armenia and Pereira.[1][2][3]
History
The Inn was built built on an old Cyclo-cross track and opened in 1982.[4]
The Inn had several Swiss-style cabins, a wine bar and cages with Andean condors, tigers and llamas. It had a life-size statue of John Lennon, commissioned by Lehder from the Colombian sculptor Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt. The statue depicted Lennon naked in a German worker's helmet and featured two holes representing shots fired by Mark David Chapman during Lennon's murder.[5][6]
The inn was partially abandoned when Lehder went into hiding. In 1985, a fire destroyed the restaurant and part of the bar.[7]
Following Lehder's capture and extradition in 1987, the inn was the target of looting. After having been abandoned for several years the inn was expropriated by the Colombian government in 1998.[1] The Lennon statue was stolen in late 2003.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] In 2020, the government of the department of Quindío announced the creation of an ecological theme park on the site.[15][16][17]
^Sastre García, Germán (12 March 2020). "Posada alemana se convirtió en completo turístico en Quindío" [Posada Alemana: from a drug trafficking icon to a tourist complex in Quindío]. RCN Radio (rcnradio.com) (in Spanish). Radio Cadenal Nacional SAS. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
^Buitrago, Alfonso; Martin, Gerard (15 January 2021). "Una mancha en la familia" [A stain on the family]. Universo Centro (universocentro.com) (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2024.
^Santanilla, Eliécer (27 June 2020). "La Posada Alemana, Cuento Criollo de un Capo" [The German Inn, A Creole Tale of a Capo]. La Cola de Rata (www.lacoladerata.co) (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2024.
^The Two Shores (14 September 2019). "¿Qué pasó con el John Lennon de Carlos Lehder?" [What happened to Carlos Lehder's John Lennon?]. Las 2 Orillas (www.las2orillas.co) (in Spanish). Las Dos Orillas Foundation. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
^"El Destape de Lehde" [The Uncovering of Lehder]. Semana (www.semana.com) (in Spanish). Publicaciones Semana SA. 1 August 1983. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
^Figueroa Arias, David Alejandro (30 October 2018). "Especial: Recordando La Posada Alemana, parte I" [Special: Remembering the German Inn, part I]. Cronica del Quindio (in European Spanish). The Chronicle. Retrieved 20 December 2024.