Harry and Meghan’s Colombia visit brings ‘prestige’ to former cartel city

Hundreds of soldiers and police officers lined the streets of the Colombian city of Cali before a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Sunday.
The couple were in the city near the Pacific region at the end of their four-day tour of the country. They began their day attending a forum called Afro Women and Power in the city centre.
The duchess told the audience that she and Harry worked work “incredibly well together as a team” and that he was a “great testament to the role of men in this, of empowering women”.
Cali, which was once largely off-limits for mainstream tourists, has in recent years been rebranded as Colombia’s salsa and party capital. The couple’s visit coincided with its hosting of the world’s largest Afro-Latino music festival.
However, the authorities appeared to be taking no chances. An “extreme” security operation was in place, including roadblocks set up on big thoroughfares to stop suspicious vehicles and the air force patrolling the skies.
“This is really important for Cali,” the mayor, Alejandro Eder, said. “We want to recuperate the prestige of Cali and part of that is showing the world what is our city, and what is our culture … we want to put Cali on the world map.”
In the 1990s, most the city was under the control of the Cali cartel. Led by the notorious Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, known as the Gentlemen of Cali, the gang was once credited with controlling 80 per cent of the world’s cocaine market and helping to pioneer large-scale exports to Europe.
Although the cartel’s senior members are now all either dead or in jail, the city’s murder rate remains the highest of any big city in Colombia, mainly thanks to gang violence in its peripheries. Nevertheless, local and international tourism have soared in recent years, and in October the city will host the United Nations’ biodiversity conference, at which 12,000 delegates are expected.
“The prince and his wife are very welcome here, I hope they encourage their friends to come,” said Miguel Flores, 38, a road sweeper in the colonial centre of the city.
The duke and the duchess closed off their tour by attending the last night of the city’s Petronio Álvarez festival, a four-day showcase of music, dance, and food promoting Afro-Colombian culture.
The festival aims to counter the perception that Colombia’s music superstars are predominantly white.
Appearing on stage to loud whoops and cheers from the crowd the prince tried out his Spanish with a confident “Buenas noches, Colombia – good evening, Colombia”. He then turned to his wife, who speaks the language fluently, asking her to translate the rest of his speech as they both thanked the country for sharing its “beautiful culture”.
Earlier, the duke and duchess watched salsa and hip hop performances from Jovenes en Cali, a youth organisation in the city. They joined in the dancing towards the end, encouraged by the student dancers.
Members of the youth group spoke about how music and dancing have improved their mental health and helped them stay out of trouble.
They were given the chance to ask the duke and duchess questions. One asked Meghan if she had tried viche, a sweet liquor local to Colombia, to which she replied “Yes, it’s very good!” in Spanish.
Harry also spoke to the group, telling them: “I hope you all know how much your actions mean to the people and children within your communities. The path that you have chosen will make a difference that will inspire and create change for hundreds or even thousands of young people.”
Meghan congratulated the students and told them she was “so, so proud” of them. The duke and duchess posed for a group photo along with Francia Márquez, Colombia’s vice-president, before departing. They are being shown around the city by Márquez, the first black woman to hold the position.
The couple had spent Saturday in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, one of South America’s oldest colonial cities and a former hub for the trade in silver and African slaves in the Spanish empire. The duke and duchess toured a local drum school, where they took part in a lesson, playing traditional tambores.
At an earlier event on Saturday, Márquez thanked the couple for their visit and referred to them as a symbol of resistance. She said: “We are grateful that both of them are here, because for me they are also a symbol of resistance, of rebellion.
“We do not remain silent in the face of injustice, that we do not keep silent and we raise our voices from wherever we are.”
The couple then went to San Basilio de Palenque, a village outside Cartagena that was set up by freed slaves three centuries ago and has been described as a “little corner of Africa”. Meghan wore a white linen skirt with a sleeveless blouse, a Panama hat, a Cartier necklace and a watch which previously belonged to Princess Diana. During a traditional greeting ceremony, one of the local “wise women” predicted “prosperity” for the visitors.
Both the duke and duchess addressed the villagers, many of whom were wearing traditional dress, in Spanish and a few words in the indigenous language, palenquero. The duchess referenced the community’s “incredible history”, and the duke described their visit as a “moving experience”.
“This trip was like a dream come true, because here I can feel the community and this feeling is the best in the world,” the duchess said.