COLOMBIA'S LATEST WEAPON: ART

At a moment when many Colombians are losing faith in their country's
floundering peace process, artist Fernando Botero is taking a monumental
stand against the violence.

Colombia's best-known artist has donated paintings and sculptures worth
some $120 million toward what he calls the "moral renovation" of Medellin -
Mr. Botero's home town, and one of the most violent cities in the Americas.

"It was a way to help Colombia and to change the face of Medellin. We
wanted to show that it's not just the city of the cartels, assassins,
death, and crime," says the artist who is famed for the corpulent figures
of his paintings and sculptures.

Medellin became a synonym for drug-fueled violence in the 1980s, as Mafia
boss Pablo Escobar unleashed his war against the Colombian state. Mr.
Escobar was shot dead in 1993, and the largest drug cartels have been
dismantled. But the violence continues unabated.

Last year, some 4,000 people were killed in this city of 2 million, most of
them victims of a brutal turf war involving street gangs, leftist militias,
and paramilitary death squads. Meanwhile, Medellin's economy - once the
powerhouse of Colombian industry - has collapsed, pushing unemployment past
20 percent.

Botero's donation has jump-started an ambitious plan to breathe new life
into the shabby downtown. The artist gave more than 100 canvasses and
sculptures from his personal collection, including works and paintings by
Picasso, Renoir, and Dali, to museums in Medellin and Bogota.

Medellin's art-deco city hall has been restored to splendor as a public
gallery to house the city's collection. The street outside was once a
notorious red-light district, but now passersby gaze up at Botero's rotund
sculptures on permanent display in a new park.

But the project is more than a facelift for a dilapidated corner of the
city, says museum director Pilar Velilla

"We aren't just opening a museum, we're proposing a change of attitudes,"
she says.

According to Ms. Velilla, the museum, which includes an exhibition of three
centuries of Colombian art, offers the people of Medellin a chance to see
beyond the seemingly endless cycle of violence that surrounds them.

"This is a place where Colombian people can meet themselves. When a child
sees that his people have a history, he gains a sense of his own worth and
dignity," she adds.

Until recently, Botero's dreamscapes made no reference to Colombia's
endemic violence. But last year, the painter sparked controversy when he
unveiled a series of canvasses depicting the turmoil of crime and war.

One picture showed Mafia boss Escobar pinwheeling to his death in a hail of
police bullets. In another portrait, rebel commander Manuel "Sureshot"
Marulanda stands calmly in a jungle clearing, carrying a strangely
harmless-looking machine gun. Other paintings in the series include
depictions of a car-bomb attack, a group of guerrillas in a forest, and a
bar massacre.

Explaining why he broke his own rules, Botero says, "Art should be an
oasis, a place or refuge from the hardness of life. But the Colombian drama
is so out of proportion that today you can't ignore the violence, the
thousands displaced and dead, the processions of coffins. Against all my
principles, I had to paint [the violence]."

Like Colombia's other artistic giant, Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Botero's art is steeped in his native culture even though he has
lived abroad for many years. The canvasses are peppered with references to
the landmarks and customs of Medellin, although Botero has split his time
between Italy and New York for the past 48 years.

"In a way, Botero has never left," says Velilla. However, after a failed
kidnapping attempt in 1994, the painter has restricted his visits to Medellin.

"After that, I couldn't come to Colombia so often, because I was a real
danger, but it makes me very sad. It's very hard when you can't visit your
own land," Botero says.

Over the past 10 years, Colombia's civil war has forced over 1 million
people from their homes, and tens of thousands have fled abroad.

The artist's work became the focus of violence in June 1995, when a bomb
attack in Medellin tore apart a Botero statue of a dove, killing 25 people
and injuring more than 200. Police suspected that urban guerrillas were
responsible for the explosion, but the perpetrators were never caught.
After the bombing, Botero insisted that the statue be left on display as a
"monument to stupidity." A new dove was cast, and mounted alongside as a
monument to peace.

In 1998, President Andres Pastrana launched peace talks with the country's
largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but
Mr.Marulanda's rebels have refused to sign a cease-fire, and many
Colombians are losing patience with the process.

"The situation in Colombia couldn't be worse. But we have to have faith,"
says Botero. "It's our only option."

"This museum is the seed for a new way of thinking," he continues. "Any
change must be based on education, culture, and employment. These are the
only things which can bring peace to this country."

Note: Fernando Botero, famous for the chubby figures of his paintings,
stands up to the violence devastating his homeland.