- Phoebe Hopson and Lucy Wallis
- From BBC News
January 9, 2023
Credit, Sebastian Montañez
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Natalia Gutiérrez says she didn’t tell her family for years that she sang a pop song for the army
With its catchy melody and intense lyrics, the song is best days (better days) was broadcast on Colombian radio stations in the summer of 2010. But the song held a hidden message that its creators were only able to reveal after secret files about its true meaning were released to the public.
This hidden message offered comfort and hope to hundreds of people kidnapped and held by guerrilla groups at a time when the country was mired in a civil war between the government and rebel groups.
During 50 years of intense armed conflict in Colombia, both sides have committed serious atrocities.
In the early 2000s, kidnappings became a major funding strategy for the FARC. The Colombian Transitional Court estimates that 21,396 people were kidnapped during the conflict.
The main targets used to be police and army soldiers. Chained in secret camps in the Colombian jungle, the conditions the abductees face could make anyone despair.
Rescue operations were dangerous due to the mountainous terrain. And there were hostages, like the nowretired Major General Luis Herlindo Mendieta Ovalle, who spent years in captivity. Between 1998 and 2010 he was held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Credit, Getty Images
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Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels in 1998. The peace agreement with the Colombian government was only signed in 2016
“Malaria was a problem,” he recalls. “There were ticks everywhere. When you sat up or tried to sleep, ants walked over you.”
“There were also mushrooms,” he says. “Fungus grew in her private parts from the dampness and we didn’t have any medication to treat it.”
“Message of Hope”
At the time, Colonel José Espejo was a communications officer in the Colombian Army. He knew how important the motivation of the troops was to the success of a rescue operation.
“We really wanted to give the military hostages something to support them, a message of hope that keeps their spirit and resilience up so that they can think about escaping when the opportunity arises,” he says.
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Listen to “Mjores Días” with Angelo and Natalia Gutiérrez. The telegraph message can be heard at 1:31, 2:31 and 3:32 minutes.
To deliver this message, he decided to break the rules and contact the CEO (Managing Director) of an advertising agency, Juan Carlos Ortíz. Ortíz’s antidrug campaign, funded by the Colombian government, had won an award for its innovation but also caught the attention of the FARC, which was banking on the cocaine trade as a lucrative source of income.
Ortíz received death threats from the guerrillas and was forced to flee to the United States with his family to start a new life. But he and his team accepted the challenge of finding a way to deliver a message of hope to the hostages.
And it was at a meeting with army officials that the idea came up.
“They told us that Colombian soldiers learn Morse code as part of their basic training,” he says. “We thought, ‘Okay, how can we communicate with them in Morse code?’ It was a really enlightening moment.”
Credit, Alfonso Diaz
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José Espejo and Alfonso Díaz: It was only with the release of the hostages, months and years after the first broadcast, that it was possible to confirm that the message of the song “Mejores Días” reached them on the radio
Since being held captive in the middle of the forest and communicating with the outside world is almost impossible, the agency’s creative director Alfonso Díaz says the only way they were able to contact the hostages was by radio.
“At the time, a journalist named Herbin Hoyos, who was helping several hostages, created a program [de rádio] called Voces del Secuestro (Voices of Abduction),” he says, “to help reduce feelings of isolation and convey messages from loved ones to those in captivity.”
Hoyos had also been kidnapped by the FARC and died of Covid19 in 2021 at the age of 53. Her show has been on the air for years and has been a comfort to many people. It seemed like the perfect place to get the message across.
Díaz says they considered including the Morse code as a joke. The dots and dashes appear to cover up profanity, but this was deemed inappropriate. That’s when he came up with the idea of using a song.
Audio producer Carlos Portela says they initially considered using a lively local rhythm vallenato or a salsa, but realized that it could “make the listener’s mind wander”.
They then decided to use a sentimental song with emotional lyrics to help the hostages make the connection between the song and the Morse code message hidden within the song. Díaz and Portela were the authors of the lyrics.
“The lyrics of Mejores Días speak of the heart, of resilience and the resistance that abducted people need to have in order to move forward and not despair when they are alone,” explains Díaz.
‘You are the next one’
They had the support of rock singer Angelo, best known for his participation in the Colombian version of TV show The X Factor, and singer and actress Natalia Gutiérrez.
Portela and composer, producer and sound engineer Amaury Hernández studied Morse code, including the number of words a person can decode per minute. So they decided to use a synthesizer when recording to camouflage the telegraph signals.
A simple message chosen by the team was included at three different points in the song: “19 people saved. You are the next one. Do not give up hope.”
In 2010, after eight months, the song was ready to be aired on Hoyo’s program. It transcended the confines of commercial stations and was played by more than 130 rural radio stations across Colombia.
“Millions of people have heard the song Mejores Días, but that wasn’t our goal,” explains Ortíz. “For us, success came in small, specific numbers. It was the chosen few who heard and understood.”
General Mendieta had been rescued that same year and helped with the mission. He appeared on live television programs and asked the rebels to give the kidnappers access to the radio to keep them company.
“Someone once said that whoever has a book is not alone,” he says. “In our case, it was ‘Whoever has a radio is not alone’.”
However, playing the song on the radio carried the risk that the FARC would also decipher the hidden message.
But “considering that the hostages faced the possibility of dying in the forest, far from their families, it was valid and important to take the risk in the field of communications,” says Colonel Espejo.
It was not until the release of hostages began in the months and years that followed was it possible to get feedback on the song’s success. Colonel Espejo says a rescued hostage said in a psychological assessment he heard the message in Morse code and relayed its meaning to his kidnapped colleagues.
“When the news broke that the music had worked, I walked down the street with such a sense of joy that I couldn’t stop smiling,” says Portela.
“My family didn’t know”
Most of the production team only recently announced their involvement in the production of the song.
“Can you believe my family didn’t know that?” says Gutiérrez. “I haven’t told them anything for years because of the confidentiality clause.”
Credit, Juan Carlos Ortiz
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The creative team behind “Mejores Días” won the Golden Lion at the Festival de Cannes in France for the song
The song also received a prestigious award for its creative team: the Golden Lion at the Festival de Cannes in France.
Since Mejores Días first aired, the political scene in Colombia has changed significantly.
The FARC signed a historic peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016. Thousands of former rebels have been demilitarized. But the country still faces violence from other armed groups and the spread of drug trafficking.
Colombia still has a long way to go in addressing many of the atrocities committed during the armed conflict, including by the army. For this reason, music also has a bitter aftertaste for the now retired Colonel Espejo.
Mejores Días, rooted in the past, is also a hymn to the future.