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Bagazal: bring on the bulldozers

City authorities are at last tackling illegal luxury houses in Bogotá’s eastern hills.

Contractors taking down El Bambú this week. The long-delayed demolition was welcomed by environment groups battling urbanisation of the Cerros Orientales. Photo: Steve Hide

If you went into the woods of the Cerros Orientales this week, you were in for a big surprise: heavy machinery taking down illegal mega-mansions built in the heart of the protected forest reserve.

But it was certainly no picnic for the wealthy developers of the five palatial properties which have been declared illegal and face the chop in Bagazal, a hidden valley in the heart of Bogotá’s Reserva Forestal.

Steve Hide: Steve Hide is a veteran journalist and NGO consultant with decades of experience working in Colombia and around the world. He has coordinated logistics for international NGOs in countries including Colombia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. He provides personal safety training for journalists via the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and his journalistic work has appeared in The Telegraph, The Independent, The Bogotá Post and more. He's also the Editor in Chief of Colombiacorners.com, where he writes about roads less travelled across Colombia.
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