Did you know that the Colombian police was organized in 1900 by Jean Marie Marcelin Gilibert, a French commissioner?

This afternoon we visited with the spanish school Nueva Lengua the police museum located in the historic center of Bogotá. Its neoclassical façade was built by Alberto Manrique.

The museum goes through the history of the Colombian police chronologically and sometimes alludes to the foreign police.

At the entrance of the museum there is a statue of the first director of the Colombian police, Mr. Gilibert, attesting to the relationship between France and Colombia. Originally, the Colombian police uniforms also resembled the French police uniforms: before turning green, they were blue.

Here we discover the bust of the French commissioner Jean Marie Marcelin Gilibert Laforgue, the first director of the Colombian police.

We pose here in front of a replica of one of the first mobile prisons from 1912. At that time, criminals were locked up just a few days before being beheaded in the public square. Therefore, there was no need to have permanent dungeons, a simple "prison cart" was enough to "welcome" them before their execution.

On the right we see the eccentric and expensive Harley Davidson motorcycle that Pablo Escobar gave to his cousin Enrique Urquijo Gaviria.

The arrests of the greatest criminals are represented on this wall. Sometimes it took the police several years to arrest these criminals. In fact, some had undergone surgery and changed their faces or fingerprints, which made it difficult for the police.

The visit to the museum ends with a brief tour of the terrace from where you can admire the roofs of the La Candelaria neighborhood. In the background you can see the beautiful white church of Monserrate, which is one of the city's tourist attractions.

One of the police officers we interviewed today said that he is in favor of the peace process, although it is likely that the FARC will receive "compensation" on top of his salary. Peace is more important than comfort itself...

This article was originally written in French