Better Days is a great song. The catchy, upbeat tune is infectious (at least to my European ears) and the chorus in particular, with its high tempo dance beat, feels like a guarantee crowd pleaser and floor filler.
The song itself came out in 2010 and was a success, being played on Colombian radio across the country. Bars and tiendas played the song, and it became something of a background presence across Colombia for the year.
Many such catchy tunes come and go, but Better Days had a secret. For you see, this was not just an upbeat song about how things will improve. This song had a hidden message, disguised in its chorus.
And it is very likely that this message saved lives.
FARC and the Power of Pop
In 2010 Colombia was trapped in what had become known as the Colombian Conflict, an on-going civil war between the government and the various paramilitary groups who controlled their own illegal fiefdoms across the country. Chief among these was FARC, the left-wing paramilitary group founded in 1966.
The Colombian Conflict really began with the organization of FARC, arising from disparate peasant resistance in the jungles and mountains of Colombia, and had run on for decades without any decisive strike by either side. FARC preferred to hide in the shadows, and their preferred approach was kidnapping.
In 2010 FARC held a group of 500 Colombian soldiers captive somewhere in one of their hideouts, and the government had no way of directly reaching them. They knew roughly where they were, they knew how to get to them, but they needed more time.
The problem was that the soldiers themselves had been held incommunicado for an extended length of time by this point, some for as long as ten years. It was not unheard of for FARC to recruit from such soldiers, looking for them to turn traitor and join the paramilitary ranks, bringing valuable experience and training to the side of the rebels. The government could not allow that.
And that is where Better Days came in. Hidden in that catchy Euro-style chorus was a message for the soldiers, in morse code. The government had taken the view that this was something the captured soldiers might pick up on, but the rebels might not.
The government and the military also controlled all the local radio stations in the area that FARC was holding the prisoners. Once they had found the camp where the soldiers were being held, they played the song over the 130 local radio stations that covered the area.
The song was heard by an estimated 3 million people during its airings. In an attempt to ensure the message reached the prisoners, Major General Luis Herlindo Mendieta Ovalle of the Colombian army appeared on live television, appealing to FARC directly to allow the prisoners to listen to the radio, claiming that it was so they could hear the voices of their families, who were also appealing.
And the message itself? “19 people rescued. You’re next. Don’t lose hope.” It seems that Better Days was an upbeat song in more ways than one.
Top Image: FARC insurgents: during the Colombian Conflict FARC were known for kidnapping rich foreigners and enemy combatants, and Better Days was designed to help kidnapped soldiers. Source: Institute for National Strategic Studies / Public Domain.
By Joseph Green
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