John Lennon Memorials

John Lennon Statue at the Posada Alemana, Quindío

Salento, Colombia

The 3 m bronze John Lennon statue that Carlos Lehder commissioned from Rodrigo Arenas Betancur in 1981 stands again at the Posada Alemana near Salento, Quindío, after disappearing in 2003 and being returned in March 2026.

Colombia's John Lennon statue is a 3 m bronze by Rodrigo Arenas Betancur at the Posada Alemana, the former hotel complex of drug trafficker Carlos Lehder beside the Autopista del Café near Salento, Quindío. Lehder commissioned it in 1981. It vanished from the site in 2003 and was reinstalled there in March 2026, now as public property of Quindío.

A cartel boss's Lennon

Carlos Lehder, a former leader of the Medellín cartel, built the Posada Alemana in Quindío around 1980 and 1981. It was an Alpine-style resort with cabins, a bar and a nightclub named after John Lennon. After Lennon was shot in December 1980, Lehder asked the Colombian sculptor Rodrigo Arenas Betancur for a statue, and it was made in 1981.

As Infobae described it, the bronze is 3 m tall and shows Lennon naked except for a German soldier's helmet, holding a Rickenbacker 325 guitar, with a hole in his chest for the bullet that killed him. It stood in front of the Lennon nightclub.

What happened in 2003

The statue left the Posada Alemana in 2003. How it left depends on who is telling the story:

  • Articles up to 2025, drawing on the Quindío press, said it was stolen and nobody knew where it was.
  • Las2orillas reported that it turned up briefly at council offices in Pereira and then disappeared again.
  • Lehder's version, given in 2026, is that metal thieves tried to steal it to melt down, so his brother had it taken away and hidden with a family on a small farm near Manizales.

No independent source confirms where the statue actually spent those 23 years.

The 2026 return

By 2026 the Posada Alemana was no longer Lehder's. The state's asset agency held it after his arrest, and in March 2020 it passed to the department of Quindío, which wants to turn it into a tourist centre. In a letter, Lehder donated the statue to the department.

The bronze went back up in a small plaza a few metres from the ruins of the property's Bávaro restaurant, facing towards Salento. On Tuesday 24 March 2026 it was formally handed to Quindío's culture secretary, Felipe Robledo. It now belongs to the department, though copyright and image rights stay with the sculptor's heirs and with Lehder. El Tiempo reported drivers pulling off the Autopista del Café to take pictures, including one man who said he had driven over from Pereira just for a photo.

The return wasn't welcomed by everyone. On 1 April 2026 the Academia de Historia del Quindío formally rejected the donation. It argued that a work paid for with drug money is a memory object tied to trafficking, and that accepting it legitimises narco culture. No source reports that the statue has been removed since.

Before you go

The department's tourist centre is still a plan, parts of the estate are in ruins, and in February 2025 more than 300 people occupied the property in a land protest. It's worth checking local news before the trip. Other Lennon statues in Latin America stand in Havana, Lima and Brasília.

Common misconceptions

  • ClaimCarlos Lehder's John Lennon statue was stolen in 2003 and is lost.

    RecordThe statue left the Posada Alemana in 2003, but it was back on the site in March 2026 and was formally handed to the department of Quindío on 24 March 2026.

    Why the mix-upArticles up to 2025 reported it as stolen with whereabouts unknown. Lehder later said it had been removed after an attempted theft by metal thieves and hidden on a farm near Manizales, an account that has not been independently confirmed.

Nearby

Sources

  1. Gobernación del Quindío. John Lennon statue returned to La Posada Alemana, property of the Quindío governorate (in Spanish). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  2. Infobae. The story of the John Lennon statue that Carlos Lehder commissioned (in Spanish, 4 April 2025). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  3. Las2orillas. The John Lennon statue that Carlos Lehder commissioned from Arenas Betancur and that reappeared 23 years later (in Spanish). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  4. Infobae. Handover of a John Lennon statue by former drug lord Carlos Lehder causes outrage in Quindío (in Spanish, 24 March 2026). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  5. El Espectador. This is the John Lennon statue, owned by Carlos Lehder, that caused controversy in Quindío (in Spanish). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  6. El Tiempo. Tourists honk on seeing Carlos Lehder next to the John Lennon statue in Quindío (in Spanish). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  7. Infobae. Carlos Lehder confessed that his 'crazy' life cost him everything except his famous John Lennon statue (in Spanish, 23 July 2026). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  8. Infobae. Academy of History rejected Carlos Lehder's donation of a John Lennon statue (in Spanish, 1 April 2026). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  9. El Tiempo. La Posada Alemana, former drug lord Carlos Lehder's property in Salento, Quindío, is occupied (in Spanish). Accessed 15 September 2026.
  10. OpenStreetMap. La Posada Alemana, Boquía, Salento. Accessed 15 September 2026.
  11. Infobae. Farmers occupied the Posada Alemana of former drug trafficker Carlos Lehder in Salento, Quindío (in Spanish, 24 February 2025). Accessed 15 September 2026.

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