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Madrigal Meltdown: Bogota’s Most Perfect Family Cracks? 

For many years, the Familia Madrigal have been the paragon of the newly wealthy Bogotano family: successful, charitable, and utterly  irreproachable. Their empire extends from the loftiest medical office in Clinica Fundacion Santa fe de Bogota, to the corner pharmacy with bullet proof windows in Cuidad Bolivar. You know them even if you don’t think you do. From up on their ubiquitous Familia Madrigal posters, they watch us picking up prescriptions for Abuelita, cold medicine for Pedrito’s sniffles, and liquid IV for our own cute little hangovers. Let’s just say they usually have little reason to appear in Bogota Hoy! But recent events have cast a shadow over that carefully cultivated image. Could the Familia Madrigal be hiding deeper turmoil behind that walls of that Spanish Colonial mansion?   

The drama unfolded at Laetare Sunday mass just yesterday in what should have been a celebration of joy and the resurrection. Before the priest could get out a word of the homily, Matriarch Alma Madrigal collapsed in front of the congregation. Bystanders say that Doña Alma was left unable to speak, much less deliver the second reading. Someone call a doctor! Oh wait, they are already here. What could possibly ail the head of Bogota’s most preeminent medical families? Famillia Madrigal has not released an official statement so far. 

That incident alone would be enough to raise the alarm, or at least a few eyebrows. What followed inside the church has left us all speculating. Eye witnesses claim that Agustin Madrigal- the son in law of the  Madrigal Matriarch- confronted an unknown man in the pews. The heated altercation ended with a punch thrown by Señor Madrigal in front of the iconic main doors of the Catedral Prima. “It was unreal,” remarked one bystander, “He just popped that little old guy in the head.” Pow! 

The timing of these incidents could be worse for the family, as whispers have already been circulating about the eldest Madrigal daughter’s marriage. Even if you don’t have your finger on the chisme of the Colombian elite, you will recognize the beautiful couple from the cover of JetSet. Although presented as the perfect union between the Familia Madrigal medical empire and the Guzman convenience store barons, Isabela “Ice Queen” Madrigal, and the handsome Mariano Madrigal (ne Guzman) have always been a question mark. 

“Un hogar sin niñitos es un jardín sin pajaritos,” observed an insider to the Madrigal Family. “It’s been what, three years?” Indeed, cameras that same afternoon captured a series of incriminating photos showing her husband in what appears to be a proposal—not to his wife, but to a yet-unnamed Madrigal cousin. “It’s something out of a telenovela. There’s no way to spin this positively,” our PR expert concluded. Well, we can’t blame this cousin for taking her chances with Mariano Madrigal, better known as the two time winner of Bogota Hoy!’s Top Sexiest Millionaire Bachelors. 

Are we witnessing the unraveling of one of Bogota’s most influential families? One thing is clear: the Madrigals have some serious damage control ahead of them if they hope to regain their standing as the city’s model family. Stay tuned as we follow the developing Madrigal saga. 

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