What Does the Morse Code in the Colombian Song "Better Days" Say?

A pop song aimed at hostages

"Better Days" ("Mejores Días") came out in Colombia in September 2010, credited to Natalia Gutiérrez and Angelo. It sounds like an ordinary pop song. It was made by the Colombian army with Radio Bemba, a small studio that recorded commercial jingles, to reach soldiers held captive in the jungle by FARC guerrillas.

Why Morse code

Soldiers learn Morse code in basic training, and the guerrillas guarding them were unlikely to know it. So the message could play out loud right in front of them.

The code sits in the chorus, disguised in the keyboard melody and masked by the guitar and drums. The song reportedly ran on more than 130 small radio stations and reached about three million listeners.

Did the hostages hear it?

A Colombian general publicly asked the guerrillas to give captives access to radios. In reality, that was so they could hear the song. We couldn't find a confirmed count of how many captives actually heard the message, so be careful with any story that gives you one.