Pubdate: Sat, 29 May 2010
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2010 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Alfredo Corchado, The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Colombia

MEDELLMN'S TARNISHED MIRACLE

Colombian City's Recovery, Recent Slide Backward Offer Lessons for Mexico

MEDELLMN, Colombia - The name alone, Medellmn, once evoked mayhem. 
Then, after years of drug violence, high-profile kidnappings and 
criminal groups operating with near impunity, the city transformed itself.

Crime and violence plummeted. The arts and culture thrived. It became 
known as the Medellmn Miracle. And leaders from drug-plagued cities 
in Mexico came to see how it was done.

Today, with its gleaming buildings, rolling hills, thriving arts 
scene and stunning libraries that rise above impoverished 
neighborhoods, Medellmn remains a beacon of hope for troubled Mexican 
border cities. But the miracle has been tarnished. With a recent 
spike in violence and the re-emergence of longstanding problems, 
Medellmn also stands as a reminder of how entrenched the drug trade 
can become and how long and complicated is the road to recovery.

Just three years ago, former Mayor Sergio Fajardo, Colombian 
President Alvaro Uribe and U.S. politicians touted the city as the 
Medellmn Miracle, a title apparently well-deserved. Civic 
improvements, new architecture, and an 80 percent drop in homicides 
brought the city new wealth and swagger and made it a model for 
drug-plagued Mexican border cities like Ciudad Juarez.

"Much of what we're doing in Ciudad Juarez is based on the Medellmn 
model," said Mayor Josi Reyes Ferriz, who has visited Medellmn and is 
working on building schools and cultural centers and creating jobs 
for unemployed youth - favorite targets for recruitment by organized 
crime. "The focus in Medellmn is social, and we realize that our 
problem is socially generated."

But a closer look reveals that the success Medellmn enjoyed had more 
to do with finding accommodations between organized crime and the 
government than with eradicating organized crime. In short, Medellmn 
is a lesson of how the mayhem may be just one killing, one arrest or 
one extradition away from exploding again.

The key figure here was a paramilitary leader turned drug trafficker 
named Diego Murillo, also known as Don Berna. A tough goon respected 
by gangs, he enforced a peace pact with the government. He ordered 
other criminal organizations to put their arms down, respect each 
other's territories, and stop the kidnappings and killings.

"Don Berna was the real boss of the city," said Moritz Akerman, one 
of Medellmn's top intellectuals and writers.

Nearly three years ago, however, Don Berna was arrested by Colombian 
law enforcement officials and extradited to the United States. The 
violence resumed, with gangs fighting to fill the power vacuum.

In 2009, killings in Medellmn, a city of 3 million people, rose dramatically.

"Miracle story? Not at all," said Marma Elena Saldarriaga, a human 
rights activist. "They wanted to make everything beautiful, make us 
feel pretty, but along the way they couldn't get rid of poverty, and 
inside we continued to die slowly. It was just a matter of time 
before the old, deadly picture returned. Medellmn is a reminder that 
you cannot cover the mess for too long, that the past haunts us."

The Medellmn model will be on center stage Sunday, when voters go to 
the polls to elect the next president of Colombia. The choice is 
between Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister who is 
campaigning under the policies of the incumbent, Uribe, of 
strengthening security and restoring government authority.

His opponents are Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogota, and his 
running mate, former Medellmn Mayor Fajardo. Both men want to change 
direction and focus more on educational initiatives to promote social 
and economic development, following the model of Medellmn.

"Our definition of education as one of the engines for social 
transformation is precisely about projecting what we effectively 
achieved in Medellmn on a national stage," said Fajardo, whose 
success as mayor made him an international celebrity. "To open the 
doors for opportunities is to close the door on violence, illegality 
and inequality."

During his term, Fajardo, known for his long hair and blue jeans, 
successfully changed the image of the city from the violent 
playground of drug baron Pablo Escobar - "Don Pablo" or "Pablito," as 
he is still known here - into a thriving cosmopolitan metropolis.

The transformation began after 2003, when the government and 
paramilitary groups ironed out a peace pact. Suddenly violence fell, 
from 6,500 killings in 1991 to 2,193 in 2003 and 788 in 2007, 
according to the National Institute for Legal Medicine. (Escobar, 
leader of the notorious Medellmn cartel, was killed by government 
forces in 1993.)

Medellmn soared. Parks, libraries, schools and museums were added or 
refurbished, including the largest collection of art by famed 
Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero. Cable cars were added 
to connect the city to remote neighborhoods such as Santo Domingo, 
high in the mountains with a stunning overview of the city.

"Fajardo gave us hope in ourselves," said Akerman. "He convinced us 
that we were not a culture of violence, that we were human beings."

Last year, Fajardo visited Ciudad Juarez, across the Texas border 
from El Paso, and preached hope. He acknowledged the renewed violence 
in Medellmn but stressed that social development must be at the root 
of any change. He got a standing ovation.

Mayor Ramsn Garza of Nuevo Laredo, across the Texas border from 
Laredo, studied the lessons from afar and implemented several 
cultural ideas, from poetry readings to a museum inspired by 
Colombian writer Gabriel Garcma Marquez.

How much Medellmn really changed remains a source of debate, in part 
because local conditions are influenced by factors that local 
officials have little control over, such as the demand for cocaine in 
distant places like the United States, Brazil or Europe. A regional 
saying acknowledges the powerful pull of drug money: "Vaya hijo 
consiga plata honradamente. Si no, consiga plata." (Go, my son, find 
money the right way. If not, just find money).

Giovanny Galdarraga, 34, a machine operator, showed off his 
neighborhood of Santo Domingo to a visitor. Walking through streets 
that he said were once uninviting, he pointed to the cultural center 
where his 14-year-old son, Federico, practices music, learns 
computers and reads books. On weekends, he plays soccer. Galdarraga 
talked proudly of seeing teenagers walking the streets carrying books 
instead of guns.

But as sunset turned to darkness, the roar of motorbikes drowned him 
out. Teens with menacing looks stared down Galdarraga, forcing him to 
cut the tour short. The killings have returned, he warned, as have 
worries for his son.

"Medellmn did change, and it's still changing for the better," he 
said. "I tell my son we have to be patient and we must not stop 
believing. But, yes, all it took was a little scratching to reveal 
the ugly truth: The culture of violence remains just beneath us."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake