Place: Medellin, Columbia
No longer the murder capital of the world

In 1991, Medellín had the highest homicide rate of any city in the world (380 per 100,000 people), a rate which has since dropped more than 90% (2015).

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA Medellín, Colombia

BACKGROUND

In 1991, Medellín had the highest homicide rate of any city in the world (380 per 100,000 people), a rate which has since dropped more than 90% (2015). The home of the infamous Medellín cartel, led by Pablo Escobar (d. 1993), drug trafficking and inter-cartel and gang violence has been – and still is – at the heart of the social and criminal problems the city faces. Since the demise of the powerful Medellín and Cali cartels, Medellín suffered like much of Colombia in the Armed Conflict between left-wing FARC rebels, government security forces, and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Medellín has transformed its reputation from that of the most violent city in the world, beset by poverty, sprawling slums, gang violence and corruption, to achieve international notoriety as a success story of urban transformation, social investment and innovation through a series of municipal initiatives involving partnerships with the private sector and civil society.

Violence has not been eliminated entirely and bloody wars for territorial control between rival trafficking cartels have been fought out across the city as recently as 2013. Teenage gang violence is still an issue, and poverty and youth unemployment are still major factors. Nonetheless, Medellín now works with several international partners, including UN Habitat, the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities, the World Bank Group, US AID and the Strong Cities Network, and was the host city of the 2014 World Urban Forum. It has achieved a dramatic reduction in violence, invested in public spaces and community resilience, and instigated innovative strategies for regeneration, inclusion, and enterprise.

Medellín joined the Strong Cities Network in September 2015 and has played an active role in the network as a member of the SCN International Steering Committee. The city was the 2016 winner of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, awarded by the Government of Singapore.

NATIONAL OVERVIEW

National counter-terrorism policy in Colombia has long focused on efforts to counter narcotics trafficking, money laundering, extortion and the reign of violence against communities which successive gangs, trafficking organisations and armed groups have wrought across the country. This has necessitated a heavy focus on policing, criminal investigation, intelligence and inter-agency and international cooperation. In particular, Colombia has worked closely with the United States on countering narco-trafficking and directing military operations under the ‘Plan Colombia’. Recent progress in negotiations with the left-wing FARC rebel group to end the decades-long bloody armed conflict has received wide-scale international attention in the build up to, and following, the national plebiscite of 2016 and the resumption of negotiations towards an agreement. President Santos was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his leadership in efforts to bring peace through the negotiation process.

The national experience of terrorism has therefore encompassed a very wide range of activities with the response necessarily addressing concurrent ties to deep social and economic issues as well as matters of corruption, the legitimacy police and other state actors, and connectivity to international markets for drugs and weapons trafficking and money laundering.

The national level has also been integral in supporting local action and enabling change in Medellín, with the early appointment of a Minister directly responsible for countering narco-terrorism and supporting the community re-building process. While Medellín has undoubtedly led and delivered its own radical transformation from a city of violence and terror to one of innovation, creativity and opportunity, national actors have been integral to its success and to encouraging increased local action in cities across Colombia. For instance, the Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes articulates major national policing support for locally-driven community security initiatives.

LOCAL OVERVIEW

Medellín has multiple local action plans designed to prevent violence, promote peace-building agendas and develop approaches to integration, cohesion, rehabilitation and public safety. Many of these fall within the remit of the current 2016-2019 Development Plan, ‘Medellín Resiliente’.

The plan builds on previous iterations, including
... ‘A more humane Medellín’ (1998-2000),
... ‘Competitive Medellín’ (2001-2003),
... ‘Medellín, a commitment for the entire citizenry’ (2004-2007),
... ‘Medellín is solidary and competitive’ (2008-2011), and
... ‘Everybody for Life’ (2012-2015).

More detail on each of these plans, as well as comprehensive overview of Medellín’s local political approach can be found in the Medellín Charter produced by City Hall.

A large degree of the city’s current CVE-relevant programming comes under the Security and Coexistence Public Policy, approved in September 2016, which aims to build the capacity of citizens and institutions to govern and respond to security and inclusion issues and emphasises the need to identify complex underlying causes and early prevention strategies.

A flagship policy is the Strategy of Guarantees of Non-Repetition of Violence (GNR), which seeks to identify causes of violence related to the armed conflict in Medellín, support extensive research and conduct an inventory of local art projects that address the armed conflict. It ties into additional programmes within the development plan, including the Recovering Security and Citizen Coexistence dimension, the ‘Medellín is Counting on you to Build Peace in the Region’ challenge, the Promotion of Human Rights programme, and the Comprehensive Care for Victims and/or witnesses of Crimes with High Social Impact project.

Much of Medellín’s violence prevention and CVE-relevant initiatives involve oversight, direction and monitoring from the Resilience Office, headed by the Chief Resilience Officer. Given Medellín’s broad approach to security issues, there are necessarily multiple agencies, frontline delivery bodies and governance committees feeding into the multi-agency approaches of many of the city’s individual programmes and projects. This includes programmes designed to identify and refer vulnerable individuals and groups.
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2012/5 Journal / Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

Pages 1-34

Description

The guiding question for this case study on urban resilience in situations of violence is how connections between individuals, communities and the state (Evans 1996) affect conditions for resilience. It is territorially focused on the informal settlements in Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, where various violence entrepreneurs have produced acts of violence that at times have made the city one of the most dangerous in the world. Non-state as well as state armed actors have enacted violence, but together individuals, communities and the public authorities are coping with fluctuating conditions of insecurity by fostering positive resilience to strengthen communities and foster connections with the state. Together this has contributed to violence reductions, or at least pressures against the actors of violence. The qualitative research for the report is based on semi-structured interviews with community members, state officials, academics and armed and formerlyarmed actors. The author also conducted participant observation in community meetings in two districts of Medellín (Comunas 5 & 6, and Comuna 13) that have negotiated long histories of violence. Out of more than six decades of violence there has emerged a sophisticated group of resilient community organizations that have managed to cope with attacks by both illegal armed actors in their communities and by excessive force on the part of the state. Positive interactions between the state and these community organizations have contributed to the production of innovative resilience strategies and the adaptation of these strategies within a larger institutional scale and framework implemented by the state.
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