9. Comuna 13 in Medellín
Day 98
It was a field trip day today. I went on a tour to a Comuna 13. Medellín is divided into 16 districts or Comunas. #13 was the epicenter of the violence during the drug wars.
I went on the tour with bunch of other Gringos. One of them was retired FA from YYJ who used to work for the same company as me. A small world. Our tour guide today was Stiven (not a misspell). A young guy who has a house and lives in Cumuna 13. So he knows what he is talking about. The tour was in English but they have guides for different languages as well.
We all gathered at a Metro station and start walking right into the Comuna. We stopped several times when Stiven made presentations. We started with the history of the civil war which lasted almost 50 years. He told us about all those involved, the cartels, the paramilitaries, the far left groups. Interestingly enough, he mentions everybody by name except one person. He calls him by his initials, P.E. That is that they do not want to promote the past, they want to learn and move from it. Extremely informative. I thought I knew a lot about these years here but this was different. This was an unfiltered account of somebody he lived through all of that. Absolutely amazing and in almost all instances very different then the official narrative we got from the mass media and schools. Stiven openly talked about the past and explained all of it on a different level. That could have been a 400 level University course. So interesting. I need to read some more books about all of that, now that I have some extra knowledge. Fascinating. I like to study and read about military history. My dad is a retired army colonel so I was in a boot camp for first 18 years of my life …
Why was there the violence in the first place? Simply put it, a turf war to control access to export the drugs. Strangely, when there were only cartels moving the drugs, there was not as much violence. All cartels had the same goals. But when other groups wanted to join the party, with different political ambitions, that’s when things got messy. For comparison, the most violent city in the world right now, Tijuana, Mexico has about 7 murders per day. In the hight of the drug wars there were on average 23 murder per day in just one district of Medellin.
We were told where the drugs are being grown and the economic behinds it. Where they are shipped and by whom. All very interesting facts. Colombia cocaine export accounts to about 70% of world production. The rest is split between Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. But only 0.3% of the land in Colombia is being used to grow coca.
After 1993 and untimely demise of P.E. the Medellín and Cali cartels basically ceased to exist. They split and joined many other, smaller groups which control the drug business till today. There are about 25 different groups in Colombia alone. However, they are not involved in moving most of the product. That’s is being done by Mexican cartels these days. Colombia is for the most part just a producer. In a way, the problems and the violence only moved to a different place. In the the hight of the cartels there estimates that the total income was 4$ billion. The estimates for the last year was, wait for it - $16B …. 400% increase!
But it was not all bad. They estimate that at least 30% of the businesses in Medellín existed purely because of the drug business as a “byproduct”. That meant employment and less poverty. I learnt that school attendance is not mandatory for kids here right now. There are around 20% kids who are not in school now. Not enough schools. One way they are trying to solve the problem is to have shifts. One class goes to school in the morning, the other in the afternoon. They have already similar system in Guatemala. We were told not to give ANYTHING to the kids during our tour. That is not to promote the begging. He also told us how important tourists like us are for the community. Not only money we bring bring, the stuff we buy, eating and drinking there. Also motivation. Kids see us and understand there is another way to live the live then with violence. They all like to talk to tourists.
Not to say there is no violence now. There is, but compare to the past it is minimal. The local people pushed out the warring factions which were replaced by local gangsters. Again, two sides of the story here. Every business in the district pays 1-2% of “security tax”. In return, they are guaranteed safety. Gangsters understand business. There are not many ways to get out of this viscous circle. Tourism is one of them. That’s why it is now perfectly safe to walk in place like Comuna 13. We were told, that its is all but guaranteed that nobody will steal anything or harm any tourists. That is because that would bring a bad publicity. And the gangsters make sure that doesn’t happen.
So, these days, the Comuna 13 is a bustling tourist place with hundreds of stores, restaurants and bars. There are hundreds of amazing murals and graffities, there performing artists there, it is amazing place to visit. But we were told that we should leave the place at night. There are no hotels there and they do not want gringos there at night.
Comuna 13 is a blueprint for other districts in Medellin how to transform from the violent past to the prosperous and safe future. And it is great to see how young people like Stiven who lives there, how optimistic and dedicated they are about their future.
I can go on and on and I forgot most of what I’ve heard today. But it certainly was a highlight of my trip so far.