Medellin Problems

June 11, 2002

Colombian cities now targets of war
Medellin is top priority of guerrillas

By JOHN OTIS

Copyright 2002 Houston ChronicleSouth America Bureau


MEDELLIN, Colombia -- A message about a suspicious man wandering the neighborhood crackled across the two-way radio of Roberto, an urban guerrilla with a revolver tucked under his belt.

As children watch curiously, two rebels from the National Army of Liberation patrol the July 20th neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia.
Along with two colleagues, Roberto marched off to investigate, cutting short a conversation with a visitor.

Twenty minutes later, gunshots rang out and the rebels reappeared, dragging the bloody corpse of a teen-ager by the legs. Then they dumped the body into a wheelbarrow and paraded through the streets of Medellin's July 20th slum.

"If the enemy comes in here, we greet them with lead," said Roberto, a member of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia's two guerrilla groups, which controls the mountainside barrio.

Ravaged by clashes involving Marxist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and government forces, Medellin is the most troubling example of how Colombia's 38-year-old war is expanding into the cities, experts say.

The guerrillas, who have mostly fought for remote jungle and mountain regions, have reinforced their presence in Medellin in the past few years as part of their campaign to target urban areas.

In response, illegal paramilitary forces that fight the guerrillas have taken over dozens of Medellin neighborhoods, while the police and army have launched attacks on the rebels' urban cells.

"For several years, the guerrillas have been pushing their plans to take the war from the countryside to the cities," said Medellin's police chief, Gen. Leonardo Gallego. "Our information tells us that Medellin is the No. 1 objective."

In the war's first pitched battle on city streets in nearly two decades, 1,000 police and army troops faced fierce resistance from guerrilla militiamen last month, when they surrounded the safe houses of rebel leaders in the July 20th slum. Nine people, including four minors, died in what was widely viewed as a botched government operation.


"We live from shootout to shootout," said a tearful Edilma Tascon, whose 11-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet in the fighting. "The attacks are indiscriminate, and the community suffers the consequences."

A week after the firefight, Medellin Mayor Luis Perez tried to enter the July 20th barrio to inaugurate a new bus terminal and was met by a hail of bullets from rebel militias. He threw a flak jacket over his head and canceled the event.

Because of its violent history, Medellin -- Colombia's second-largest city, with a population of about 3 million -- has proved a fertile recruiting ground for both guerrillas and paramilitaries.

During Colombia's cocaine bonanza in the 1980s, thousands of unemployed men found work with the infamous Medellin drug cartel. Some worked as hired assassins for drug lord Pablo Escobar, while others formed street gangs in the labyrinth of ghettos that creep up the mountainsides overlooking downtown. By 1991, the city was the murder capital of the world, with more than 6,000 homicides annually.

"The drug traffickers tried to create a culture of illegality," Perez said. "They turned these youths into their armed wings."

Today, drug-related violence has waned, and Escobar is in his grave. But unemployment again is on the rise, and a new generation of gangs holds sway over many neighborhoods.

By offering weapons, training and payoffs to gang members, the guerrillas have persuaded many to join their ranks. According to the police, more than 1,200 rebels now live in the city.

In the 1960s, when the ELN and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were founded, the guerrillas focused on hit-and-run attacks in the countryside. But now, 70 percent of Colombians live in urban areas, and both rebel groups have turned their attention to the cities.

"Here in the jungle, all that will remain are rats, pigs, turkeys and chickens because the guerrillas are going to the city," FARC military leader Jorge Briceño said in a widely quoted speech last year. "That is where we are going to pillage."

Analysts say a strong presence in the cities allows illegal armed groups to establish strategic links to rural areas, set up intelligence networks and more easily procure arms and other supplies for their fighters in the countryside.

The FARC and ELN have long maintained small militias in Medellin and other Colombian cities. Recently, the rebel groups have used their urban troops to carry out terrorism attacks.

Since the Colombian government broke off peace talks with the FARC in February, the insurgents have set off a number of deadly car bombs in the country's largest cities and have tried to sabotage the water supply for Bogotá, the capital.

In April, FARC commandos stormed into the city of Cali and kidnapped 12 state legislators.

By focusing on the cities, the rebels could be counting on a long-term payoff.

Urban areas "will be used by the armed groups as proof of their territorial power and as bargaining chips in future peace negotiations," wrote Alonso Salazar, an expert on Medellin's violence, in the Bogotá news weekly Semana.

In some ways, the rebels' increased attention to Medellin has backfired.

Alarmed at the growing guerrilla presence, hundreds of paramilitaries have pushed into the city over the past two years and have wrested control of some neighborhoods from the FARC and the ELN.

"In two more years, we will control all of Medellin," predicted the commander of a paramilitary squad in the San Pablo slum who goes by the alias Piolin.

Piolin's men wear black ski masks and carry shotguns and automatic rifles. Rebels control nearby ghettos, and shootouts sometimes are fierce.

"Three of our guys were wounded today," Piolin confided as he sipped coffee after a recent patrol.

The paramilitary commander has been at war for nine years. Tired of extortion schemes and other abuses committed by the rebel militias that used to control San Pablo, Piolin said he formed a street gang in 1993. A few years later, he contacted Colombia's main paramilitary group, which agreed to supply his organization with weapons, training and financing.

Piolin claims that his fighters have earned the respect of local residents by cleaning up the neighborhood.

Yet it can be difficult to distinguish between paramilitaries, guerrillas and members of street gangs.

According to authorities, paramilitaries hired one of Medellin's most feared gangs, La Terraza, to carry out political assassinations, including the 1999 killing of beloved humorist and peace activist Jaime Garzon. Later, paramilitary leaders decided that the gang was getting out of control and began to eliminate La Terraza members.

Critics contend that the police and army work in close coordination with the paramilitaries, a charge that Gallego, the police chief, denies.

But there appears to be little effort by government security forces to take on the paramilitaries.

When police officers cruised through San Pablo on motorcycles last week, Piolin -- who was dressed in civilian clothes -- greeted one agent with a hearty slap on the back.

Gonzalo Medina, a journalism professor at the University of Antioquia, fears that many Medellin officials and residents view the paramilitaries as "the good guys."

But the paramilitaries also commit abuses. Last week, Medina said, suspected paramilitaries killed two students on the university campus.

"The cure could end up being worse than the disease," he said.

Thanks for the post, Ray. My Colombian contact has stated that just before and at least a year after the presidential election, all major Colombian cites will be intruded by the rebel groups. Urban rebel violence will be the worst in Medellin. I wouldn't risk my ass in Medellin for a piece of ass. Kev

[Eastwood]

Maybe this will result in the higher quality ladies becoming motivated for a better life. Has anyone done any researched this? For example, Argentina has an economic crisis, yet there are few women available there. What does it take to turn the tide? Ray please contact me offline at ed.wilus@cox.net.

[Bill123]

No, the problem is that more ladies in general will want to leave, not just the higher quality ones.

And quite frankly, I do not really like these as motives for meeting someone to get out of the country. It just raises yet another red flag we have to watch out for.

[Eastwood]

The reasons gringos seek Colombian ladies are favorable demographics and beautiful women who are motivated to leave. If unmotivated women are your ideal, some countries which have very beautiful ones are Thailand, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

[Bill123]

Of course gringos are seeking better women by going south. Nowhere did I say one should find "unmotivated" women. But what I did say is that you have to look at the things that are motivating them.

Gringos delude themselves time and again thinking that Colombian women want the same thing as us. If you think their primary motivation is in finding "handsome men", then you are sorely mistaken. Or haven't you seen the average gringo who marries a Colombian woman?!

These women want to "marry up" and they want security. And they want out of the hellhole that is Colombia. And you are their ticket!

ANYTHING that causes even more women to want to get out of their country is going to exacerbate the situation.

How many times do we have to hear stories of women with a "plan B"?

Folks, this whole foreign bride thing is a minefield. Anyone who thinks it isn't will learn the hard way.

There are some great women there, to be sure. But if we don't understand what it is really like to live there and to want to be out of there, and the motivations this creates, we will continue to led down the non-golden pathway.

And by the way, finding a woman in Thailand, Canada, Mexico, and Europe is entirely possible. And best of all, you would have a much better chance of the whole thing being real, and that she really likes you, if you try these countries than in trying countries where the sole motivation is to escape.

Bill, I agree. I think gringos should look at other countries in addition to Colombia in their searches for foreign brides. A friend of mine appears to be happily-married to a filipina who is a dentist. She seems really nice. She is pregnant. (their first). He visited her 4 or 5 times before they got married. They both weren't desperate losers. My friend had no problem getting dates with good-looking AWs. His wife being a dentist, although poor by our standards, was doing well enough in the Phillippines. She didn't like the somewhat macho attitudes of her countrymen. Of course, the attraction of a better lifestyle in the States helps, too. Obviously, the main motivations of the woman are important.

[Chao]

I think Bill123's post is about the most sobering one I've seen in my three years on this board.

Anyone just now starting out on their quest for a Latina bride - print out this thread and paste it to your forehead.

The FARC recently threatened the lives of a hundred or so mayors in Colombia. This situation in Colombia is spiraling downward. More women will now be motivated to leave by any means they can - including marrying someone they don't love. Be careful. Take your time. Consider other countries.

chao

I agree with Chao, SJI had a similar post in another forum but Bill's post is a wake up call.

Hey Reality:

about your friend who married a philipina how did he meet her? I think the philipinas's are good women.
can you contact me?
steveb129@hotmail.com