Paris Comuna, Medellín June 15, 2001

"We still have more murders a year than in all the rest of Colombia. Why don’t you reporters write about what’s happening in Medellín anymore?"

I have come to Medellín to document efforts toward peace and reconciliation, with a particular focus on programs that prevent community and/or youth violence. And so on my first visit a few months back, I was surprised to find that that was the question nearly everyone asked of me--prison directors, academics, prosecutors, community activists, ordinary people in the famously violent barrios known as comunas. Why, they demanded to know, had Medellín, once the object of so much foreign media attention, been all but forgotten? The longer I stay here the more pertinent their question seems.

For the last six years, the local combos (or gangs) in the northwesternmost section of the city have managed to hammer out and respect non-aggression pacts with one another. This would never have been possible without Medellín’s Process of Reconciliation (formerly known as Peace and Living in Harmony). Los Muchachos, the band that controls Paris, has even submitted a business plan to the Medellín Business Bureau to transform the tradition of "protection money" (called vacunas) on bus routes. Instead of "extorting" money, they propose forming a cooperative that will charge fair rates for the amenities the community provides to the bus companies, which include safe parking places, and the washing and servicing of vehicles.

The process in Paris interests me for several reasons. For 35 years of its history, Paris was totally abandoned by state institutions, including the police and military. Lacking public funds, the community's own efforts provided the infrastructure for water, light, roads, education, and health institutions.

For a brief spell during the Escobar years, "Pablito" became a benefactor, building a soccer field in the community. A few of the elder members of Los Muchachos worked as hired contract killers for the drug lord. But the relation lasted only a year before the community's self-sufficient spirit led to a war for independence from the cartel. As part of the peace deal with Escobar, Los Muchachos were allowed to develop a fringe of illegal activities that held no interest for the cartel. In addition to sustaining the families of Los Muchachos, these activities contributed significantly to the economy of the wider community.

A decade later, changing economic fortunes and other pressures have caused Los Muchachos to consider a different development strategy. Their business plan and active participation in a larger community-wide peace initiative involving the local schools, the Catholic Archdiocese, and the local health clinic suggest that the group is serious about change, receptive to the needs and rights of other community institutions, and open to non-violent negotiation.