Medellin is much safer, if not safe

Medellin was once in a league of its own, racking up 6,349 killings in 1.991, or 380 per 100,000 people when drug kingpin Pablo Escobar had put a bounty on the heads of policemen and vowed to bring the city to its knees.

The homicide rate has since fallen by 80 percent, making this city a model that attracts politicians and police officials who come from as far away as South Africa, Rio de Janeiro and Washington to see how officials engineered the transformation.

And yet, as Molina pointed out, slow nights in Medellin can be fleeting.

“When we get to seven murders in a day, we say, ‘Oh God, what’s happening?’ ” she said.

Deploying more police officers to problem districts has worked here and in other cities as far away as New York. 

Medellin’s anti-crime formula, though, included a range of programs that improved life in problem neighborhoods and made the city more inclusive for the once-forgotten poor, said Mayor Anibal Gaviria, who called the changes here “a metamorphosis.”

New schools were built and old ones remodeled in the city’s so-called Comunas, the toughest districts. 

New libraries, lauded for their modernist architecture, also went up alongside new parks and public squares. 

Because neighborhoods climb up steep hillsides, city officials installed lifts and gondolas to carry thousands of people down from distant barrios to Medellin’s immaculate metro.

Still, Medellin officials have found that the gains on crime and violence can be ephemeral.

In 2.007, the city recorded 771 killings, for a homicide rate lower than Washington’s. 

But by 2.011, it was back up to 1,649 homicides. 

The number has since fallen fast once more, but gang expert Luis Fernando Quijano said the sharp rise and fall suggest that gang leaders may be fighting less, not that the state has control.

“This city has never really made the decision to strike a blow against the gang structures,” Quijano said.