Over the past 10 years, Colombia has enjoyed a huge change in fortunes. The economy is humming, drug-related violence is down and security forces have corralled the rebel FARC guerillas. From infrastructure to corruption, however, some serious problems persist.
by: admin Cartagena, Colombia (szeke)
By Yves Bourdillon
LES ÉCHOS/Worldcrunch
BOGOTA — What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, Colombia was the Greece of Latin America in the eyes of investors. Young people were desperate to emigrate. The well-off, afraid they’d be kidnapped, avoided traveling between Bogota and Medellin. When they did, it was best to travel the 240 kilometers that separate the two cities in a convoy, escorted by armed guards. And, oh yes: Colombia’s murder rate was the highest on the planet: 76 per 100,000 inhabitants.
But that was before the turnaround. This country of 45 million residents, thanks to its booming annual GDP growth of 5.5%, has recently passed Chile to boast South America’s third largest economy – after Brazil and Argentina. No one would compare it with Greece now. Colombian bonds have recently been upgraded to “investment-grade.” A decade ago they were classified as “junk.” Another positive sign is the free trade agreement (FTA) Colombia has finally managed to seal with the United States. The U.S. Congress approved the FTA a month ago, after five years of deliberations.
Colombia’s rapid growth has had positive social effects as well. Ten years ago, 50% of the country lived on less than $2 per day. Today it’s down to 37%, and unemployment, which once affected a fifth of the population, has been halved. Colombia’s infamous murder rate, furthermore, is now a third of what it was, and kidnappings are down by a factor of 12.
Perhaps nowhere is the transformation more evident than in Medellin’s Communa 13 neighborhood. A decade ago, no police officer in his right mind would dare venture into the ultra-violent neighborhood. Now, people walk around freely. It was there, in the city’s hillside barrios, that Colombian authorities first began trying to reestablish the rule of law. In October 2002, soon after President Alvaro Uribe’s arrival to power, some 3,000 soldiers – backed by tanks and helicopters – seized control of Communa 13 after five days of combat. “It’s like we took back our own country,” says one Colombian man.
A majority of Colombians credit Mr. Uribe for the turnaround. In 2006, the popular conservative was reelected. He was succeeded four years later by his defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, who is remembered in France for receiving French-Colombian hostage and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt on the military tarmac after the 2008 commando raid that freed…
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