Colombia’s Buenaventura creates strategy to fight crime

Americas Now

Colombia's Buenaventura creates strategy to fight crime

The people of Colombia thought they had left their tumultuous past behind, but in the port town of Buenaventura, violence, poverty and drugs are all too present in people’s minds. In the city of nearly 400,000 people, 40 percent are unemployed and 80 percent are impoverished. To make matters worse, the people say that the government has abandoned them, leaving a power vacuum.

This vacuum has been filled by warring gangs, leftovers of the demobilized paramilitary groups of the country’s more violent days. Now, Los Urabeños and La Empresa control the drug trade of the city and ruthlessly eliminate what they consider to be threats in their way, scarring the houses and palms of what should be a beautiful port city with bullet holes. The government has hesitated to intervene in the worst areas because the risk of sending in uniformed men would be too great, leaving the gangs the ability to act with impunity.

However, hope is not lost. Plans are in the works to make the area safer, but even this has been met
with criticism from the local population. The local and federal governments have already set aside 15 million dollars for the Malecon Bahia de la Cruz project to renovate Buenaventura’s city center with a pier that would extend 4 kilometers up the city’s coast. This pier, however, would displace several communities 15 miles inland where locals say their living conditions would be as bad, if not worse, than in Buenaventura.

Another solution that local and international groups have come up with is the establishment of a humanitarian zone in between the fighting. These zones have distinguished themselves from the rest of the city in that they have clearly stated they want no part of the drug war and actively shun it. These areas are are protected by International Humanitarian Law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict.

CCTV America’s Michelle Begue reports on how locals hope this strategy, along with an influx of humanitarian aid, will help quell the seemingly unending violence in Buenaventura.

Colombia's Buenaventura creates strategy to fight crime

The people of Colombia thought they had left their tumultuous past behind, but in the port town of Buenaventura, violence, poverty and drugs are all too present in people’s minds. In the city of nearly 400,000 people, 40 percent are unemployed and 80 percent are impoverished. To make matters worse, the people say that the government has abandoned them, leaving a power vacuum.