Body Count Schizophrenia:

Framing Urban Violence and

Success in Medellin

‘The Politics of Portrayal: A Seminar on the Forms and

Functions of Representations of Violence’

Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University, in

collaboration with EU Marie Curie SPBUILD Network.

19/10/2012, Utrecht

Alexandra Abello Colak

University of Bradford & Centre for Conflict

Studies, University of Utrecht

Medellin, Colombia

The murder and drug trafficking capital of the world (1990s) became in the mid 2000s a laboratory of urban transformation.

Today Medellin is the most competitive city in Colombia. National hub for business and entrepreneurial growth in services, telecommunications and technological innovation.

Successfully attracting tourists and foreign investors.

1. Reduction in Homicides Rates

330

381

352

311

266

224 203

154 154 167 160

174 184

98.2

57.3 35.3 35.7 33.8

45.6

94.5 86.3 69.7

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Number of Homicides Homicides Rate

( homicides per 100.000 people)

Evolution of Lethal Violence in Medellin

1990-2011

2. Urban Transformation and

State Presence

A new cycle of violence 2008-2011

Exponential increments

in the number homicides

and armed confrontations

(6,905 people killed in 4

years)

52 neighborhoods

affected

Intra-Urban

Displacement

5.098 victims in 2010 and

8.434 in 2011

33.8

45.6

94.5

86.3

69.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Homicides Rates Number of Homicides

Coercive control by local gangs

Disappearances

Recruitment of children

and young people

Indiscriminate armed confrontations

Racketeering and Violent ‘Protection’

Violence concentrates

on the poorest

communities

.

Displacement

Framing the Crises

‘Urban violence is the result of the restructuring process taking place in the drug trafficking industry and the

criminal world’

More

than 250

armed

groups

Portfolio of

Illegal

Activities

(2 million Euros a

month)

Increasing

operational

Capacity

The Responses and Impact

Militarization of poor urban communities (Increments in the number of soldiers and police officers)

Emphasis on social control (curfews for young people in most violent communities)

Stigmatization of the marginalized (young people especially)

‘We find ourselves affected by a severely ill youth.

Young people are lacking principles and values,

they are submerged in drug addictions and do not

recognise or accept any authority. Youths are

decided to get everything with a minimum of effort

and at any price… We face the threat of a

maquiavelic youth’

Commander of Medellin Police Force, May 2011

Criminalization of social policy (Social programs and access to services as tools to fight criminality)

Intelligence based policing and emphasis on the use of technology for

security (citizens as informants)

Security mapping and tailor-made security responses (Differential citizenship)

‘There are different problems in different communities

so the best way to describe what we do is: in safe

communities we shake hands, in sensitive areas we use

a clenched fist and in critical areas we hit hard’

Municipal Official, Nov 2009

RESULTS?

•Deteriorating relations between police

and residents of communities

•No impact on levels of violence

Oversimplification of the problem:

Certain ‘Violences’ become invisible

Incapacity to recognize causes and drivers of the

problem

Erratic security responses

‘Body Count Schizophrenia’

A distorted version of urban reality…

This ‘Schizophrenia’ seems useful BUT it is dangerous!

At the same time that the city successfully integrates to the global economy and builds a sophisticated state apparatus with strong coercive forces, the mutation of violences and violent actors continues…

•Showing success

•Building a ‘bureaucratically

sophisticated state’

•Exporting know-how

•Weak legitimacy in targeted

communities

•Violences continue to

reproduce

•Distortion of the notion of

security

•Normalization of violences

Thank you!