June 4 2013 The New Colombia

Peace and prosperity in sight: the country comes of age

www.ft.com/new-colombia

The New Colombia Contents

Comment 5 Many of the republic’s presidents have had a lasting and sometimes unwelcome 8 influence on their successors, says Malcolm Deas

Introduction 6 The country is overcoming 26 rugged geography that has long stymied development Editorial

Profile Special Reports editor: Michael Skapinker 8 President Juan Manuel Editor: Hugo Greenhalgh Santos has vowed to end the Lead editor: Helen Barrett country’s drug violence but is Production editor: treading a fine political line George Kyriakos Art director: Gavin Brammall Picture editors: Michael Crabtree, John Wellings Sub editor: Philip Parrish Advertising production: 12 Daniel Lesar Contributors Energy John Paul Rathbone is the FT’s 12 The oil industry has Latin America editor boomed following market Andres Schipani is the FT’s liberalisation and an influx Andes correspondent of Venezuelan talent Adam Thomson the FT’s bureau chief in Mexico Security Henry Mance is an FT Companies reporter 14 Expertise gained fighting Naomi Mapstone is the insurgents has developed FT’s Peru correspondent into a thriving export trade Malcolm Deas is an emeritus Colombians to watch fellow, St Antony’s College, Media wars 34 The men and women who University of Oxford 20 New conflicts of interest are setting the agendas in Óscar Naranjo is a senior partner 42 and chairman of Óscar Naranjo & arise, as the balance of power politics, society, business and Partners and a former director of shifts from political elites to culture, at home and abroad the Colombian National Police big business Bogotá nights The big picture 42 The capital’s young For commercial opportunities 26 La Guajira peninsula is an people sound off about their please contact John Moncure at unlikely mixture of semi- hopes and aspirations [email protected] or Alejandra nomadic people, tourism and Mejia at [email protected] mining companies Comment 46 A more service-orientated Infrastructure culture has revolutionised 30 A huge transport upgrade policing, says Óscar Naranjo, programme promises to the former director of the Interactive graphic: Biodiversity ease cross-country journeys Colombian National Police www.ft.com/colombia-biodiversity

3

The New Colombia

Eternal leaders

Colombian presidents often exert their influence long after they have left office – much to the irritation of some successors, says Malcolm Deas

All the same, his candidate, José María Obando, lost the 1837 election and Santander spent the cou- ple of years remaining to him in virulent polemics. When he died, one newspaper commented that his friends should see to it that he was buried with pen, ink and paper, as he would no doubt go on scribbling in his tomb. he politics of Colombia have Other notable presidents have followed Santand- never been typical of Latin er’s example: Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, whose America. The same could be remarkably creative first presidency was followed said of the other countries in the by three later terms in which he achieved much less; region, because generalisations Núñez, who could never quite let go; Miguel Anto- are nearly always wrong. nio Caro, an ultramontane dogmatist who nonethe- T Colombia has been governed less found life not worth living without engaging in predominantly by civilians, who constant public arguments. have gained the presidency through elections where, More recently, Carlos Lleras usually, the outcome was uncertain. Restrepo, who after leaving the Colombia is not Few winners have dominated the country’s politics presidency in 1970 wrote and a deferential for long, and few presidents have been re-elected: published a periodical almost Álvaro Uribe’s two terms, which ran from 2002 to single-handedly, and his cousin, country. 2010, have been matched only by Rafael Núñez’s Alberto Lleras Camargo, who, ascendancy in the 1880s and 1890s. Núñez, for most of Cincinnatus-like, retired to Such a time the time, delegated the exercise of power to his vice- rural Chia. But far from putting never existed presidents, preferring to brood far from the capital, his hand to the plough, he went lulled by the sea breezes in his villa near Cartagena. on writing to the political lead- One result of this system is the existence at any ers in El Tiempo, the country’s leading paper. On the one time of several living ex-presidents. At present, other side of Colombia’s bipartisan divide, Conserva- as well as Uribe, there are four: Belisario Betancur, tive ex-presidents Laureano Gómez and Mariano César Gaviria, Ernesto Samper and Andrés Pastrana. Ospina led their factions from beyond the grave. Of those, only the first can be said to have retired from One exasperated columnist has recently suggested the fray, in his case to devote himself to the arts and the usual remedy in this legalistic republic – that enjoy the tranquillity of provincial Barichara – and there should be a law against this sort of thing, that even he cannot resist the occasional political twitch. somehow ex-presidents should be compelled to keep Colombia has never been an easy country to gov- silent. This is seen as particularly desirable in the ern, and ex-presidents add to complications faced by context of the delicate peace negotiations between any incumbent. This is the case with President Juan Santos’s government and the Farc guerrillas. Manuel Santos and his predecessor, Uribe, whose It cannot be done, and there are many reasons why. prestige is still high and whose exceptional energy is One is human nature: most politicians feel compelled undiminished. Uribe is also a master of Twitter, an to defend their records. instrument only recently available to those who have Others are perhaps more Colombian: there is no left office. Some Colombians look back to a past age House of Lords where such figures can be put out to when ex-presidents supposedly behaved with more grass and no presidential memorial libraries – at least restraint, receiving in return the respect and defer- not for the living. ence that few of them enjoyed while in office. Followings insist their leaders continue to lead. Colombia is not a deferential country. Such a time The country is a disputatious democracy where no never existed. Francisco de Paula Santander, the rival one is censored and all have a right to be heard. Suc- to Simón Bolívar and founding president of the inde- cess in making peace must take that into account. n pendent republic, recognised that the only way to govern its vast and poorly integrated territory was by Malcolm Deas is an emeritus fellow of St Antony’s College constant long-distance networking, assiduous parti- and lecturer in the government and politics of Latin san journalism and the full range of electoral arts. America at the University of Oxford

5 The New Colombia coReundiscovertred y

For decades the rugged Andean landscape harboured crime and violence, but today regional pride is emerging in a revived economy. By John Paul Rathbone

ric Hobsbawm, the Brit- appeared to be something else, because ish historian who died nothing was necessarily what it seemed. last year, had an abiding Still, as Ilearnt then and for ever remem- affection for South Amer- ber, Colombia’s tortured topography ica. He first visited in the explains much about the country. Often 1960s and returned often. impassable terrain can lead to hugely dif- “Nobody who discovers ferent yet adjacent micro-climates – be ESouth America can resist they ecological, social or political. the region,” he once wrote. Thus, Paris Hilton, the American heir- I first travelled to Colombia in the ess, has opened a boutique in Bogotá sell- mid-1980s and, like Hobsbawm, could ing accessories (modernity has it pluses Geography has left not resist what I saw. Two years later I and minuses). Meanwhile, 150km away returned to write a tourist guide, having in Boyacá, campesinos, peasants seem- much of Colombia out persuaded a publisher of the brio of the ingly drawn from medieval times, use Colombians and the remarkable biodi- the archaic if charming address of “su of sight, out of mind versity of their country, with its Carib- merced”, meaning “your mercy”. bean and Pacific coasts, Amazon jungle, Indeed, for much of the country, Bogotá grassy plains and rolling, if often impen- remains a remote and distant capital. And evolved from nearly failed state in the etrable, central mountains. if the state’s reach has failed to penetrate 1980s into the can-do emerging power of If it was a romantic vision, the honey- some regions, that has often been simply today is more or less well known, even if moon ended abruptly and on an exact because it could not get there. its costs are not always fully appreciated. date: August 18 1989, when the Medellín Successive governments attacked and drug cartel killed presidential candidate Age-old battles balkanised the drug cartels into smaller Luis Carlos Galán. Bomb attacks, kidnap- That is partly why Colombia has hosted criminal groups. These no longer pose a pings and assassinations (especially of one of the world’s oldest guerrilla insur- systemic threat and violence has dropped judges and journalists) were soon routine. gencies. Geography is a veil that has left sharply, even if narco-trafficking persists Writing a tourist guide became an much of the country out of sight, out of and will continue to do so while illegal anomaly. Surely I was CIA, many disbe- reach and out of mind. drugs remain highly profitable. lieving Colombians asked. In those con- How the world’s most populous In the 2000s, Álvaro Uribe, then-presi- fusing, fear-filled days, everything often Spanish-speaking nation, after Mexico, dent, launched an all-out offensive on the

6 The New Colombia

the food producer – have expanded It is, perhaps, the most “Anglo-Saxon” 300 km abroad and become true multilatinas, country in Latin America – as can be Caribbean Sea with market capitalisations to match. seen, trivially, in the red-brick and mock- Topography also explains the persis- Tudor architecture of Bogotá. But it is PANAMA tent difficulties of moving around the also a country of extreme and frustrating country. Businesses complain that it costs legalism (and, perhaps because of that, VENEZUELA as much to truck goods to the Pacific occasional extreme lawlessness). coast as it does to ship them on to Asia. Trade liberalisation has since broached the isolation López Michelsen referred to. Medellín New journey begins Colombia’s economy is now larger than Most of Colombia’s roads remain little South Africa’s and, by some measures, Bogotá better than 30 years ago, and distances bigger than Argentina’s, a G20 member. are always greater than a bird flying Nonetheless, it is striking that foreign- between two points. This, though, may be ers are often more optimistic about the COLOMBIA changing – albeit slowly – under the gov- country than many nationals. This may ernment’s infrastructure programme. be because Colombians, self-protec- BRAZIL Alfonso López Michelsen, another for- tively, take the cynical view (and perhaps mer president, once described Colombia because their traditional trade partner, as “the Tibet of South America”. He was troubled Venezuela, is no longer the ECUADOR referring to its isolation, but also to its market it used to be). But it may also be PERU exceptionalism. because the country’s latest challenges, Colombia has never defaulted on its such as extreme inequality, can seem as foreign debt and has an unusually long intractable as the former ones. Governance: the state has democratic tradition – competitive elec- Either way, the New Colombia is unde- often struggled to extend its tions have been held on and off since the niably a better country than the old one, reach outside the capital 1820s. Uniquely and remarkably, it has in the sense of being more secure, more suffered only one recession in nearly a prosperous and better known. The enthu- century (despite near-constant internal siastic guide book I planned 25 years ago conflict). was not wrong, just premature. n guerrillas, supported by Washington – a rare example of a US foreign-policy suc- cess in the region. The state’s expanding presence opened up previously closed areas to mining and oil exploration. It also launched a boom that brought wealth, especially to shareholders of companies such as Ecopetrol and Pacific Rubiales, but also “Dutch disease” – commodity- driven currency appreciation that hurts local manufacturing. Still, with the guerrillas demoralised and backed into a corner, Juan Manuel Santos, the president, has launched a peace process. Doubtless, Colombia will never achieve the peace of an eden, but that the process exists is a symptom of success. Colombia has even become an exporter of the security expertise it accrued so painfully. The effects of Colombia’s geography are now felt more sharply in economics

than in politics. They explain a proud and viS continuing regionalism – perhaps com- Da

parable with that of Italy, another nation eTHel of rival city states. This regional pride is embodied espe-

cially in the industriousness of the Antio- BlOOmBerg, queños. Their leading local companies S: TO – banks such as Grupo Sura and Nutresa, PHO

7 The New Colombia The peace maker

In seeking to end 50 years of guerrilla fighting, President Juan Manuel Santos is treading a fine political line, writes John Paul Rathbone

or much of his career, Juan Manuel Santos has waged war. Now,

Colombia’s president is seeking peace. As he sits in the presiden- MOrris

tial palace in Bogotá, his tone is measured, his gestures controlled PHer and his gaze calm from under slightly hooded eyes. It is the inscru- TO CHris

table mien of a practised poker player – which is fitting, because if :

politics is a poker game, Santos has recently gone all-in. TO PHO 8 The New Colombia

‘What I want is peace. Believe me, it is much harder to make peace than war’

9 The New Colombia

Forthepast50years,Colombiahasbeenwracked tic armed struggle. So Santos took a calculated risk. As Fighting talk: by Latin America’s oldest guerrilla insurgency. But he says, “the potential returns are so high”. since last last September, Santos opened formal talks with the Peace would certainly be a game changer for September the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the Farc) Colombia’s $390bn economy. “With peace, our econ- Farc guerrillas, to try to find peace. Success would end a conflict that omy would do better still,” says Santos. below, have has become entwined with rightwing paramilitary Colombia is also a member of the Pacific Alliance, been in formal groups, displaced millions and left thousands dead. a promising $1,200bn trade bloc that includes Mexico, discussions with As the Farc has also funded itself with narco-traffick- Chile and Peru and is characterised by liberal-minded the Colombian ing (although it denies this), peace has international instincts. Santos is proud if characteristically diplo- government ramifications too. matic about comparisons with South America’s more Yet many Colombians, following the failure of all protectionist Atlantic economies, such as Brazil and other Farc peace talks, fear Santos in his pursuit of a Argentina. “You will never hear me denigrating other successful deal has become more of a Chamberlain countries,” he says. “But it is true we are faster-grow- than a Churchill. Since the talks began, his popular- ing. We also share the same beliefs about the impor- ity has slumped below 50 per cent. tance of foreign investment and rule of law.” Santos leans forward into the bright Andean Yet peace, for all its merits, would also bring chal- sunlight streaming through the windows. Nervous lenges. For one, incorporating demobilised guerrillas presidential aides rustle their papers. On the wall, a into national politics could see Colombia’s tradition- portrait of a man on a rearing horse peers out of a ally centre-right politics swing to the left. That pros- grapeshot-ridden period of Colombian history. “I am not an appeaser. What I want is peace,” Santos says crisply, chopping the air with his hand. “Believe me, it is much harder to make peace than war.” Santos knows whereof he speaks. As defence min- ister under Álvaro Uribe, the former president, he pounded the Farc’s 8,000 troops relentlessly. Not that this has stopped Uribe from since becoming one of Santos’s most relentless critics. “No one has hit the Farc harder than I. But all wars have to end at some point, and that requires a negoti- ated solution,” Santos says. “That is why every mili- tary officer fights – so that there may be peace. Still, as I have always said, these talks have limits, and if peace is not possible we shall walk away.” Having established the point, the emotional tem- perature in the room drops, his aides relax and the president resumes his inscrutable poise. Santos, 61, studied at the London School of Eco- nomics and, like many well-bred Colombians, has ‘Where do you draw a strand of Anglophilia. Indeed, he is a “gent” in the English phrase. The nephew of a former president, the line between his family owned the country’s newspaper of record, El Tiempo, until it was sold in 2007. He is cultivated justice and peace?’ and urbane, but remains grounded by drawing life lessons from poker. “Truman and Roosevelt… liked to play,” he says. “It reminded them of everyday life pect might sit comfortably with the patrician San- and of governing, that you need to know the rules of tos – “I’m a third way kind of guy” – but not with all the game, when to risk, who your rivals are, and that Colombians, many of whom associate leftwing poli- you need luck and vision in order to win.” tics with terrorists. “There cannot be peace with total More than anything, though, Santos is groomed immunity, so there has to be a process of transitional for power. He has worked as a minister of trade, of justice. But where do you draw the line between finance and of defence. Before government, he was justice and peace?” he says. “This is the common a journalist and set up a think-tank dedicated to the dilemma of every country that wants to solve a con- knotty theme of good governance. flict like ours… Still, as [a prominent international On paper, therefore, few presidents anywhere are prosecutor] said, justice cannot be an obstacle for as well prepared for the job, including its potential peace, anywhere, at any time.” pitfalls. Santos did not need to open the peace talks Even if polls suggest that public support for the COrBis – continuing to fight would have been the easier path peace process is growing, this is the kind of talk that eYeViNe,

politically. But the stars were aligned, especially after so riles Santos’s domestic opponents. It can also s:

Cuba urged the Marxist Farc to give up its anachronis- feed fears, especially in the business community, TO PHO

10 The New Colombia

On poverty row: that peace could one day unleash a wave of political them to do: from tax, education, health, pension and Juan Manual populism. justice reforms to trade liberalisation. And all that Santos, above, Bogotá is a city of glittering skyscrapers and busy before even thinking about peace. visits a street in shopping centres with an up-and-coming middle This, critics say, is the Achilles heel of his pro- Bogotá known as class, but to its south are areas such as Ciudad Bolívar, gramme: it is too ambitious and too broad. “The ‘El Bronx’, in one a series of once-green rolling hills now covered with number of reforms passed, and their quality, make of the city’s most grey shanty towns. Meanwhile Cartagena, on the Car- us probably the most progressive government in the deprived areas ibbean coast, is a colonial jewel that thrums with well- past century,” Santos responds. heeled tourists. But around the city live hard-scrabble He reels off statistics: a drop in inequality; 200km populations displaced by violence from the interior. of new double-lane roads built last year and 300km Santos – his government’s Tony Blair-esque motto this year (“comparable to Spain at its best moment”); is “Prosperity for All” – has unleashed programmes and reparations paid to more than 170,000 victims of to combat poverty and inequality. But advancing the violence. agenda has been easier said than done, prompting His reform list, though, forces a question on many the criticism that Santos, the former newspaperman, Colombian minds: with so much still to do, surely he “governs with headlines” and does not follow through. will run again for president in 2014? Santos says he “There are many definitions of governance. The will not decide until November, that he is unattached one I have is execution,” he responds, bristling to power and would just as much be a teacher as slightly. He points to the fact that ministries have president. “Some people think that being in this posi- spent more of their allocated budgets in the past two tion is very agreeable,” he says. “I must tell you that years than in the past 15, although as he adds, a tough sometimes it is very difficult.” new anti-corruption law has produced inertia in a There is no reason to disbelieve him, until the sub- newly fearful bureaucracy. “We went too far, perhaps ject of completing the peace process – his potential [with that bill],” he says. marker in history – comes up. Domestic opponents At the same time, the economy has come off say Santos needs a peace deal to launch his re-election the boil. A wave of oil and mining investment has bid. A more interesting question, though, is whether brought signs of “Dutch disease”, including an appre- peace needs him. After all, signing a deal is only half ciated currency that has punished manufacturers, a the process – implementing it will be harder still. major source of employment, as well as agriculture. “If peace is possible I would be very irresponsible Although the economy is growing at around 4 per to my country and future generations if I put in jeop- cent, “some sectors are not doing very well”, San- ardy that possibility,” he says. It is unclear whether tos admits. (He announced a stimulus package two this suggests ambivalence about running again or a weeks after this interview.) hint that he will – perhaps both. Then there is his management style. This is more Santos is a Bogotá Brahmin who came to office chairman of the board than chief executive. His cabi- after deep thought about what Colombia needs – but net, perhaps the most competent in South America, has been frustrated, perhaps, in the state’s ability to is stuffed with capable technocrats. But critics say execute those plans. He leaves the impression of a this is not always matched by their ability to get reasonable man seeking to govern a remarkable but things done – and there is so much Santos wants also highly unreasonable country. n

11 The New Colombia Oil producers surge ahead Market liberalisation and an influx of émigré Venezuelan workers have been catalysts for a boom in Colombia’s energy sector, writes Andres Schipani

ome commentators com- Pacific Rubiales Energy, the Canadian- petrol, which produces about 60 per cent pared it to Stalin’s purges. Colombian group, was one of the first of the country’s oil. To many, that was It was 2006 and Venezue- private companies to take advantage of exemplified by a recent court case that pit- la’s then-president, Hugo improved security, and is an emblem of ted the companies against each other over Chávez, said employees of Colombia’s oil boom. It became the coun- revenues from a jointly exploited oilfield. PDVSA, the state energy try’s biggest independent oil producer by Nevertheless, both have been aggres- Scompany, who were not exploiting the long-neglected Rubiales sive in exploration and acquisition. willing to side with him field that disappointed many after an While Pacific Rubiales is aiming at 1m could leave. He also hinted that some Exxon affiliate discovered oil there in the b/d within a decade, Ecopetrol is shooting might end up in prison. early 1980s. “Colombia was a great oppor- for 1.3m b/d in 2020, thanks to an $80bn “PDVSA’s workers are with this revo- tunity, with underdeveloped reserves and investment programme already in place lution, and those who aren’t should go several million of yet-to-be-discovered – something that helped make Colombia somewhere else. Go to Miami,” Chávez barrels,” says Ronald Pantin, the Caracas- the region’s fourth-largest oil producer. said, referring to a Thermidorian reac- born chief executive and a former senior Despite neither having made a big oil tion a few years earlier when, after a executive at PDVSA. Thanks to Venezue- discovery, Colombia has almost doubled failed coup, his opponents led a two- lan production technology, Pacific Rubi- production in the past six years to more month energy industry strike that crip- ales has gone from extracting 14,000 bar- than 1m barrels of oil equivalent a day, pled Venezuela’s economy. rels a day in 2008 to a forecast of more and has proven reserves of 2.4bn barrels. After the strike, the president cleaned than 250,000 b/d this year. The country is growing fast partly out PDVSA, sacking 20,000 employees, The growth of Pacific Rubiales – the thanks to the liberalisation of the industry including some of its best petroleum first international company to list in that created the National Hydrocarbons engineers, geologists and managers. Bogotá – has strengthened the phenom- Agency and allowed for the fractional Some did indeed go to the US, but most enon of Toronto-listed oil producers opening of the privatisation state-run were welcomed by Colombia, where they operating in Colombia. Among those are company. According to Javier Gutiérrez, have been instrumental in helping oil Canacol, Petrominerales and Ecopetrol. Ecopetrol chief executive, his company is companies to boost their lagging produc- “Pacific Rubiales and its manage- following a model that “seems to be work- tion of crude and turn the country into a ment team changed the dynamic of the ing” as it has increased production 16 per regional energy powerhouse. oil sector in Colombia,” explains Rupert cent a year since 2008 and is now among “Venezuela’s loss has been, for all Stebbings, vice-president of equity sales the best-performing energy groups in means and purposes, Colombia’s gain,” at Bancolombia. “They are agile, know Latin America. says Carlos Alberto López, a Harvard- exactly what they are doing when it The Colombian state still holds an 88.5 educated Colombian energy expert. After comes to heavy oil and know how to exer- per cent stake in Ecopetrol, with the rest the decline in production and explora- cise their plans and take seriously their publicly traded, but the company has wig- tion during the 1990s, in the past decade responsibilities on all aspects, not just gle room for a further 8.5 per cent issu- Colombia has taken advantage of the getting oil out of the ground at any cost.” ance. With a reform to open up Mexico's commodities boom and a crackdown This notwithstanding, some consider oil and gas sector to private investment on Marxist insurgents. This spurred the Pacific Rubiales’ style of doing business as in the pipeline, some believe Pemex, the interest of investors in the energy-rich arrogant, particularly after some contro- state oil monopoly, and even Ecuador’s parts of Colombia that were off-limits versial advertising and media campaigns. Petroamazonas, could follow in the foot- during the rough years of the drug-fuelled Even the Revolutionary Armed Forces of steps of their Colombian counterpart. guerrilla and paramilitary violence. Colombia (Farc) rebels have called the “Ecopetrol in Colombia is just like any The army of experienced Venezuelan company a “transnational vampire”. other company competing for a share of oil workers and technologically savvy “This new style works for most, but the market,” says Gutiérrez. “We don’t managers was a welcome pool of know- for others there are those ready to shoot have to ask the Colombian state what we how oil companies entering the Colom- them down at the first opportunity,” adds can or can’t do. Not only has Ecopetrol bian scene could tap. “Without them, Stebbings. To a handful of observers this grown, the energy sector in general has Colombia’s extraordinary oil boom might might mean Pacific Rubiales has been, to grown. Colombia’s transformation tran- have faced significant lags,” López says. some extent, stealing the thunder of Eco- scends any company.” n

12 The New Colombia

Colombia’s oil output In thousands of barrels a day. Source: Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy

2014 1,150 (projected)

2013 1,100 (projected)

2003 541 2004 528 2012 944 2005 525

2006 529 2011 2007 914 531

2008 588 2010 2009 785 671

2003 2007 Partial 2008 Pacific 2009 Pacific 2010 Ecopetrol 2012 Ecopetrol Liberalisation flotation of Rubiales starts Rubiales becomes starts trading on overtakesPetrobras of Colombia’s Ecopetrol oil production. the first foreign the Toronto Stock by market oil sector with Ecopetrol begins company to list on Exchange capitalisation. the creation of trading on the Colombia’s stock Pacific Rubiales BRAMMALL the National New York Stock market starts trading on VIN

GA Hydrocarbons Exchange the São Paulo Agency Stock Exchange GRAPHIC:

13 The New Colombia

14 The New Colombia

Security for export

After decades of conflict with insurgents at home, Colombia is cashing in on its military knowhow by selling it to the world, writes Andres Schipani

fter just three hours’ sleep, and a good portion of the day spent under the relent- less mid-morning sun, sweating but com- posed, Private Daniel Mancera is taking a break from training in counter-insur- gency warfare. Without blinking, he has just abseiled down an 18m tower that mimics a Black Hawk helicopter. “I have no doubt that Colombia’s forces are among the best in the world right now,” Mancera says. “And I am getting ready to serve here or any- where in the world if needs be, because everyone wants our services nowadays.” After 50 years of fighting leftwing guerrillas in some of the most inhospi- table terrain anywhere, Colombia is now seeking opportunities to market military skills abroad.

Stopping power: a model shows an

PRESS example of bulletproof clothing made by Miguel Caballero, a CAMERA

: company that manufactures and

TO sells its wares worldwide PHO

15 The New Colombia

“Colombia is interested in offering its expertise,” Juan Carlos Pinzón, the coun- try’s defence minister, says. “We have lived through a reality that I am sure is useful to other countries facing security challenges, even transnational crime.” A few hours south of the capital Bogotá, Fort Tolemaida is the training centre for Colombia’s special forces. Ech- oing Mancera, the country’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, recently christened them “the best in the Americas” because they beat US elite troops in a military tournament last year. It sounds ironic, because since 2000 REUTERS the US has provided Colombia with more : TO than $4bn in training, equipment and PHO security assistance to support the Andean country’s counter-drug and internal secu- than “supercop” Óscar Naranjo, Colom- rity efforts. ‘Colombians are good, bia’s former police chief who won inter- But after a decade of an all-out offen- very good, when national accolades after dismantling the sive that has diminished the guerrillas’ country’s most notorious drugs cartels power, Colombia’s fortunes have turned. it comes to facing and is now working as Mexico’s presiden- Besides the almost inhuman training, tial adviser on security issues. Colombian forces have been battle-hard- violent puzzles’ Nevertheless, Colombia is not just ened after years of local civil wars and exporting people and knowhow – it has Sicilian-style blood feuds between the also started to sell military hardware leftwing guerrillas, drug gangs and right- Pack leader: Colombian-made overseas. Indeed, Indumil, the state-run wing paramilitary groups. body armour backpacks for military arms manufacturer, is consid- The country has cashed in on the expe- schoolchildren, above, are a ered the crown jewel of Colombia’s mili- rience in recent years, with the interna- bestseller in the US tary weaponry sector. In recent years, the tional deployment of military capabilities company has developed a new genera- gained through one of the world’s long- tion of the Israeli Galil ACE assault rifle. est-running armed conflicts growing in 2000 and 2010, Colombia’s annual mili- The weapon was initially conceived for leaps and bounds. tary spending almost doubled from use by the Colombian armed forces, and “Weare even teaching American troops $5.7bn to $10.4bn, according to the Inter- last year almost 750,000 rifle parts were how to fight irregular armies and Chinese national Crisis Group, a think-tank. This exported from Colombia back to Israel. troops how to become prime snipers,” makes the country one of the top mili- Amore rank-and-file example is Miguel says Walther Giraldo, commander of Fort tary spenders in Latin America, while Caballero, a maker of personal ballis- Tolemaida, which adopted the model of this year’s budget stands at about $12bn, tic protection products. After success at the US Army Rangers when it was estab- according to the defence minister. home, the company started exporting lished. “This is a civilian conflict, after all, bulletproof clothing to India and Nige- which means it has been or still is close to ria, for use by government officials, and Global market many people who have learnt the trade,” opened a shop in Mexico that supplies Over the past decade, say defence offi- says Jorge Restrepo, a Bogotá-based politicians and security forces. Known as cials, Colombia has offered its hands- economist and head of Cerac, a conflict “the Armani of armour”, Miguel Cabal- on expertise to several Latin American, analysis think-tank. “So in today’s Colom- lero has created “bullet-resistant fashion” Caribbean, European and west African bia there is knowhow and experience in – armoured tank-tops and T-shirts that countries and even Afghanistan via Nato. the dark arts of defence everywhere.” have been sold to the Harrods depart- More than 16,000 people in 40 countries Colombia’s conflict has turned former ment store in London, for example. have been trained by Colombian security officials into successful private operators, Following the Newtown school shoot- forces in areas such as maritime interdic- cashing in on their security expertise. ings in the US in December 2012, when tion, jungle combat, anti-terrorism intel- “[We] Colombians are good, very good, 20 children and six teachers were killed, ligence and tactics to fight extortion, kid- when it comes to facing violent puzzles, Miguel Caballero’s products have arrived napping and drug trafficking. so we definitely have something to offer,” in the US, where its grade-school body Decades of combat have left says Adriana Mejía, a former deputy armour – a backpack-and-vest combina- Colombia with armed forces that are foreign minister who initiated police tion – has become a bestseller. 450,000-strong. Its army is bigger than co-operation agreements and is now a One reason why Colombia has been Brazil’s, a country with a population four globetrotting security consultant. able to do all of this is that the guerrilla times the size of Colombia’s. Between Her business partner is none other threat within the country has dimin-

16

The New Colombia

ished. In recent years, Colombia’s deter- bia, I am a simple corporal who might end mined, well-trained armed forces have Colombia’s annual defence budget up in jail, and earn $1,100 [a month], but killed several commanders of the Revolu- [in the UAE] I will [be] a sergeant and earn tionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), 2000 $3,300 with much better benefits overall,” weakening the rebels and helping the state says a Colombian elite squad member to regain control of large areas of the coun- who was recently interviewed by an Emi- try that were lost during the 1990s at the rati military envoy in Bogotá. peak of the conflict. According to a recent $5.7bn report by the defence ministry, the Farc Talent drain has lost 1,200 rebels in the past two years. For Henry Medina, a retired major gen- For all the opportunities that exporting eral and former head of Colombia’s Supe- security expertise presents, there are also rior School of War, this is “bleeding” the potential problems. Pinzón’s forces have country of its best men. “I understand it is recently been creaking under the weight not easy to find an exceptionally trained of their own success, having been unable soldier with so many years of combat to keep some of their best-trained men. experience, willing to go there for that The United Arab Emirates has been money,” he says. “An American would be actively – and unofficially, through local 2010 much more expensive and much harder recruiters – hiring Colombian troops to get.” To stem the exodus, President by the hundred as an insurance policy Santos recently sent a delegation to Abu against domestic unrest. Dhabi to work on an accord. The reasoning behind importing $10.4bn In general, though, experts and govern- Colombians in particular, sources say, is ment see it as a tremendous opportunity that they are not Arabs or Muslims and to redeem the years of fighting Colom- thus might have fewer qualms about bians have under their belts. For Miguel opening fire. Other skills include the Caballero, founder of the eponymous experience acquired through Farc cam- company, the equation is simple: “After paigns, as well as being familiar with the so many years of fighting, people realise US-made weapons the UAE buys, such as that if a security product or service works Black Hawk helicopters. in Colombia, it will undoubtedly work Colombian soldiers are, in turn, lured anywhere in the world.”  by the promise of riches and the avoid- ance of potential charges for human rights Additional reporting by Michael Peel in Abu abuses in their home country. “In Colom- Dhabi and Adam Thomson in Mexico City

Long-term enemies

Under the banner of social thousands of people have been government launched a in the early 1960s by radical justice, Pedro Antonio killed and millions displaced as military crackdown. Since Roman Catholic priests and Marín – popularly known as the army, leftwing rebels and 2008, when the military Marxist intellectuals enthused Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda rightwing paramilitary groups rescued Íngrid Betancourt, a by the revolution led by Fidel (pictured below) – organised have battled it out. former Colombian presidential Castro and Ernesto “Che” his peasant followers into a As support for its Marxist candidate, and 14 other Guevara in Cuba. revolutionary movement in cause has waned, the group hostages, the government has Experts say both rebel groups the green hills of Marquetalia has resorted to forcefully rained down blows on the Farc. have survived by financing in 1964. Armed only with old recruiting youngsters and Some Farc commanders themselves with activities such bolt-action rifles, the rebels children. By the early 2000s, have been killed or died in as kidnapping for ransom, of the Revolutionary Armed the insurgents numbered recent years. The 8,000 extortion, drug trafficking, Forces of Colombia (Farc) about 20,000 – strong enough guerrillas left are scattered informal goldmining and arms initially received support to overrun towns and military around rural areas, engaging in smuggling. Both the Farc and from the Soviet Union, Cuba garrisons, launch mortar grenade attacks and planting the ELN have denied this. and Colombia’s Communist attacks in central makeshift landmines. The US Colombia has held successful party. Bogotá and control and the EU consider the Farc a peace talks before. The M-19 Since then, the leftwing almost a third of terrorist organisation. urban guerrilla group put down fighters have engaged in Colombia’s territory. Colombia’s other guerrilla its weapons in 1990, and more a running war with the That was until group, the National Liberation than 30,000 paramilitaries state, taking control of 10 years ago, Army (ELN), has only some demobilised between 2004 and backwater areas. Tens of when Colombia’s 1,500 fighters. It was started 2006. AS

18

The New Colombia

Wealth power

Industry and politics are closely linked with and the control of the media, but journalists have a proud history of challenging press the status quo, writes John Paul Rathbone REUTERs , AFP s: TO PHO

20 The New Colombia

uillermo Cano, the editor of El Espectador, Colom- newspaper reporter, to El Espectador’s murdered Figures of bia’s oldest newspaper, was murdered on December editor, whose name is honoured today by Unesco’s influence 17 1986 as he left work. Three years later, a Medellín Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. opposite, from top: cartel bomb blew up the paper’s Bogotá offices, in “I am very optimistic about the country,” says billionaire Luis what was meant as a final reprisal for El Espectador’s Duzán. “I am less sure about the press.” Carlos Sarmiento; continued denunciations of the drug gangs. Traditionally, the Colombian press was controlled Andrés Pastrana, “The country was living under a dictatorship of by leading families who wore their liberal principles former president fear,” remembers Enrique Santos, then a columnist on their sleeves and for decades rotated through the and journalist; and co-owner of El Tiempo, El Espectador’s biggest political establishment. The Santos family, which El Tiempo, rival. “But Cano’s killing was also a turning point – we owned El Tiempo between 1913 and 2007, is the best- Colombia’s largest knew we had to do something.” known example. Eduardo Santos was the country’s circulation daily That something was the “Kremlin”, a secret group- president between 1938 and 1942, while Juan Manuel ing of the country’s leading journalists, who pooled Santos, his great nephew, is the current president. their investigative work and co-ordinated the simul- But the Santos family is not the only Colombian clan taneous publication of anonymous reports across with a politico-journalistic axis. the nation’s media. “Thank God those days are gone,” recalls María Lasting dynasties Jimena Duzán, El Espectador’s co-ordinator at the Andrés Pastrana, who was Colombia’s president Kremlin at the time. between 1998 and 2002, began his career as a journal- They certainly have. Back then, Colombia was on ist. The brother of Ernesto Samper, president from the verge of apparent collapse. Less than 30 years 1994 to 1998, is Daniel Samper Pizano, one of the coun- later, the country is an emerging economic power – try’s best-known columnists. Felipe López, publisher a remarkable transformation mirrored in the press of Semana, one of Latin America’s sharpest news and the latest challenges it faces. weeklies, is the son of a former Tellingly, one of the hottest topics in Colombian president and the grandson journalism today is less about staying alive than of another. Semana’s editor is Recent ownership managing the conflicts of interest that have accom- Alejandro Santos, nephew of changes in the media panied the country’s new-found prosperity. Of the the current president. five Colombians on Forbes’ global billionaires list, “You wouldn’t get that kind suggest the country’s the three richest have come to control the country’s of incestuousness in Africa!” largest media groups. exclaims former vice-pres- elites are in flux Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who has a $14bn fortune, ident Francisco Santos, a according to Forbes, in 2012 bought El Tiempo, sometime journalist who is also a cousin of the cur- Colombia’s largest-circulation daily and the newspa- rent president, as well as being one of his fiercest crit- per of record. Alejandro Santo Domingo, with $12bn, ics – Colombia remains a country of contradictions owns El Espectador, the country’s second-biggest and surprises. newspaper, and Caracol, one of Colombia’s two pri- For some, these family dynasties are a symbol of a vate television stations, which has production agree- paradoxical country: one with the continent’s long- ments with Univision of the US and Mexico’s Televisa. est history of democracy but also some of its most And Carlos Ardila, with $5bn, owns RCN television enduring elites. In the UK, they might be called mem- and radio, the country’s other private national net- bers of “the great and the good”. work, which has a television joint venture with News Yet the recent ownership changes in Colombia’s Corp in the US, as well as being the originator of the media industry, which earns $1.5bn a year in adver- Ugly Betty series. tising revenues, suggest the country’s “elites” – a On a US canvas, this pattern of ownership is akin problematic word, because it implies precision – are to the Murdoch family, which controls News Corp, in flux, and that these changes, while a welcome sign also owning a conglomerate such as General Electric. of social mobility, have brought fresh challenges, The very idea seems antithetical to Colombia’s especially conflicts of interest. long history of journalism, which has nurtured some Certainly, there are potential conflicts aplenty for formidable talents – from Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia’s new media barons. Sarmiento is a self- the Nobel literature prize winner who began as a made billionaire whose Grupo Aval financial con-

21 The New Colombia

glomerate has interests in the booming sectors of insurance, banking, pensions and infrastructure. Santo Domingo heads the Valorem industrial group, which has interests in forestry, transport and brewing (via its 14 per cent holding in London-listed SABMiller, which bought the Santo Domingo family’s beer company, Bavaria, in 2005 for $6bn). Lastly, Ardila is an entrepreneur who married into a soft drinks and foods business, and whose other interests include textiles, car parts and Medellín’s Atlético Nacional football team. To be sure, these magnates often stress their phil- anthropic and patriotic interests in owning media companies, although their potential usefulness can- not be ignored. Julio Santo Domingo, who died in 2011, said own- ing El Espectador was like “having a pistol in your pocket: you don’t want to use it, but it is good to have just in case”. Still, his purchase of the paper in 1997, Turning point: in large part out of civic duty to stop it going bank- There are potential Guillermo rupt, is widely acknowledged. conflicts aplenty Cano, whose “He also liked the fact that El Espectador some- assassination times went after some of his friends’ interests,” says for Colombia’s new in 1986 gave one long-standing business associate. “It tickled and new impetus amused him at cocktail parties.” media barons to investigative Santo Domingo’s son Alejandro continues to sup- journalism port the newspaper financially. With a daily reader- minded billionaire to come to its aid. But in Colom- ship of 240,000, it makes a loss, although it expects to bia, where the corporate stage is smaller and the break even next year and is still known for its liberal wealth more concentrated, the drama is newer and, journalism and student-heavy readership. perhaps because of that, more intensely felt. Luis Carlos Sarmiento Jr, whose father bought El The issue has raised questions about what is the Tiempo after financial problems prompted Span- best ownership model for journalism – corporate or ish publisher Planeta to sell the paper in 2012 after family? If a corporation, is it a cross-subsidy if the buying it in 2007, has been more explicit. El Tiempo, company advertises in the paper it owns? And, if that which has more than 1m daily readers, is profitable happens, how can conflicts of interest be avoided? and has a thriving classifieds business. El Espectador, which has a publishing agreement “Someone has to own El Tiempo. But who can with the FT, routinely publishes disclaimers when- own it without having conflicts of interests and also ever it reports on a Santo Domingo business. “It is lots of money? Such entities don’t exist,” he told the newspaper policy,” says Fidel Cano, El Espectador’s FT shortly after the purchase closed. “We will have editor and the nephew of Don Guillermo – one sign to manage these conflicts of interests like everybody of editorial continuity under its new owners. else. Furthermore, there is an altruistic motive to it, El Tiempo, however, still seems to be working as my father will tell you.” out its disclosure system, reporters at the paper say. Certainly, billionaires owning broadsheets is a Roberto Pombo, El Tiempo’s director, bristles at the sign of the times. In the developed world, many an notion that this compromises editorial independ- ailing newspaper has hoped for a philanthropically ence and stresses that “our columnists can write

Timeline

Early 1980s 1986 1989 1997 2012 Guillermo Cano is shot The Medellín cartel Julio Santo Luis Carlos Cano, editor of dead in Bogotá detonates a bomb Domingo, whose Sarmiento, the El Espectador, by hitmen under outside the El family-owned richest man in leads attacks orders from Pablo Espectador offices. group accounted Colombia, buys on Colombia’s Escobar, the Journalists set for 4 per cent of El Tiempo, the drug cartels in notorious leader of up the “Kremlin” Colombian GDP at country’s biggest- his newspaper’s the Medellín drug group to publish its peak, buys El selling newspaper, columns and cartel. investigative Espectador. from Planeta, the editorials. stories. Spanish publisher.

22

The New Colombia

whatever they want to – as they always have”. Nonetheless, to conspiracy theorists – which Colom- bia has in abundance – the situation is ripe for abuse. For them, the powerful corporate owners of “New Colombia”, which have replaced the powerful politi- cal families of “Old Colombia”, suggest a country in thrall to power and entrenched interests.

Critical controversy One recent kerfuffle surrounded Daniel Pardo, an independent journalist (whose father, as it happens, is a former foreign minister). Pardo lost his job at internet news portal KienyKe after publishing a criti- cal piece about Pacific Rubiales, the dual-listed Cana- dian-Colombian oil company, which had bought advertising space throughout the Colombian media. The whys and wherefores of Pardo’s case are dis- puted, although Duzán commented in her Semana column: “His departure confirmed something that we already knew: that in those media without a clear dividing line between information, opinion and pub- licity, freedom of expression is a mere sophism.” Nonetheless, journalists continue to expose cor- ruption and scandals. For example, swaths of former congressmen are under investigation for alleged links On a roll: El País is one of several to paramilitary groups. Journalists’ work continues regional papers in rude health to make them targets of violence. In May, Ricardo Calderón, Semana’s investigations editor, escaped an apparent assassination attempt near Bogotá. And Other Colombian media the government has warned of other plots. If the need for advertising revenues creates some How to navigate one’s way around The most notable website is La self-censorship, it is also a far cry from other Latin Colombian media? In addition to Silla Vacía, run by Juanita León, a American countries, where governments often have El Tiempo, which has an excellent former Semana journalist (see page an arm-lock on the advertising budgets of state- printed edition, and El Espectador, 37). Founded in 2009, lasillavacia. owned companies. Instead, the end result is a typical which has a top-notch website, com publishes investigative pieces, Colombian hybrid – one that perhaps should not there are the family-owned regional has some 300,000 unique users, is work but does. newspapers. The rude commercial well read by opinion formers and “Yes, Colombia’s main media belong to the coun- health of titles such El País in Cali, policy makers, and covers its costs, try’s most powerful people, be they economic or El Colombiano in Medellín and El even if this is largely thanks to grants political. But it is difficult to see that they affect the Nuevo Heraldo in Barranquilla, with from agencies such as the Ford media’s independence,” says Jaime Abello, direc- circulations of around 200,000 each, Foundation. “The commercial side tor of the FNPI, the New Iberoamerican Journal- ensures media plurality in a country has been harder than I thought,” ism Foundation, an independent group founded by that is always rich in news. León admits. García Márquez. “There has always been a close For crisp and, for many, For news junkies, other sites relationship between power and the press here, yet indispensable analysis of the week’s include razonpublica.com, which at the same time also independence, space and a cer- news, there is Semana, a magazine tends towards hefty essays, and tain critical distance.” with a pithy narrative reporting style kienyke.com, which mixes fashion In some ways the problems of Colombia’s media based on Time and The Economist. with politics in a lighter blend. landscape reflect the country’s broader success. That Now in its 30th year, Semana has Finally, there are social media it faces the same kinds of conflicts and pressures as groomed many of Colombia’s best – especially Twitter. Much used by the media almost everywhere is a sign of the Colom- journalists. former president Álvaro Uribe, a bian economy’s growing openness, globalisation, Apart from lively radio stations, prestigious prestidigitator with prosperity – and concentration. such as Blu, a relative newcomer more than 2m followers, he launches “The more powerful revolution has not been to the Bogotá airwaves, there are stinging attacks daily on the policies changes in ownership but the rise of consumerism nimble and probing internet start- of his former protégé, Juan Manuel and the internet,” Abello says. ups that dig deep into breaking Santos. A common theme from That is one conflict publishers everywhere have news and political themes – certainly the hyperactive Uribe is a lament not figured out how to win decisively, including even deeper than on television, where about how the country’s security has those intrepid Colombian journalists who once faced analytical news programmes tend to worsened since he stopped being down drug barons from the “Kremlin”. n run late at night. president. JPR

24

THE BIG FAPIULCTURE T FALINEULST

La Guajira peninsula is an unlikLIely mixNEof semi-nomadicS people, tourism and mining Antiori dolorec tiorro inusciis multinationals, writes John Paul unt volendi genditas con natiat Rathbone.Photographs ad quassuntio officaeptae by Diana Bejarano By Stanley Pignal

26 27 ThThe Nee bigw Copicturelombia

28 FAULT LINES

■La Guajira is one of Colombia’s most startling frontiers. More of an afterthought than an extension of the Caribbean coast- line, it is a 240km-long, 48km-wide snout that guards the Venezuelan gulf and ends at Punta Gallinas – South America’s north- ernmost point. Romantic and strange, it is an arid spit, flat as a runway, sparsely dusted with rock and thorn. With its cen- turies-long tradition of smuggling, more recently drug-running and – more recently still – coalmining, it is one huge hideaway, an old fashioned badlands. It is home to the semi-nomadic Wayuu tribe, never subjugated by the Spanish, whose women traditionally wear colour- ful mantas, soft-flowing robes wonderfully unsuited to the peninsula’s thornbrushes, while the men more often wear west- ern clothes, sometimes with a .45 pistol under the belt. Around Cabo de la Vela – a headland that is now a windsurfers’ para- dise – vast flocks of flamingos gather, and throughout there are shifting bands of smugglers who ply their trade: single malt whiskies, cheap petrol from Venezuela and contraband Marlboro cigarettes. It is the site of Cerrejón, one of Latin America’s largest coalmines, a joint ven- ture between Anglo American, BHP Billi- ton and Xstrata that exported 33m tonnes last year and is developing a $1.3bn pro- ject to boost that to 40m tonnes by 2015. In March, guerrillas blew up one of Cer- rejón’s railway lines. Earlier this year, its Lines in the land: the workers went on a 32-day strike – now arid peninsula offers settled, although during the walkout the coal riches from the local press gleefully reported how many Cerrejón mine, top, millions were being lost. while entrepreneurial Alabama-based Drummond, with its schemes exist to help own coalmine nearby, has a poorer local the indigenous Wayuu reputation. In April, it agreed to pay three people earn money years’ worth of overdue mining royalties (the delay was due to a technical glitch, Wayuu earn money, from solar power to now corrected, the company said). It also cultivating desert weeds, which might con- faces a separate fine and was barred from tain valuable resins. Educating the Wayuu exporting for a month after it dumped (subtext for some: assimilating them) is coal in the Caribbean while rescuing a another hot topic in a region that, for all sinking barge in January. Drummond its trackless expanses, has deep histories – faces a US lawsuit, over alleged links to and not just of duplicity and betrayal. paramilitaries who killed union leaders in Unesco has recognised the Wayuu con- 2001. Drummond denies the allegations cept of the palabrero, a wise man who and has countersued for defamation. mediates clan conflicts, as part of the La Guajira has attracted more surreal “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”. entrepreneurs of late. In vogue is adventure And four years ago, archaeologists dug up tourism plus adjacent exotic industries, a fossil of what is believed to be the largest such as growing gourmet mushrooms. snake that ever lived. Titanoboa was 13m There are also schemes aplenty to help the long and weighed more than a tonne. n

29 ThTheeNeNewwCoCololombmbiaia

LONG ROAD AHEAD

Skid row: many of Colombia’s major road links are poorly maintained dirt tracks

30 The country’s crumbling transport infrastructure is to receive a $100bn update over the next decade, writes Andres Schipani Photographs by Stephen Ferry

ing it fully for all the trade agreements that have been signed or are about to be. “Nowhere else in the world is there such an ambitious programme,” says Luis Fernando Andrade, director of the new national infrastructure agency, the ANI. His target – to build 8,000km of roads in six years and reduce travel times by 30-50 per cent – is ambitious. To accom- plish it, Andrade, the respected former head of management consultancy McK- insey in Colombia, is overseeing a tripling in transport infrastructure investment by next year via public-private partnerships. Ten years ago, Colombia spent roughly 1 per cent of GDP – about $3bn – on trans- port infrastructure. Now, the government plans to spend some 3 per cent of GDP – about $10bn. “Until now we have not invested in infrastructure because we have had other priorities, such as waging an inter- nal conflict,” explains Andrade. The very time he leaves Medellín, truck driver cooling of the insurgency as well as Carlos Patiño drops his eyelids, makes the macroeconomic stability and record- sign of the cross and murmurs a prayer. breaking fiscal inflows now allow for such After 15 years of transporting cargo expenditure. on Colombia’s roads, these days he is not “We have found the right formula,” he asking for mercy from possible attacks by adds. This formula is simple: Colombia’s rebel assassins or ruthless paramilitaries, government is auctioning off $25bn worth who less than a decade ago controlled the of road infrastructure to keep the coun- lands he is about to cross. try’s economy humming. The concessions Instead, he is praying for divine pro- are part of a larger strategic goal to invest tection as he sets off on a 750km journey nearly $32bn in transport infrastructure carrying groceries for Nutresa, Colom- by 2014 and about $100bn by 2021. bia’s biggest food producer, to the town of El Banco Magdelena in the north of Travelling partners the country. Along the potholed roads Government officials claim this is one of makeshift crosses on hairpin bends mark the world’s largest road-concession pro- the sites of fatal accidents when drivers’ grammes, alongside those in India and prayers went unanswered. Brazil. Concessions will be awarded to “I am always a bit worried about the public-private partnerships on 20-year load, about myself. Roads – if you can contracts, thereby helping address an call this a road – should be better,” Patiño obstacle for Colombian construction says, pointing at the coming succession companies, which still look to banks as of potholes. There is not much margin for the best source of financing. Consortiums error for drivers, because the path is 4m formed by local groups and backed by the wide and a precipice looms. financial muscle and global knowhow of To allay Patiño’s fears, the government foreign groups will receive the final allo- has embarked on the most ambitious cations. transport infrastructure plan in its his- As Colombia uses roads for more than tory to bring the road network up to date. 80 per cent of its internal transportation, While it may take some time to complete the push is to create extensive road sys- the overhaul, the magnitude of construc- tems, including the expansion of critical tion is expected to have a positive impact roads and building bridges and tunnels to on gross domestic product. reduce journey times. The improvements will allow Colom- The plan is geared towards cutting bia to become more competitive, prepar- transport, to a great extent by shorten-

31 ing routes and lowering all gradients to Berrio. The paved surface starts to crum- decrease fuel usage, creating 80kph aver- ble until it fades out completely. After the age speeds instead of the current 40kph. initial stretch it is just dirt track, even if Other projects include the restoration this is a major route for lorries and buses. of two railway systems for cargo; making the biggest river system, which flows from Make do and mend the Magdalena river, navigable again; and Standing on the roadside, Víctor Zapata improving port facilities in Barranquilla, collects the change that drivers throw Buenaventura and Cartagena. to him from their windows. That is the “The new programme is very positive token he gets for covering the holes with – things have been moving in the right dirt – a job he has been doing for the past direction – but there is a lot of anxiety 10 years to pay for his meagre rations of after so many years of neglect. That is rice and beans. “I have never seen any- Carlos Patiño’s route why it is important this works well,” says one coming here to fix this, so every day Leonardo Villar, executive director of I just push my wheelbarrow back and Fedesarrollo, a Bogotá-based think-tank. forth covering holes so people can transit El Banco Indeed, road auctions are part of a through here,” he explains. Magdalena broader restructuring of the bidding pro- Many have high expectations that cess and regulation, aimed at correcting picture will soon change. After several Hatillo de Loba a system entangled in political patronage, delays, in April Colombia’s president, weak engineering design and poor over- Juan Manuel Santos, opened the tender- sight. ing for the first $3.5bn of the massive road “Now, we have the appropriate legal plan known as Highways to Prosperity. Aguachica and financial pipeline for projects, but the The project’s main purpose is to connect big projects haven’t started because there Medellín, the country’s economic pow- are still bottlenecks when it comes to envi- erhouse, to the rest of the country, with ronmental licences, consultations with more than 1,000km of highways at a cost communities and lack of public services of $7.2bn. associated with infrastructure,” says Villar. Other big road concessions are flow- But those are not the only issues for ing in. One is the $4bn route from Bogotá a programme that is slowly becom- to Buenaventura that will be turned into ing a reality. In a country crossed by a four-lane road to facilitate trade with three Andean mountain ranges and vast Asia and countries in Latin America – expanses of trackless Amazon jungle, a Mexico, Peru and Chile – that have agreed Medellín proper road network is still almost unim- to drop tariffs to speed up the establish- Medellín-Aguachica aginable to those such as Patiño who ing of their Pacific Alliance. 469km/11 hours have got used to dodging boulders and Mountains and rainforests, however, Aguachica-El Banco Magdalena potholes at high speed. make more than half of Colombia’s ter- 288km/5 hours That is clear when Patiño, after tak- ritory difficult to develop, and in some of El Banco Magdalena-Hatillo de Loba ing six hours to cover just 186km, passes the guerrilla-infested areas where access 18km/2 hours (by boat and mule) a military checkpoint 20km from Puerto is difficult, the military is in charge of ‘The programme is very positive, but there is a lot of anxiety after years of neglect’

32 through the heart of Colombia and was once a leading trade route. As Patiño’s 10-tonne Chevrolet can go no further, José Barrasa is waiting to load Nutresa’s cargo on to his rickety wooden barge. “With a bridge and a road, the load could be anywhere on the other side of the river in 10 minutes,” says Barrasa. “But this place is forgotten.” After a two-hour boat ride, Barrasa hops off the barge and, under the merci- building and paving roads. But even in Logistical odyssey: Colombia’s less sun, loads the cargo of chocolates and this fast-growing economy, mule train or infrastructure upgrades will biscuits on to a white mule and strolls up river barge are still sometimes the safest mean journeys may be 30-50 per a street that is nothing but a ribbon of ways to travel, as the country’s existing cent faster; bottom right, Andres dust, crowded with chickens and pigs. road network continues to deteriorate, Schipani and Carlos Patiño This humid scrubland area used to exacerbating the bottlenecks. have one Colombia’s highest rates of guer- Two years ago, torrential rains led improve connections between the coun- rilla and paramilitary attacks, after the to flooding, followed by landslides that try’s biggest population centres, such as groups vied for control for both sides for destroyed large sections of Colombia’s Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Cartagena and the river. paved roads. Unable to rely on the roads, Barranquilla. Together these cities are Now, the district is mostly in the hands companies such as Nutresa had to find home to more than 60 per cent of Colom- of impoverished fishermen and goldmin- other ways of delivering their goods when bia’s population. Piedrahíta says more ers, and things have improved – locals even seasoned drivers such as Patiño efficient links will give each city easy say that whereas they used to find three could not make headway. access to a port, on either the Pacific or corpses a day in the stream, now they the Caribbean coast. only find one a week. Delivering the goods Colombia’s oil and minerals, as well But some fear the lack of transport The company manages the primary and as its non-commodity exports, such as infrastructure could reverse that pro- secondary transport of its goods – from coffee and flowers, will then be easier to gress. “Whatever the government plan production plants to warehouses and transport and will be more cost-compet- is to make this country easier to transit, from warehouses to customers respec- itive. According to local analysts, freight I hope they start it soon and do it well,” tively – using whatever means of trans- costs an average of around $30 a tonne to Barrasa says, as the mule churns up a port are required. ship from the interior of the country to choking dust cloud on its way to a local “Those include small trucks, four- the coast, compared with about $15 from grocery store, the final destination for wheel-drive vehicles, three-wheel bikes the coast to Asia. Patiño’s cargo. “The security situation for cargo and river barges,” says Carlos For now, though, goods journeys can might be better now, but after all, pov- Piedrahíta, Nutresa chief executive. “In seem endless. After more than 16 hours erty, guerrillas and criminals start where some extraordinary cases we use don- on the road, having travelled just 750km, roads end.” n keys and, during the rainy season, canoes Patiño’s cargo finally arrives in El Banco to reach remote flooded villages.” – a tropical kasbah on the banks of the Digital slideshow: Colombia’s roads Piedrahíta expects the new works to muddy Magdalena river, which runs www.ft.com/colombian-roads

33 The New Colombia Meet thenew movers

Andres Schipani, Naomi Mapstone and Henry Mance profile the Colombians who are setting the agendas in politics, society, business and culture

►Sergio Fajardo Governor of Antioquia

For visitors who walk into his office for the first time, it is a shock to find Sergio Fajardo sitting in a wooden university chair. It makes sense, though, because for this politician, the “challenge is to make education the first step to build opportunities, to contrast [with] the culture of illegality, violence and social inequality”. The innovative former mayor of Medellín, who last year became governor of Antioquia – which is seen as the country’s economic powerhouse – increased spending on education in both offices. He is a US-trained math- ematician whose “social urbanism” won international accolades as he transformed “If you build a beautiful That approach has proved ident two years ago, would the city by building “library library in a poor neighbour- right so far, as Fajardo was be a strong candidate for the parks”, among other projects, hood, it gives people a sense instrumental in improving 2018 presidential election in an attempt to address of importance; it raises their the fortunes of Colombia’s – especially in a post peace- poor education, poverty and dignity and gives them access second city. Although violence accord environment. crime among young people. to goods such as education,” persists, Medellín’s crime Always one step ahead, He achieved this in a place Fajardo says, pushing back levels are no longer escalating he recently said: “We have to infamous for being the cradle his unruly hair. rapidly. For him, “Medellín be prepared for when peace of Pablo Escobar, once the “It also brings visitors from went from fear, to hope”. is signed. In Antioquia, we world’s most wanted outlaw other parts of the city – some- In the eyes of many, this are already thinking how to known for kidnapping, mur- thing that encourages social centrist independent politi- transform the places where der and drug trafficking. integration.” cian, who ran for vice-pres- the guerrillas are.” AS

34 The New Colombia KAIRUZ O KIK EYEVINE, S: TO PHO

▲Catalina Escobar Activist

The face of social work in “She is an example to any balcony. “I didn’t want anyone Colombia. In 2003, infant Colombia is Shakira, the pop entrepreneur,” says María to feel the same pain as I did,” mortality rates were more singer whose charity provides Lucía Roa, the national head of Escobar has said. She set up than twice as high in Carta- education to poor children. Ashoka, the social innovation the Fundación Juan Felipe gena as in the capital, Bogotá. But Catalina Escobar has programme through which Gómez Escobar, named after Escobar and her founda- shown that you don’t need to Escobar passed. “She is an her son, shortly after. tion are now tackling other be a platinum-selling artist example of social conscience, Cartagena, whose colonial problems, such as sexual to shine a light on a pressing of management capacity, of architecture is as beautiful abuse. A new hospital has social problem. someone who knows how to as Havana’s, has some of the offered care to 84,000 people In the tourist hub of use their contacts and how to most pervasive poverty in on low incomes. The obvious Cartagena, Escobar has been measure their impact.” next step would be to expand tackling child mortality for Escobar’s work was borne to other cities in Colombia. more than a decade. Her out of personal tragedy. As ‘We have found “We have found a very work is acclaimed for helping a hospital volunteer, she efficient way of breaking the to halve child mortality rates watched an infant die in her a very efficient cycles of poverty. We have to within a few years, and it has arms because the child’s way of breaking grow it and scale it,” she says. quickly become one of the mother could not pay for Escobar was named a CNN highest-profile and most- treatment. Then her own the cycles of Hero of the Year in 2012, and respected social initiatives in 16-month-old son died in is a feature on the global Latin America. 2000 after falling from a poverty’ conference circuit. HM

35

The New Colombia TA PLA RRES TO JOSÉ MIGUEL BLOOMBERG, S: TO PHO

▲ Carlos Raúl Yepes ▲ Juanita León President, Bancolombia Journalist

Since Carlos Raúl Yepes took previously the bank’s legal When Colombia’s constitu- in addition to grants. “We do control of Bancolombia in counsel. The working week tional court struck down a not have a history behind us, February 2011, Colombia’s for Bancolombia’s staff has challenge to the law prevent- which lets us innovate,” León largest commercial bank has been cut from 48 hours to 43. ing Álvaro Uribe, the popu- says. “We have been trying expanded aggressively. His hands are certainly lar former president, from since the beginning to think It has bought part of ING’s full. Bancolombia has suf- running for a third term, the of La Silla Vacía as a labora- insurance business in Latin fered headaches with its scoop went to a blog. tory for the future of journal- America and HSBC’s opera- computer systems and is La Silla Vacía (The Empty ism.” tions in Panama. Bancolom- facing pressure from the Chair) has just nine full-time bia has hinted at further government, which wants to staff but has filled a niche in expansion and some analysts lower lending rates. the country’s mediascape. ‘We do not believe it has the resources to Then comes the Antio- It has become compulsory have a history think big. queño group’s rivalry with reading for policy makers and How much influence Yepes Grupo Aval, the vehicle political junkies. behind us, has had in all this is unclear. of Luis Carlos Sarmiento, Often irreverent, always Bancolombia is part, albeit a Colombia’s richest man and nimble, La Silla Vacía is the which lets us relatively independent one, of still, aged 80, a fighting force. brainchild of Juanita León, the Grupo Empresarial Antio- “They’re in a competition to a journalist who studied innovate’ queño – a conglomerate origi- see who expands the fastest,” law and went on to work for nally controlled by families says Boris Molina, an equity Semana, the country’s pre- Her worst moment, she from Medellín. That means analyst at Santander bank. mier news magazine. says, was reporting the death there are plenty of other key One possibility for both After taking leave to write of Alfonso Cano, the former figures in Bancolombia’s groups is neighbouring Ven- a book, Country of Bullets, on leader of the Revolutionary strategy, including David ezuela, although they may Colombia’s long-running con- Armed Forces of Colombia, Emilio Bojanini García, chief wait until the political move- flict, León needed a change. prematurely by six months. executive of Grupo Sura, the ment of Hugo Chávez, the late She took a course in news- But the site’s successes bank’s largest shareholder. president, loses power. HM paper website design and far outweigh its mistakes, Yepes has kept out of revamped Semana’s website. and León sees more space the limelight, sticking to From there, a Nieman for digital media projects in corporate talking points. fellowship in the US dur- Colombia. “If the peace pro- Nonetheless, he has started ing Barack Obama’s 2008 cess is successful, I suppose to make his mark. He has presidential campaign fed her the left will also have a space called for the “humanisation interest in digital journalism. for alternative media,” she of banking”, implying that the She stayed on to create the says. NM financial sector in Colombia, now-defunct New York-based as elsewhere, could do with news website Flypmedia.com. a dose of humility. That may Returning to Bogotá, she reflect his background: a set up La Silla Vacía in 2009 lawyer by training, he was with funds from her family

37

The New Colombia BLOOMBERG : TO PHO

▲ David Bojanini ▲ Andrés Jaramillo Chief executive, Businessman and Grupo Sura restaurateur

David Bojanini learnt his Nothing quite prepares you craft when he was still in for Andrés Carne de Res, nappies. In his home city of Colombia’s most famous Medellín, where Colombia’s restaurant. It is a whirlwind of biggest listed companies can colour, dancing and enormous be found, middle- and upper- grills and cocktails. That is class children are given gifts of testament to the creative spirit shares in the city’s businesses of Andrés Jaramillo, the one- when they are baptised. time hippy who founded the ▲ Ana Fernanda Fast-forward 50 years or so business three decades ago Maiguashca to late 2011 and Grupo Sura, with his wife, Stella Ramírez. Economist the company he runs, and Once a 20-table diner serv- one of the country’s biggest ing nothing more than meat, “I basically get paid for nocrats that dominate the financial groups, paid more it now seats 2,000 people at a thinking,” says Ana Fernanda upper echelons of Colombia’s than $3.5bn for the regional time. Its pulling power is such Maiguashca, the jovial econo- key institutions. assets of ING, the Dutch ban- that Jaramillo once described mist who is only the second That tradition arguably has cassurer. “It was the biggest himself as “the dictator woman to become a director allowed the country to avoid project of my career, and the of Chía” – the town on the of Colombia’s central bank. the ideological extremes seen biggest Grupo Sura ever had,” outskirts of Bogotá where the If that assessment makes in some neighbouring coun- Bojanini says. main restaurant is located. monetary policy sound tries. The country is a “small, In the eyes of international Jaramillo’s secret was to easy, it is probably because open economy”, receptive to observers, the deal turned realise that many wealthy Maiguashca’s previous job international thinking, but Grupo Sura into a leading Bogotanos don’t just want to was among the most intense Maiguashca points out: “We example of the so-called mul- eat and drink well – they also possible. As deputy finance have deviated from what had tilatinas – prime local com- want to do it in a carnival minister, she dealt with the been universal truths, at least panies that are now taken atmosphere. And he was aftermath of the global eco- in terms of the International seriously by multinationals. lucky: Chía was untouched by nomic crisis and was instru- Monetary Fund.” Bojanini is notable for his a crackdown on nightclubs in mental in the approval of a Marc Hofstetter, an eco- modesty. He trained in actu- Bogotá during the 1990s, and long-delayed labour reform. nomics professor who has arial science in the US and instead benefited from a new “The finance ministry does worked with Maiguashca, defines himself as a “middle- influx of customers. too many things with too few says: “She didn’t get class man” who started as a Success, coupled with the people. You end up in 900 dis- appointed just because we trainee, then climbed to the restaurant’s astronomical cussions,” says Maiguashca. needed balance. She’s very top thanks to his intellectual prices, has led some to resent “Now, I have time to read smart; she works very hard.” drive. “It appears curious to Jaramillo. But his entrepre- policy papers.” Maiguashca herself puts it many investors that the group neurial nous – rather than It was Juan Manuel Santos, down to “a little bit of talent, is not run by any particular his food – is exactly what Colombia’s president, who a little bit of discipline and a family, and that it is the dem- his peers most admire. “We appointed her to the cen- little bit of luck”. ocratic property of thousands respect him as a business- tral bank. At the age of 38, Typical of technocrats, of shareholders,” he says. man. He is a great host,” says Maiguashca is a fresh face her precise policy views can Most significantly, com- Tomás Rueda, chef at Donos- among rate setters. She points be hard to pin down. “She’s panies such as Bojanini’s are tia, a Bogotá restaurant. HM out that other directors joined a very distinguished, very emblematic of the entrepre- the central bank in their thir- orthodox economist,” says neurialism of the Paisa – as ties – “I’m just the only one Mario Castro, an analyst at people from Medellín are who looks like it!” Nomura. HM called – and are regarded as A graduate of Los Andes a positive force behind a city university in Bogotá, with an that has emerged from the MBA from Columbia, New violence that for a long time York, she is one of the many coloured its name abroad. AS internationally educated tech-

39 The New Colombia

MAKING THEIR MARK ABROAD

Asked to lead a youth orchestra when he was only 15 years old, the Medellín-born virtuoso Andrés Orozco-Estrada now “radiates on the podium”, according to one commentator. Orozco-Estrada holds the batons for Austria’s Tonkünstler Orchestra and the Basque National Orchestra in Spain. The young conductor is also music director designate of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra – where he will be the first Hispanic to hold that position. In Spain, fans of Atlético Madrid, the football team, call Radamel Falcao “the guerrilla of the goal”. He was almost predestined for his role: born in Colombia at the height of the internal armed conflict, he was named by his father in tribute to Paulo Roberto Falcão, the 1980s Brazilian football hero. A native of the coastal city of Santa Marta, the striker is now one of the world’s most coveted players – the star of Colom- bia’s national team is now being courted by clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid. In December last year, he left his fans at Atlético open- The New Colombia SOEFER JULIE Y, GETT S: TO PHO

mouthed when, in less than an hour, he scored five times against Deportivo La Coruña. In New York, a city that is home to more than 200,000 Colombians, Alejandro Santo Domingo stands out. He is a Harvard-educated scion of Colom- bia’s influential Santo Domingo family, whose holdings include television channels and a stake in SABMiller, the brewing company. (At its peak, the Santo Domingo group’s sales were equivalent to 4 per cent of Colom- World players: Radamel Falcao bia’s national output.) Santo Domingo runs Quadrant García, opposite, Alejandro Santo Capital Advisors, a US-based investment advisory Domingo, above left, and Andrés company that is investing in Latin America. Consid- Orozco-Estrada, above right ered by Forbes to be the “richest new billionaire in the world”, he had an estimated net worth of $11.7bn as of March 2013. AS 42 Bogotá nights

Out on the town in Colombia’s t is a Friday night in Bogotá and the dancefloor at Andres DC is a capital, young people are mass of sweaty bodies as the pre- dominantly young clientele of the celebrating a new wave of city’s popular nightspot gyrates optimism and entrepreneurial to a mix of western pop and local Vallenato (folk) tunes. spirit as the city’s violent I Cocktails at this showy restau- rant-cum-nightclub, a carefully choreo- history fades from memory, graphed chaos of fun and kitschy colour, writes Adam Thomson are a heart-stopping 50,000 pesos ($27). But neither the price, nor the 20,000 Photographs by Stephen Ferry pesos cover charge, is a deterrent: as per most nights, the place is heaving. Go back a decade or more, and Bogotá felt much like the chilly and conserva- tive Andean city that it always used to be. Founded at an oxygen-depleted 2,600m at the foot of a towering ridge that runs from north to south, the city of about 8.5m people was better known for its hot chocolate and early closing times than for its nightlife. In the 1990s, and in an effort to control increasing violence, Antanas Mockus, a former mayor, reined in bar closing times from 3am to 1am. A few years later, the city’s taxis began installing bulletproof screens separating driver from passenger – even though they often dug into pas- sengers’ knees and left the driver’s chest pushed up against the wheel. Today, the screens have all but gone and there is a feelgood factor arguably stronger than at any time in living mem- ory. The economy is growing at a fast

43 The New Colombia

‘Young people use to leave Bogotá, and often with a one-way ticket’

clip; once-gruesome violence from the country’s drugs war and 50-year insur- gency no longer affects the capital direct- ly and a demographic boom – a quarter of the country’s 47m population is aged between 14 and 28 – has produced an explosion in demand for entertainment – above all, nightlife. Santiago Prieto, a 25-year-old musician and member of local group Monsieur Periné, is one of the younger generation fuelling the city’s new-found vibe. Sipping cocktails with two friends at the lounge- style Casa 53*76 bar, with its 2013 sophis- tication wrapped in retro decor, Prieto says that even his traditionally precari- says Ana María Otero-Cleves, a 30-some- portal pairs 40,000 university-educated ous profession is feeling the economic thing history professor at the city’s Los Colombians with 700 companies, rang- upswing. Andes university. “They are now actively ing from multinationals to family-owned “A few years ago, being a musician was choosing to stay in Bogotá.” businesses, each month. a real struggle,” he says in a quick burst “Young people use to leave Bogotá, and of well-spoken Spanish that reveals an Start-up spirit often with a one-way ticket,” says Jara- upper-middle-class upbringing. “Nowa- Sebastián Jaramillo, a tall, good-looking millo. “All my friends are now deciding to days, everyone has work.” 28-year-old, typifies that spirit. Educated stay. They work in different fields, but all Twenty-six-year-old Felipe Cuervo, in the UK during his last years of high of them have work and all of them are do- a sharply dressed philosophy graduate school and then in Boston at university ing well.” with the distinct air of a 19th-century level, Jaramillo decided to return to his It has just gone 8am on a typical slate- bohemian poet, says that the economic native Bogotá to set up a business. grey morning and a small group of first- turnaround is so tangible that it has even The offices of his impulsarme.com, a year students at Los Andes university are made him dream of travelling across virtual marketplace for university gradu- discussing the themes that most concern the Atlantic in pursuit of further study. ates seeking their first proper job, are a “Europe is an academic paradise but it’s throwback to the heady dotcom days. in crisis,” he says. “Here in Colombia we There are floor-to-ceiling blackboards in have options.” each room covered with dozens of brain- The growing sense of optimism among storming-style phrases scribbled in white Bogotá’s young crowd marks a funda- chalk. Employees, mainly programmers, mental shift compared with the previous have to step over a napping chocolate generation, which, equipped with suf- labrador in the hallway to get to the bath- ficient education, money or both, would room. often leave at the first chance. But for all the laid-back atmosphere, “Young people today feel they have things are moving fast at impulsarme. more opportunities than their parents,” com. After three years in operation, the

44 The New Colombia

Feelgood factor: Colombia’s large proportion of young people has created an explosion in demand for entertainment

them. Felipe Arango, a law student, recog- But even she recognises that people, nises that things have changed radically in particular young people, have more since the dark days, in the early 1990s, of work than before. Basic jobs may not the devastating car bombs planted by the pay particularly well, but at least there notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. are more of them. Besides, several gov- ernment schemes, such as the “first job Safer streets law”, which gives employers tax breaks Bogotá’s murder rate last year dropped for increasing their overall headcount by to 16.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, a 22.6 per taking on young people, have started to cent fall compared with 2011, and a sea make a difference. Another programme, change when set against the 80-odd mur- which grants Colombian start-up compa- ders per 100,000 inhabitants recorded nies full exemption on corporate taxes for during Bogotá’s worst years. “We are in a the first couple of years, has also helped. different space now,” admits Arango. “New companies would often go bust But he and his classmates say that because they didn’t have enough to cover petty crime is still a big problem. Gabriel the city is plain insecure. “I get on the all their expenses,” says Gabriel Gómez, Durán, who also studies law, thinks that bus, I get robbed. I leave university, I get who heads the Colombia Joven (Young robbed. I don’t feel safe.” Colombia), the youth policy department Another problem is access to higher within the government. “Now, they have education, says Guillermo Asprilla, chief the breathing space they need.” of staff of the city’s leftwing government. It has gone 2am, and things are still “There aren’t enough places in the public going strong in Bogotá’s T Zone, an area system, and the private system is often full of bars and nightclubs in the city’s too expensive for young people,” he says. affluent north. At Little India Super Star, The result is that an estimated 60 per cent a bijou bar that sells gin and tonic under of those seeking to continue their educa- a canopy of chili-shaped fairy lights, a tion after school are unable to do so. small group of young and monied Bogo- Fanny Puentes, a 25 year-old who lives tanos exchange small-talk at the bar. with her mother and her seven-year-old Serving them is Pablo Fernández, a son on the southern fringes of Colombia’s 35-year-old Urugyuan, who came to Bo- capital, began to study science at one of gotá a few years ago and has been wit- the city’s many private universities a few nessing the improving times ever since. years ago. But things got tough when her “People are going out much more than mother became ill and had to stop work- they used to,” he says. Asked if he plans ing. Puentes was forced to seek a job as to move on any time soon, he shakes his a sales assistant in the city centre. Since head in a sort of “no way” way. “There’s then, she has lost the three semesters of too much work to leave just now. It’s good credits she had to her name. to be in Bogotá.” n “I dream of going back to study one day,” she says. “I just can’t see a way to Digital slideshow: Bogotá nights do it.” www.ft.com/bogota-scene ‘Europe is an academic paradise but is in crisis. In Colombia we have options’

45 The New Colombia

Service culture

By adopting the best of the private sector’s values, Colombia’s police force is winning public respect, says its former head, Óscar Naranjo

to feel in their job was a kind of “emotional salary”. It encouraged ownership and sense of duty. It had the added benefit of reducing corruption. Clearly, all countries operate within limited budg- ets, which have to be administered with the greatest possible efficiency. That means clearly identifying priorities, goals and the indicators needed to meas- he governments and police forces ure results. We took our cue from the quality proce- of many countries have asked me dures that were used to meet ISO standards at private how Colombia has achieved such companies. a notable improvement in civil- Better management and greater professionalism ian security. Homicides halved brought huge advances in the Colombian police between 2002 and 2012, and the force’s effectiveness. But a third factor, also used by Tannual number of kidnappings private companies that aim for excellence, was to fell to 298 from 2,882. introduce the concepts of transparency and, more A short answer would be that the improvement importantly, accountability. was thanks to the efforts of many – from government To ensure the best possible use of public resources, agencies to international organisations, private busi- we set up internal watchdogs nesses and Colombian citizens. and an external advisory But one guiding light for me was to imagine the committee made up of private Humanism and police force in a similar way to how a private com- sector businessmen. We also civic dignity pany might think of its business: how can the police established permanent chan- force’s core service be improved? For us, that meant nels of communication with are central to meeting the needs and wellbeing of citizens by civil society, and encouraged responding to the ever-changing threats of organised the active participation of the work of crime and violence. citizens. In 2010, for example, the police For many years, the role of the police was to defend we held 75 public local work- the state. Today, its bigger role is as a “social actor” shops on our management that looks after its citizens. plans, past and present. The first step was to recognise that the police’s big- None of this would have been sufficient, though, gest asset was its workforce. In our case, that was unless we had established a true service culture nearly 170,000 men and women. It was their commit- reflected in police attitudes to its work. After all, ment and professionalism that made the biggest dif- police officers spend each day, every day, in close ference – more than any other resource, financial or contact with citizens. technological. That was especially so as police salaries We managed to achieve that – as shown by the can never compete with those in the private sector. fact that each year the force receives 200,000 appli- This entailed nurturing a very particular work cants for just 10,000 vacancies. Public recognition ethic. We called it “police policy based on humanism” and confidence in the police force in turn boosts – a title that conveyed to police officers that human- police pride in the job. It is part of the two-way ism and civic dignity were central to their work, as process that any modern service-based industry well as their own importance. recognises. We studied the management techniques used by The Colombian police force has had many suc- successful private companies, such as continuous cesses and failures in getting to where it is today. But learning. Our spending on education increased ten- whenever I have the chance, I always ask and encour- fold. Police officers came to see education and train- age the private sector to share its experiences and ing as an opportunity for both professional and per- work methods with the public sector – especially the sonal growth. police. That, more than any budget increase, is what In addition, we made sure that policemen and makes the biggest difference. n women and their families had decent living condi- tions – for example, by ensuring good health services Óscar Naranjo is a former director of the Colombian and schooling for their children. The pride they came National Police

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