Colombia violence forces students to quit school

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John Otis reports from Medellin, a Colombian city plagued by gang violence. Hundreds of students there have dropped out rather than risk being shot as they walk to school.Download MP3

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Violence is on the rise again in the South American country of Colombia. That’s especially true in the cities. Murder rates in Medellin have tripled in the past three years. Disputes among drug-trafficking gangs have turned the slums of Colombia’s second largest city into a shooting gallery. There have been 1,500 homicides there so far this year. Some of the victims are elementary and high school students. As John Otis reports, the simple act of walking to school has become so dangerous that the city is now providing escorts.

JOHN OTIS:  As children gather on a Medellin street corner, Sandra Torres calls the roll. She’s been hired by city hall to escort these kids to school. The route takes them through Comuna Trece, one of the city’s most violent neighborhoods. It’s only a 10-minute walk to school but the kids are joined every morning by Torres and other escorts who wear bright green vests. The escorts are unarmed, but Torres says their presence discourages gang members from harassing the students.

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SANDRA TORRES: Many kids stopped going to school because they felt scared and threatened or their families were at risk. With us they can walk to school safely. Nothing happens to them.

OTIS: Many poor students in Latin America drop out to go to work. But in the Medellín slums, about 1,000 primary and secondary students have quit school this year due to gang conflicts. They’re not overreacting. Since January, 31 students in Medellin have either been hit or killed by stray bullets. These barrios have a history of violence dating back to the 1980s when drug lord Pablo Escobar was at his peak. But today, there’s no kingpin dominating the drug gangs. Instead, some 300 criminal bands are fighting over cocaine sales, prostitution rings and extortion rackets. Schools are prime locations for drug deals and for gang recruitment. But for many kids, the biggest problem is getting to class. Their routes often take them across invisible boundaries between gang territories. High School junior Carlos Córdoba says many classmates have relatives in gangs and are viewed as enemy spies when they leave one barrio for another.

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OTIS: “I can’t go to that neighborhood over there or in the direction of those houses,” he says, “because I’ve received many threats.” The Estela Velez school is located on a patch of land that gangs are fighting to control. In August, a nearby gun battle forced students to take cover under their desks until nightfall when they were evacuated on city buses.

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OTIS: That’s Íngrid Agudelo, a home economics teacher. She says nearly half of the school’s 650 students stopped coming to school, though some have returned since the escort program began five months ago.

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INGRID AGUDELO: If 10 students showed up that was a lot. When the shootouts got really bad only 5 or 6 students would come to class.

OTIS: The surge in violence prompted a visit to Comuna 13 from President Juan Manuel Santos. He promised to hire 20,000 more police officers nationwide. But some here say the police are part of the problem. This police station in Comuna Trece sits just a couple of blocks from the Estela Velez school. But few residents will cooperate with police because they fear gang members have infiltrated the police ranks. So for now, the escort program serves as a stop-gap security measure. When the school day is over, the escorts meet the students and walk them home. As they say goodbye, several grateful children hug and kiss their guides. For many kids in Comuna Trece, however, the escort program comes too late. Due to the violence, many families with school children have pulled up stakes and moved away. For The World, I’m John Otis, Medellín, Colombia.

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