Displaced in Regalo del Dios
Anna Tyor recently spent time in Regalo del Dios, Antioquia. Ana`s portrait of this “Forgotten Colombia” is being published on Colombia Politics over four articles here. This is the second in the series, on the displaced community in this “Paisa” community.
Ten year-old Jose has just arrived in Regalo del Dios. He walks tentatively down the main dirt road, dodging dusty coke cans and ragged dogs, and approaches the scattered groups of children, trying and failing to join their arguments about football.
“Do you support Nacional?” Jose said to one group, referring to a football team based in Medellin, the second-largest city in Colombia that lies in the valley below Regalo del Dios.
“No! Idiot.” They looked at him incredulously, as if he had just insulted their family. Most of the children in Regalo del Dios don’t support any teams from Medellin, they are fans of teams from other regions of Colombia- For these children are also recent arrivals, among the 4.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Colombia.
Jose came to Regalo del Dios from the west of the same state, Antioquia – his family fleeing from violence and ending up here: living in shacks that threaten to disappear down the slope every time it rains, high up in the hills, a 20-minute bus ride from where the cable cars stop by Medellin’s brand-new ‘Spanish Library’.
The families in Regalo del Dios have fled their homes for many different reasons; gang warfare, sexual abuse, threats against their communities or forced recruitment from rebel groups and neo-paramilitaries or forced recruitment into bacrims (‘bandas criminales’ – the government’s term for criminal organizations). But all of those who have come to Regalo del Dios share the same central belief, that this town will be a safer place to raise their children.
The population of Regalo del Dios and the surrounding area has quadrupled in the last 7 years, from around 2,000 residents in 2006 to upwards of 12,000 today.
Most of Regalo del Dios’ newest residents are victims of intra-urban displacement- when residents are displaced to different parts of the same city. In 2012 alone, Medellin officially registered 9,322 victims of intra-urban displacement; but this figure only reflects those who came forward and revealed their situation, and does not include all of the hidden victims, too afraid to contact the government and apply for aid.
One of the main reasons why people are forced to flee their homes in the city is due to territorial disputes between rival combos, or street gangs. Various drug trafficking groups have been using the combos as pawns in their battle for control over major trafficking routes through Medellin. Chief among these groups is the Oficina de Envigado – the descendent of infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar’s old cartel Oficina de Medellin – and neo-paramilitary group the Urabeños, who are now estimated to have more fighters than Colombia’s second-largest rebel group ELN.
“It’s – I can displace you if you don’t support me,” said Fernando Quijano, director of the Corporation for Peace and Social Development, to analysis website Insight Crime in July. “It is an instrument of war.” Displacing residents is highly profitable for the combos as they are able to assert control over their territories, rule by fear, and obtain new real estate ready for the next down-and-out family that moves to the neighborhood.
Some of this violence spilled over into Regalo del Dios last year during a series of battles between combos fighting over lucrative routes leaving through the northern sector of the city to Guarne.
“The police came up here everyday wearing bullet-proof vests, armed with machine guns, because of the shootings between the gangs. It was real,” stated a source that wished to remain anonymous.
But it is true what the parents who brought their families here believe – that Regalo del Dios is a safer place for their children; if not a haven, then at least a place where they can sleep easier at night, without fearing that a stray bullet might pass through their wafer-thin walls.
“It is not a everyday occurrence for people to be murdered up here,” said Mark Kasemen, director of the only charitable foundation located in Regalo del Dios called Angeles de Medellin, “compared to other parts of the city, it’s safer here.”
Many young men in the troubled barrios of Medellin become involved in drug-running and violence at an early age. Jeison, an aspiring rapper in his early twenties, is searching for another path.
“All the crazy people round here wait in terrifying places, and I avoid them cos they might wanna compare me with hip-hops greatest rappers”
His words flow out without the venom that characterizes other Colombian hip-hop; Esteban’s is a quiet rejection of the gang lifestyle, hidden behind a self-depreciating humor. And his rhythm is draped in the beats of the Pacific, of western Choco, where Esteban was born.
Choco is the only state to touch both the Pacific and the Caribbean seas, and runs the full length of the jungle-ridden border with Panama. Its strategic position makes it prime real estate for Colombia’s bacrims and guerrilla groups therefore the region suffers from some of the highest numbers of IDPs.
Last year, some 230,000 people were displaced in Colombia according to The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), and indigenous and Afro-Colombians continue to make a considerable percentage of these IDPs.
The government’s response to the plight of IDPs was almost non-existent prior to 2011, when Juan Manuel Santos created the Victim’s Law, through which IDPs could register themselves and attempt to reclaim their land. This law has been met with controversy as to its level of success; In 2012 there were so many people trying to register that it caused a backlog in processing.
It may be sometime before Jose and many other community members of Regalo del Dios can return to the towns where they were born.
*Some names in the article have been changed to protect their identity.
Anna`s four part special will continue over the coming days. Please come back to continue reading.
