Cali’s Mayor (left) and colombian ambassador to Spain met the press yesterday./ Picture: A.R.
Alberto Rubio. Madrid
The mayor of Cali, Rodrigo Guerrero, started yesterday a tour around Spain with two main objectives: on the one hand, to present a new city, free from the scourge of drug trafficking and prepared to receive investments and tourists. On the other one, learn from the Spanish experience in infrastructures, tourism and renewable energies.
It is not common to hear of the “epidemiology of violence.” But the one saying it is just a licensed doctor in Public Health, and he should know something. The term, developed by the mayor of Cali Rodrigo Guerrero, is the most accurate definition of the hard years the capital of Valle del Cauca went through due to the violence generated by drug trafficking.
The “scourge of drugs” suffered by Colombia, and especially by Cali, in the 80s and the 90s produced a devastating social and political corruption, and affected even the security forces. Medellin or Cali cartels practically constituted “states” within the state, posing a serious threat and causing a radical change in the scale of values.
«Cauca’s Valley is the best place to invest because it is a protected area», said Colombia’s ambassador
According to Guerrero, against this pest, Colombia was able to generate “antibodies”. Nowadays, Police is “a prestigious and respected institution, not like 20 years ago”. And that’s where it is shown that the “epidemiology of violence” has worked. Special research groups were created and therefore it was posible to take actions “based on observation and that has been the major change in all cities. Observe, analyze, make decisions.”
Guerrero held yesterday a meeting with journalists at the Colombian Embassy in Madrid to emphasize that Cali is ready to return to the map of investment, trade and tourism. Colombian ambassador to Spain, Fernando Carrillo, encourage Spanish companies interested in Cali because “Cauca’s Valley is the best place to invest because it is a protected area”.
