The Mathematician of Medellín

Where are the resources for all this coming from?
From taxes. We have improved transparency in the city's finances, so more people are paying their taxes. When businesses trust that we are not stealing, and they know that we are going to use their money effectively, they pay. Business supports us because they see how much this can help them.

What are the continuing problems in Medellín?
Of course there are still problems. But with our history, the key is to keep building on the positive—because that will make people believe, which will help us solve the problems that remain. We must continue healing the old wounds while making sure that new wounds are not created. We are walking a tightrope, but every day the rope is getting thicker, and at some point it will be thick enough that we won't fall easily.

What about drug trafficking? Many people still have the image of Medellín as the cocaine capital of the world.
Drug trafficking has changed in Colombia. It is not what it was in Medellín 20 years ago. Drug trafficking is not the city's biggest problem anymore.
 
President Alvaro Uribe, a former mayor of Medellín, has won wide acclaim for his approach to reducing violence nationally, but he has also generated considerable controversy. How do you view his leadership?
I am neither pro-Uribe nor anti-Uribe; as mayor of Medellín, that is not my concern. Our relationship is respectful. I have known him for years. Where we have common interests, we know how to work together well. But we have many obvious differences. I come from a different world. I am a professor, not a warrior—I discuss, I argue. My approach to social interventions shows a different understanding of politics, of society, and of how to solve the problems we face. But, ultimately, with Uribe it is about how we can work together. There are some political leaders who are totally opposed to him and others who want to copy him exactly. I want to take what is valuable in his project and build on it.

People talk a lot about your image: an apolitical professor who wears long hair and jeans.
No one ever thought that a Ph.D. in math would come in and do this. I don't have an image consultant. This is how I was the first time I went out in the street. I am a professor. I love to explain things, and I respond to every question asked. The fact that I come from a different world makes a lot of the traditional politicians angry. They have seen what I've done, and they have started to attack me.
 
Uribe's second term ends in 2010. Do you want to be president?
I never in my life thought I would ever be mayor. Now you ask if I want to be president. When did I ever expect to have to answer that question? But I know why people are asking: because what we are doing here is very powerful. I am very proud of what we have done, and I know it has significance on a national level. When I leave, I want to travel across all of Colombia to see and listen to and get to know the people, just like we did here at the beginning. The national formula is the same: to maintain important principles, to understand problems, to come up with solutions. Medellín is the star today because we have come through a painful history. The U.S. secretary of commerce has been here twice in a month with American congressmen to show them what we are doing. Medellín has been the most complicated and the most violent city in Colombia, so if we can do it here, it can happen throughout Colombia.

© 2007