Word: medellins
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...outer office of the mayor of Medellin, a thickset bodyguard cradles a Remington pump shotgun in his arms. A revolver is shoved into the waistband of his trousers, and a two-way radio is recharging in a unit near his feet. Down the hall, only a whistle away, are more armed men. Outside city hall, a uniformed policeman shoulders an Israeli-manufactured Galil automatic rifle as he casts a careful eye on passersby...
...said you can't fight city hall? For more than a decade, the drug barons of the Medellin cartel have been using murder and corruption in an attempt to cow or co-opt elected officials of this pleasant, bustling Colombian city of 2 million people and turn it into the world capital of the cocaine business. In the process, Medellin, known locally as the "city of eternal spring" for its mild mountain climate, has become the city of eternal violence. More than 3,000 people were murdered there last year, a homicide rate about five times . as high...
...city's history. Some 12 million Colombians went to the polls on March 13 to elect the mayors of nearly 1,000 cities and towns. The exercise in democracy -- until now the country's mayors have been appointed by Bogota -- is designed in part to give cities like Medellin new powers to fight such menaces as organized crime and drugs. Some feel that an administration with a direct mandate to govern will find it easier to face these challenges than an outside appointee with no popular support. Yet many fear that decentralization of power will make cities even less governable...
...dangerous is Medellin that the U.S. consulate was closed in 1981 mainly for security reasons. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration pulled its employees out in 1984, and two months ago the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory warning Americans not to visit Medellin. Those who do come find a city in which past and potential violence are quite visible. Guards outside apartment blocks carry shotguns, police shoulder automatic weapons, and occasionally a pistol is glimpsed tucked into a civilian's waistband. Some of the drug barons maintain armories that include U.S.-made AR-15 automatic rifles and Israeli-made...
...which have received official American aid for years. The President claimed that the Bahamas, Colombia and Mexico have made progress against drugs, even though the Bahamas is widely known as a money- laundering and transshipment point for drug dealers, Colombia has made no visible headway against its notorious Medellin cartel and Mexico is the base of ever growing drug-smuggling traffic across the porous U.S. border...