A successful case of crime reduction in a region marked by violence. And âinformation desertsâ grow as journalists face exile and self-censorship.
SECURITY
MedellĂnâs history can shed light on Rioâs crime debates
In the aftermath of its deadliest police operation in history, Brazil joins the list of Latin American countries where crime and security have become the top national issue.
The matter had been eclipsed in Brazil by other highly contested topics such as Jair Bolsonaroâs political demise, Lula-Trump relations and the state of the economy, but its return to the front pages should not come as a shock, given that Brazil is the largest country in the worldâs most violent region in terms of homicides per capita.
But beyond grisly headlines and worrying numbers, a few countries have shown that improvement is also possible. One of those cases is Colombia, where the city of MedellĂn went from being the murder capital of the world to one of Latin Americaâs most attractive places to live, even bringing in first-world migrants and fears of gentrification.
The chart above tells the story in many ways, with homicide numbers moving up for the first time in the 1940s, as Colombia entered a proto-civil war between Liberals and Conservatives known as La Violencia, which more than doubled the cityâs per capita victims despite taking place mostly in rural areas.
The end of the era of banditry in the late 1960s brought a decade of relative peace. Still, violence would soon re-emerge with the growth of drug trafficking and organized crime, dominated by Pablo Escobarâs infamous MedellĂn Cartel, which resorted to murders, bombings and kidnappings to eliminate rivals and intimidate public officials throughout the 1980s.
The costliest years in terms of human lives came once Escobar declared war on the Colombian state, which tried to extradite him to the US in the second half of the 1980s. An elite group of Colombian officers, trained and assisted by the DEA and other US agencies (and with some under-the-table help from enemy criminals), dismantled Escobarâs cartel in the early 1990s, though violence remained high as smaller gangs fought to control the city afterwards.
đ Why it matters. At its peak in 1991, MedellĂn had more than 400 yearly homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, a terrifying figure rarely seen outside of war zones. Were that to have continued, a person living their entire life in Medellin would have had a one in four chance of being murdered. Three decades later, those figures dropped by a stunning 97%, with just 11 murders per 100,000 in 2024. Those were the best results since 1942, clocking in at roughly half the national and regional averages, although still relatively high by global standards.
The credit for that drop is often disputed. Right-wing former President Ălvaro Uribe, who took office in 2002, presided over a period of steep criminal decline after focusing on recovering state control over territory that was de facto run by cartels and guerrillas, though many criticized him for his alleged ties to paramilitary groups that aided his efforts.
Simultaneously, a local criminal known as Don Berna oversaw a power-sharing agreement between rival MedellĂn gangs, ushering in a calmer era that was ironically dubbed âDonbernability,â a portmanteau connecting his nickname and âgovernability.â
As the city became more peaceful, local governments introduced more sophisticated urban planning schemes, building schools, libraries, cable cars and escalators to connect the poorer hillside residents with the opportunities more typical of the central, flatter areas, earning international praise for their inclusiveness and creativity.
The diversity of approaches is a warning against single-minded formulas: combative policies led to horrific violence in the 80s, but proved more effective at regaining territorial control in the 2000s. Pitting groups against each other brought down a crime boss, but also generated further chaos. And inclusive urban approaches helped integrate sectors vulnerable to gang recruitment, but were only able to reach critical mass after police restored some semblance of order.
Rio de Janeiroâs challenge lies in breaking its own vicious cycle of raids and revenge, where state force temporarily quells violence without addressing the social voids that allow it to return. MedellĂn shows that sustainable peace demands a state that can both patrol the streets and pave them.
As Brazil grapples with its deadliest police operation on record, the Colombian experience suggests that order built solely through fear cannot endure; the real victory comes when the favelas are no longer seen as battlegrounds, but as neighborhoods worthy of investment.
PRESS FREEDOM
Physical violence not the only threat faced by journalists
Latin Americaâs endemic violence has long made journalism a dangerous profession, with reporters killed at rates unmatched anywhere else in the world.
Yet lethal force is far from the only threat they face. According to the latest annual study by Voces del Sur, a regional network of press freedom advocates, the recent decline in physical attacks has been overshadowed by a rise in exile, self-censorship and judicial harassment â tools increasingly used to silence independent voices.
Fourteen journalists were killed across Latin America in 2024, with Honduras, Mexico and Colombia once again among the deadliest countries for the press. While not the regionâs worst year on record, censorship and the repression of independent media intensified in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, deepening what analysts describe as the expansion of ânews desertsâ â areas with little or no access to reliable, plural information.
đ Why it matters. Journalists in the region have historically faced threats from right-wing military regimes and violent drug cartels. Now, many also confront persecution from leftist governments that have quashed dissent and driven hundreds of reporters into exile. Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua all rank among the bottom 20 countries in Reporters Without Bordersâ annual Press Freedom Index. Yet the broader picture is also grim: only Costa Rica breaks into the indexâs top 50, at 36th place, underscoring how precarious journalism remains across the hemisphere.
Other threats documented by Voces del Sur include 219 civil and criminal lawsuits filed against journalists and media outlets â part of what the group calls a âsustained trend of legal persecution by public and private institutions.â
According to the study, state actors were responsible for half of the cases they flagged as attacks on the profession. Examples span the region: in Argentina, President Javier Milei filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking the publication of compromising audio recordings involving his sister, Karina. In Venezuela, multiple reporters were arrested, joining the countryâs long list of political prisoners.
A separate report highlighted a mounting âbrain drainâ across the region, as increasingly hostile conditions have driven hundreds of media professionals into exile.
Between 2018 and 2024, 913 journalists from 15 Latin American countries fled their homes fearing for their safety, many abandoning the profession entirely. Costa Rican researcher Ăscar Mario JimĂŠnez, who contributed to the study, warned that the trend signals the erosion of democratic institutions across much of the continent.
Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela accounted for the bulk of this displacement, but sharp increases were also recorded in Ecuador â amid surging organized crime â and in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukeleâs tightening grip on power has further curtailed press freedoms.
This year alone, Salvadoran journalistsâ association APES reported the departure of 43 reporters before shutting down its own operations and relocating abroad, citing âescalating state-led harassment.â
âViolence against journalists in Latin America is fueled by the convergence of state repression, organized crime, abusive judicialization and stigmatizing rhetoric from those in power,â Voces del Sur said. âThe persistence of murders, disappearances and torture â along with the expansion of news deserts and the forced exile of journalists â creates an extremely high-risk environment that undermines citizensâ right to information and deepens the regionâs democratic decline.â
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Pablo Escobarâs death led to a plague of which invasive species in Colombia?
- Anacondas
- Fire ants
- Hippos
- Pythons
QUICK CATCH-UP
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