The News from Colón

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Aristotle

It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.
Juvenal


More than a year passed before my wife and I were able to get our hands on Cidade de Deus (City of God) at our local Blockbuster. Apparently, this Brazilian film—about teenagers in a Sao Paolo favela who are trapped in a world of gangs and drug trade—has been extremely popular here in Panamá.

I’m pleased to report Cidade de Deus was well worth the wait. The film, directed by Fernando Mireilles and based on a novel by Paulo Lins, takes the viewer deep into the lives of those who dwell in Latin America’s slums. The story is magnificently told—in a clever, circular manner that perfectly captures the never ending cycle of belonging, desperation, and violence that’s at the heart of gang life.

As I watched Cidade de Deus, I couldn’t help but think of the news coming out of Colón—the port city on the opposite end of the Canal. The local media has reported—with growing alarm—a sharp increase in violent crimes, mostly shootings, which is the result of turf wars between rival gangs.

Colón, the largest city on the Caribbean coast, ranks first in Panamá in terms of poverty, unemployment, and crime. Moreover, it has earned an international reputation as a treacherous place. Every English-language guidebook advises tourists to avoid this city, which is populated mostly by descendants of the Jamaicans and Barbadians who were brought to Panamá as cheap labor by the French and, later, the Americans during the construction of the Canal.

La Zona Libre, a walled compound within Colón, is the world’s second largest free trade zone, after Hong Kong. It was created in 1947 to alleviate the city’s historic economic woes. Still, in spite of generating ten billion U.S. dollars each year, little of the money finds its way into the homes of Colón’s citizenry.

When I first arrived in Panamá, I had a couple of students who made the hour-and-a-half trek across the isthmus to study in the capital, every day. Both of them expressed great pride in being Colonenses, and they assured me that the warnings about the dangers of Colón were greatly exaggerated.

About four months ago, while shopping, I ran into one of them. During our brief conversation, I asked her about her hometown.

“I don’t live there anymore,” she said sadly. “My father decided to move the family to Panamá City because Colón has become too dangerous.”

And lately, during the last couple of weeks, the media has started to express concern over the rapidly increasing numbers of deaths directly attributable to gang warfare.

Amid the troubled voices, President Martín Torrijos has stated that the problems of Colón need a permanent solution. This would include, he has said, increased spending on social programs, in particular job training for Colon’s youth.

Panama’s Minister of Tourism, Rubén Blades, who set aside his musical and acting career to assume this post, has repeatedly asserted that he intends to turn Colón into an attractive, safe place for tourists. Although his notions are well-intentioned, as long as the youth of Colón find gang membership and the drug trade viable alternatives to measly paying jobs, or no jobs at all, the situation in this port city will remain critical and dangerous.

At the conclusion of Cidade de Deus, in the midst of poverty, violence, and despair, there is a glimmer of hope as the central character, Buscapé (Rocket), finds that his love for photography may lead to a career as a news reporter. In this way, in addition to earning a decent wage, he’ll actually be able to show those in privileged positions the truth about life in the slums. Cidade de Deus, and the stunning documentary that accompanies the film, “A Personal War,” displays the grim reality of life in the trenches of gang warfare like no film in the U.S. has been able to do. And, more importantly, it teaches us what we need to do to remedy the situation.

Although the state of affairs in Colón might seem hopeless, if President Torrijos’ government delivers on its promise to provide the city’s youth with the education and the training necessary to obtain legitimate, meaningful employment, Panamá will be able to teach the rest of the world a vital lesson.