COLOMBIA: Medellm’s Red Lights

Medellin, in northwest Colombia, is a mountain-ringed city of church bells, textile factories and legalized prostitution. Of its 362,000 residents, some 8,000 women practice the world’s oldest profession. The city lacks U.S.-style restaurants, ballrooms and respectable bars, and in the evenings its downtown streets are deserted. But the red-light zones on Medellin’s outskirts are lively with lights, music, rum and loose women.

Several months ago, the city government decided that the bordellos, scattered across six suburban boroughs, were blocking the development of new residential areas. In September, Secretary of Government Alfonso Restrepo Moreno framed a decree to resettle the girls in Barrio Antioquia, a factory workers’ suburb proud of its four schools, its church, its library and civic center.

The girls were willing, but Barrio Antioquia’s 25,000 citizens rose up in wrath. Signs appeared on many houses: “The inhabitants of this house will not leave, nor will its owners rent it for a house of prostitution.”

Indignation committees stormed Restrepo’s office, but he ducked out and pushed ahead with his plan. Barrio Antioquia’s schools were closed; one became a barracks for 40 cops, another was selected for a prophylactic clinic. In block after block, red lights appeared over open doors as the first 1,000 girls moved in. Jukeboxes, protected by wrought-iron frames, competed with noisy drunken laughter.

Last week, fed up with the turmoil he created, Restrepo resigned. But it was a kind of Pyrrhic victory for Barrio Antioquia’s defenders. Said the suburb’s Padre Abel Diez, who had fought the red-light invasion: “There were insults; they threw rocks at my house and I could never sleep. We closed the church today. The decent people will have to leave.”