Mexican city emulates Colombia to keep kids from cartels

By Gabriela Espinoza Dec 7, 2011, 13:07 GMT

Monterrey, Mexico - With his dark skin and messy hair, sixteen-year-old Francisco Sandoval is in many ways a typical Mexican teenager. He plays football after school, and is learning to play Colombian Vallenato music on the accordion. He's 'excited' about finishing his studies.

Until recently, his life might have gone a different way.

Monterrey's Independencia neighborhood, where Francisco lives, is a sprawling, troubled barrio controlled for decades by criminal gangs so dangerous they scared away even the police. Since 2003, experts tell dpa, Mexico's feared Zetas drug cartel has been recruiting young people there.

Some of Francisco's friends have already joined the gangs. When they tried to recruit him as a 'falcon,' or lookout, the teenager admits - he was tempted.

But a state-run project inspired by one in the notorious cocaine capital Medellin, Colombia, has set him on a different path.

In the 1980s and 1990s, drug gangs in the Colombian city also recruited many poor young people as assassins. But today, architectural projects and libraries have transformed some Medellin neighbourhoods where 20 years ago, outsiders could hardly venture.

Since September, Monterrey has been working to transform Independencia in the same way.

A university student project later adopted by the state's Social Development Ministry has reclaimed vacant lots in Independencia to build the Macro Community Centre: two 7,000-square-metre buildings with multi-purpose gyms, a cinema, classrooms and interactive facilities.

'A week after it opened in September, we had received more than 2,800 requests from people interested in the various cooking, music, beauty, sewing classes, in the study grants, in sports. It has been a very positive response,' says Nuevo Leon Social Development Minister Juana Aurora Cavazos.

For Dona Leticia, 50, the best parts are night-time walks with her grandchildren on the Plaza Civica, as well as dance therapy classes that are fun, and good for her health.

'Who would have ever thought that we would have a gym with dance classes so close by, or that we would be able to go for a quiet walk, without being afraid of shooting?' she says.

The project hopes to expand to improving streets, public services and the facades of 4,500 homes, creating permanent jobs for locals.

Residents of Colonia Independencia have faith that the area they have reclaimed will not be taken back by the gangs.

'We intend to change lives through training. Now what follows is a cultural and mental change for people, so they see that we can reclaim our spaces for family life,' Cavazos says.

Francisco Sandoval's life has already changed. His days now start at 7 am, when he gets up for Spanish lessons at the community centre. A full scholarship will pay for him to complete his secondary education.

'I am very excited because I'm going to finish my studies without spending money, which is what was stopping me. And now I can even take music lessons! I think everyone should come here and make the most of these opportunities, instead of being out there without anything to do,' he told dpa.

More than 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico in five years in violence linked to organized crime, 1,500 this year in Nuevo Leon, Monterrey's state, alone.

But while the cartels are still fighting and recruiting young people on Monterrey's streets, teenagers like Francisco Sandoval now have a choice, and a place to resist the violence.