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The number of children who have been murdered in Medellín so far this
year stands at 90, according to a report in the local press (El
Colombiano, 7th June, 1998). Most of the victims have been aged between
13 and 16 years, but 8 of them were under the age of 12. The great
majority of the children killed have been boys: only 10 of the victims
were girls.
Figures provided by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic
Sciences show that firearms were used in 83 of the cases; that five of
the victims were stabbed; and that the other two minors were killed by
explosive devices.
These figures actually represent a considerable improvement on those for
previous years. The worst year was 1991, when 1,343 people under the age
of 18 were killed in the city. In the period 1990-1997 the total of
children murdered there amounted to 6,117.
Fr Peter Walters, the Director of Let The Children Live!, welcomed the
news of this continued decrease in the number of child victims. He
claimed that one of the factors that had helped to reduce the number of
children killed had been the opening of Ciudad Don Bosco's Night Shelter,
which had been partly financed by a grant from Let The Children Live!
"The night is the most dangerous time for the street-children," he said.
"Over the last few years the Night Shelter has been used by hundreds of
children, and they have been able to sleep there in safety. Providing
beds for these children has helped to keep death off the streets."
However, Fr Peter stressed that the level of violence towards children in
the city was still appallingly high; and that the number of children who
had suffered non-fatal bullet and stab wounds this year was much greater
than that of those who had been killed. He pointed out that much of the
violence now occurs not in the city centre but in the poorest districts
to the North-East of Medellín. Most of the children who live or work in
the street have families in these marginal barrios and are affected by
the violence there. "In some cases, children take to the streets because
they actually find it safer to live there than in their home barrios," Fr
Peter commented.
Funvini, the Colombian counterpart of Let The Children Live!, has been
doing pioneering work in one such area, trying to protect the children
and to work with their families to prevent the children from ending up on
the streets. Much of the violence is generated by neighbourhood youth
gangs called bandas who fight both amongst themselves and against
vigilante groups known as the militia populares. "The children often get
caught up in the vendettas between these groups," Fr Peter explained.
"Sometimes they are killed deliberately, because their elder brothers are
gang members; and sometimes they get hit accidentally in the cross fire.
Either way, the result is the same."
One of the most alarming aspects of the situation is the fact that
children themselves are increasingly becoming perpetrators of violence.
"A priest told me recently that most of the sicarios (hit men) in his
parish were boys aged between 12 and 15," reported Fr Peter. "Adults are
using them as assassins because they face less severe penalties if they
are caught."
"We are trying to rescue these children from a culture of death," Fr
Peter added. "Funvini is asking Let The Children Live! to increase its
support for the work to prevent children from becoming the perpetrators
or the victims of violence in the marginal barrios."
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