February 6, 2004/New York TIMES Bogota's Social Capitalism, Led by a Marxist of Old By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 5 - Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogota to the other attending one meeting after another. >From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogota's grand old neighborhoods, Mr. Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel downtown, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage firm and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafes in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export. It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Mr. Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas. These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs. "We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Mr. Sanguino, 37, who is broad shouldered, and, with his combed-back hair and brash self-confidence, looks more like James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara. "Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," explained Mr. Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism." The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies. Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a right-wing paramilitary organization, the archenemies of the Marxist rebels, that potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year. The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won election here in 2002 by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's. But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who desert from Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats, and are at times hunted and killed. Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear. "To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel and now a board member of Arco Iris, said with a sigh. "Building peace is much harder than making war." In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, most likely by right-wing paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another. The danger is mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Mr. Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect." Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former university students steeped in radical thought. Mr. Sanguino himself was among the most committed, having grown up in a humble household where his father, a farmer, struggled to feed eight children. The E.L.N., as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejercito Liberacion Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. "In those days, we were convinced the armed struggle was the way to resolve the country's problems," said Mr. Osorno, the board member. "We always saw socialism, classic socialism, as the way to go, putting workers in charge." But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the E.L.N. split off. About 800 former rebels, with Mr. Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society. Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the United Nations Development Program. Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money, but to finance a host of programs, from teaching children about conflict resolution to training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model. "We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," said Mr. Sanguino, noting that the organization's budget, up to half a million dollars a year, is not considered small in Colombia. To survive, Mr. Sanguino says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise. These days, Mr. Sanguino seeks advice among the established, meeting with everyone from Nicanor Restrepo, one of Colombia's leading industrialists, to Colombian congressmen to diplomats. Mr. Sanguino also lets Colombia know where Arco Iris stands, recently testifying in Congress against Mr. Uribe's negotiations with the paramilitaries, saying the talks would reward murderers and drug-traffickers. "Our companies have to be competitive," Mr. Sanguino said. "They have to play in accordance with market forces. We have to offer services people want." So when Arco Iris purchased the five-story Santa Monica hotel, which had been in financial troubles, it contracted a manager who knew how to run a hotel. The hotel has been remodeled, with new, spacious convention rooms and an executive suite complete with a Jacuzzi, fax and a stunning view of downtown. Former rebels have worked at the Santa Monica, and the hotel says it is important to keep the social aspects of Arco Iris in mind. But Hernan Franco, the hotel manager, says his priority is that the Santa Monica attract customers, lots of them. "This is live and direct and there is no margin for error," Mr. Franco said. "We cannot just do social work here. We are a business." Arco Iris's approach has drawn praise from some of the people rebels here consider enemies. One is Eugenio Marulanda, the executive president of the Colombian Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, a well-known entrepreneur with close ties to Mr. Uribe. Mr. Marulanda could not be more opposed to Colombia's insurgents, but he believes that Arco Iris can serve as a model as the government tries to entice other combatants to disarm. "We have to find projects for peace," he said. "We have to find projects that are creative and intelligent, to incorporate people who in other eras were in gangs but today are a part of civil society." ------------------------ Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
