How Colombia’s second-largest city is controlling the pandemic

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DANIEL QUINTERO, the mayor of Medellín, has had an unusual career. He sold bonsai trees and home-made desserts on the streets to pay university fees, became an engineer and was vice-minister of information and technology in an earlier Colombian government. That biography may help explain his unconventional approach to covid-19. He began to prepare Colombia’s second-largest city in late January. Many Colombians called him paranoid. As February passed with no cases in the country, he wondered if they might be right. When the virus arrived in March, the province of Antioquia, of which Medellín is capital, locked down—five days earlier than most of the country. Mr Quintero acted faster than any other mayor.