Sergio Fajardo – The Mathematical Answer

The former mayor is headed across Medellin’s bustling Plaza Mayor convention center. But every few steps, Sergio Fajardo stops to greet well-wishers, shake hands with a business executive or pose for a photograph with coffee stand employees or others.

In his uniform of blue jeans, button-down shirt and sports jacket, the photogenic former mathematics professor has a decidedly un-academic look. But Fajardo’s claim to fame is an impressive four-year term running Medellin with a blend of pragmatism, inspiration and self-confidence.

Now Fajardo is trying to translate his record as the education-oriented mayor of Colombia’s second-largest city into a platform that will make him the country’s next president. He has an uphill battle, running as an independent with no ideology.

It has been an unexpected path for the top student who earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin – 1984 dissertation title: the “Model Theory of Stochastic Processes” – and taught there and at the University of Colorado before returning to academia in Bogota and his hometown of Medellin.

“I felt like I was trapped in a world where we always were talking about how the government should do things,” said Fajardo, explaining his move into politics.

So Fajardo, now 53, assembled a team of like-minded thinkers and ran for mayor of Medellin in 2003. “We are realistic, pragmatic and creative,” he said.

Medellin residents agree he delivered. To tackle the problem of bad schools, his administration approached local activists in crime-ridden neighborhoods to build allies. With that support in place, the city government built modern schools and libraries, examples of cutting-edge architecture. A new, inter-active science and technology museum, Parque Explora, was situated next to the refurbished botanical garden in the worst section of town so that the middle class and wealthy would have to mix with the poor. Today, residents from all walks of life flock to both the technology museum and the gardens.

To reach the poor neighborhoods in the steep hills surrounding Medellin, the city constructed two sets of gondolas. A modern Metro system serves other areas.

Fajardo faces huge challenges in his bid for the presidency. He has no party apparatus behind him and his rivals may include President Álvaro Uribe, if the head of state decides to seek a third term. Uribe, also a former mayor of Medellin, is still popular here.

Nevertheless, Fajardo said he is a viable contender and is convinced Colombia needs a pragmatic leader, like himself. “Mathematicians solve problems,” he said with a smile.