A young boy dips his clothes in the water directly across from where leaders will meet over the week-end, a little further away, right in front of the conference hall, drug vendors and sex workers hang out at the entrance of a bar while thousands of state security forces stand along the city's main roads as if some parade were coming through. Helicopters pass by at regular intervals, flying low over Getsemani, a neighbourhood where freed slaves used to live.
The summit of the Americas comes to Colombia, a country at war, the country with the worst human rights violations in the Americas, and where the government spends more than any other latin American country when it comes to military spending.
As part of the city's clean-up effort, according to local media, a few days ago, homeless people were moved to a temporary shelter and stray dogs had been "properly taken care of". Clean-up crews are out, picking up hoards of trash strewn about the city streets and lining the riverbanks.
It's the biggest diplomatic event in the history of Colombia and Colombian president Santos looks like he's doing everything he can to make his country look good, probably mostly to foreign investors.
More than 12000 security forces are in town along with 300 security cameras, thousands of diplomatic personel and over a thousand media representatives.
While all the media hoopla is going on here, little seems open or acessible. It is unclear if drug depenalisation will be discussed and what exactly is on the agenda. Even the so-called "social forums" organized by summit officials contain a large dose of opacity.
Since last September, an entirely new process has been started by Summit of the Americas organisers: 25 forums have been held all around the Americas with 7000 participants and they now culminate with a final "social forum" here in Cartagena. This forum process includes many axes that emulate other social forums. One of the many forums includes indigenous leaders. Over the past few days indigenous leaders have met, on invitation only and behind closed doors.
The press release put out by Summit officials reported the anonymous participation of Colombian and Bolivian delegations and specified by name only one person from one of the national indigenous organizations of Colombia as a speaker during the 3 day event.
Hillary Clinton and Evo Morales gave a final address to the forum.
On Thursday, it was announced that a business people's summit would also be held in the future.
While all the official cooptation, police movements and fanfare is going on at one end of the city, yesterday, the People's summit opened with thousands of Colombian organisers, coming together to share analysis and experiences.
Issues discussed include militarisation, Free Trade, human rights, the environment and mining.More events are taking place at the forum today and tomorrow. It all ends with a march that will head for the leaders conference, but will be forced to stop short due to blockades and heavy security. With such a buffer, there is not a chance leaders will notice any of it.