In 2013, Medellín won a price for being “the most innovative city” and yes, the city has made remarkable achievements in the past 20 years. It used to be known as “the most dangerous city in the world” and “the murder capital of the world”due to its high numbers of murders. The phenomena of ”hit men”, hired murders shooting from motor cycles in high speed, was extremely common. But ever since the beginning of the 1990s and the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993, the city has started its journey towards transformation, although going through some very rough years. The approach has been social inclusiveness through “educational civic urbanism” with a focus on public space, and a number of methods have been used. The most known have been setting up of libraries in vulnerable neighbourhoods and not the least the ambitions to connect these neighbourhoods with the rest of the city by innovative public transportation such as cable cars and escalators. For those who do not know Medellín; the city centre is situated in a valley with poor neighbourhoods sprawling up on the surrounding hills. The changes in the city are remarkable. At least in the city centre. Because many of the poor neighbourhoods on the hills still face serious safety problems due to criminal gangs. The gangs control the drug traffic in the neighbourhoods and protect their area aggressively. If anyone unknown enters such an area and crosses “the border” there is a large risk that person will simply get shot since the gangs do not know that person and the reason for the person to be there. Therefore, before visiting someone in such a neighourhood, the visit needs to be reported to the ruling gang.
Photo: The cable car towards Santo Domingo
A taxi driver referred to the gangs as predators, saying that they live of other people but without really doing anything. He also told me that his brother used to live in one of the more dangerous neighbourhoods. One day there were shootings against his family’s house, followed by an order from the ruling gang to immediately leave the house since the gang needed it as a storage. There was nothing else to do than to leave the house. Seven years later, the family got compensated by the government. The taxi driver said that the situation in large parts of the city has changed a lot since the epoch of Pablo Escobar thanks to investments in education, but he also said that the changes have not been for all parts of the city. Still, the police hardly visit the most dangerous areas why many people refer to it as two cities within the city.
Santo Domingo is a neighbourhood which used to be extremely dangerous. About ten years ago, a cable car line opened to serve the neighbourhood which contributed to change the situation as the neighbourhood became much more accessible. A library, Biblioteca España, has opened to serve the people in the area which also serves as a meeting point. When we visited the neighbourhood, some boys told us that between 1992 and 2002, about 600 people were killed in Santo Domingo. They said that now it is very safe compared with then. But as always in Colombia, there seems to be another story as well. During the children assembly of the World Urban Forum 7 I made some video interviews. When asking about what is good and what is bad in their neighbourhood and what could be better, children of only 5 years old said that they want crime and murder to stop and people to stop taking drugs. Some of these children were from Santo Domingo. A 13 year old girl said that Medellín is not as innovative as people say, at least not in the poor areas. So it seems as the innovative change has been remarkable for some but for some is still to arrive… The children also said that they want more green spaces where they can play. Dana Sofia is 5 years old and said that she has nowhere to play but in the yard.
But although much remains to be done, what is true is that Medellín has made a massive change from the situation it used to be in; go and see for yourself!
Sources:
http://skift.com/2013/11/21/inside-colombias-transition-into-a-tourism-hot-spot/
http://www.zhampler.com/colombia-the-ghost-of-pablo-escobar.html
Rebecka Hallén 