If, for many years, the city was renowned as the 'most dangerous city in the world', over the last 20 years Medellin has undergone a profound transformation. 

Since the end of the 1980s the social context of the city has been marked by extreme poverty as a consequence of great social inequality and widespread violence and criminality. The city served as a strategic hub for drugs and weapons trafficking to and from the west of Colombia. This role as the center of criminal operations of the narco-traffickers impacted greatly on the inhabitants of the city, making the enjoyment of parks, squares, and public spaces de facto impossible.

So-called ‘invisible borders’, established arbitrarily by the ‘combos’ (local criminal organizations), divided neighbourhoods and communities. For this reason, a high number of young people were murdered, many of them with no involvement in the ongoing drugs wars.

Beyond the problems caused by the strong presence of the narco-traffic, the city also suffered social deterioration due to a lack of investment in education and few opportunities for the development of the population.

However, proper funding in combination with new social policies has influenced the transformation that Medellin is now experiencing. A first ever investment in public transport, in particular in the metro, tram and cable, have transformed the social fabric of the city. ‘Transport changes the value and the uses of the territory, and at the same time it benefits the individual mobility and the territorial accessibility’ (David Harvey, 1973).

Isolated suburban communities, like Santo Domingo, could be soon integrated with Medellin, triggering a new sense of pride and belonging for its citizens.

Today Medellin presents an inspiring urban landscape where its transformation is deployed in a new inclusive way, offering solutions to the most vulnerable and excluded who increasingly receive greater and better access to mobility, high quality education, and ultimately, ownership of public space and the enjoyment of their very own green areas.