A city at war

Abstract

Abstract This chapter’s primary focus is the context of violence in Medellín. We begin with a summary of the violence that has devastated Colombia since the colonial times. We cover the (failed) attempts to build a unified nation-state, the status of Colombia as a neo-colony of the United States, the relationship between state and society, and the forms of inequality and crime experienced by the country’s inhabitants. The goal of this broad contextualization is to explain how the highly unequal structure of Colombian society became a fertile ground for the rise of drug cartels. The chapter then zooms in on the violence perpetrated by the Medellín cartel between 1980 and 2001. Ranging from assassinations to a plane bombing, to daily murders, the acts of violence outlined in this chapter paint a portrait of the reign of terror that turned Medellín into the most violent city in the world. Drawing on a database of news reports of violent events connected to drug cartels in the city along with an archival study of the events, we map the damage wreaked by narco-violence on the city’s daily life, the social interactions of its inhabitants, and the country’s legal and democratic institutions. Using the voices of Medellín’s inhabitants, most of whom were victims of narco-violence, the chapter provides a sensorial account of what it was like to live in a city at war.