San Javier (Medellin)

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Comuna 13 San Javier

San Javier (official name Comuna N.º 13 San Javier ) is one of the 16 Comunas (districts) in Medellín, Colombia's second largest city with more than 2.5 million inhabitants . For years Comuna 13 was a war zone in which changing parties fought for the upper hand. With the terror regime of drug king Pablo Escobar , a civil war raged in Medellín and all of Colombia between security forces, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing Farc guerrillas.

The Comuna 13 counted with approximately 43.5 inhabitants per 1,000 m² to the most densely populated area of the city Medellin. The total number of residents in the Comuna is probably much higher, however, as not all persons are officially registered and have been registered. In 2017, 161,000 people, mostly in poor conditions, lived in an area of ​​around 7 km², which is mainly located on steep slopes.

In the 1980s, the district was still suffering from the so-called Medellín cartel and had become known for bloody and deadly clashes between rival drug gangs. The importance of the Medellín cartel was due to the strong social tensions, great class differences, unemployment and also the ongoing civil war and the great propensity for violence in Comuna 13 . Medellín recorded the allegedly highest homicide rate in the world with more than 380 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Almost 7,000 people were killed in the city that year alone. In 2017, the official killing rate was around 21 victims per 100,000 inhabitants. That is 18 times less than in 1991.

In Europe, the "Comuna n.º 13 San Javier" became known through the press reports on the Medellín cartel and most recently in 2011 through the inauguration of the giant open-air escalator, which opened in December 2011 in the Comuna 13 district. The system with a total escalator length of 348 meters, which is divided into six sections, overcomes a height difference of around 28 floors. The newspaper Bild also reported on this social project by the city administration, which will make it easier for older residents in particular to get to their accommodation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Visiting Medellín, once the most dangerous city in the world nzz.ch, accessed on January 11, 2017
  2. ↑ Mylene Sauloy and Yves Le Bonniec: Tropical snow - cocaine: the cartels, their banks, their profits, an economic report, Rowohlt, Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1994, p. 458
  3. ↑ Giant escalator leads to the poor district

Coordinates: 6 ° 15 ′  N , 75 ° 37 ′  W