The Metamorphosis of a Cocaine 'Town'

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Nearly pulverized by the violence and crime of drug cartels and armed militias, like a miracle the city of Medellin in Colombia has transformed into a modern city that cares for its poor. This success story started with the ideas of a mathematics professor who did not inspire much confidence when he first entered politics and was chosen mayor in 2003.

The mayor, Sergio Fajardo Valderama's motto was, The loveliest buildings must be located in our city which is the poorest. Last August, Y. Tomi Aryanto of Tempo explored the city once controlled by Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, to see for himself how the architecture brought about by Fajardo was able to tame a 'cocaine town..

. tempo : 173234717825.

Upright on a hill in the Santo Domingo Savio section of the city in the north of Medellin, stands the Parque Bibliotecca Espana or Spanish Library Park in sharp contrast as it towers above a plain filled with hundreds of red, cubeshaped buildings made of red bricks. The whole library which is all the same dark color as the black stones dominating most of the library building, looks like a Spanish fort from the Middle Ages and is divided into thre

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