Urban Planning and Security in Medellín in the 1990s: Antecedents of Social Urbanism

Abstract

This paper investigates how urban and security policies were articulated in Medellín during the 1990s, creating the conditions for the subsequent consolidation of Social Urbanism. The research is based on the hypothesis that the foundations of this model were established prior to the administrations of Sergio Fajardo and Alonso Salazar, in a context shaped by the 1991 Constitution, the reconfiguration of security policies following the peak of violence associated with drug trafficking, and economic liberalization. Through documentary analysis, the paper examines the Programa Integral de Mejoramiento de Barrios Subnormales en Medellín (PRIMED), seeking to understand the relationships between urban planning, security policies, and interventions in working-class neighborhoods. The analysis identifies an intertwining of urban planning, security policies, and interventions in these territories, pointing to a process of securitization of urban space. It concludes that a genealogy of Social Urbanism makes it possible to understand its formation as the expression of a broader process in which urban planning and security converge.