Acceso usuarios
Norberto Muñiz Martínez
La transformación de Medellín (Colombia) es uno de los procesos más notables en el mundo en regeneración urbana y social, y de reposicionamiento de marketing de ciudad. Esta pujante ciudad se caracterizó históricamente por carácter emprendedor de sus ciudadanos; pero estuvo lastrada a finales de las décadas de los 80 y principios de los 90 del siglo pasado por una desgraciada etapa de violencia del narcotráfico, con un poderoso y letal cartel que llevaba el nombre de la ciudad (lo que marcó su imagen durante décadas); con varios enfrentamientos solapados entre bandas y grupos político-sociales que recurrían a la violencia como arma política y criminal. Tras que la ciudad tocara fondo a principios de los 90, varios grupos sociales iniciaron un proceso de co-creación colectivo para la regeneración urbana, liderados por sucesivas alcaldías, élites empresariales, y la vital sociedad civil —entidades culturales, asociaciones locales y comunidades de barrios-comunas que co-crean pequeños proyectos civiles—. Se emprendió colectivamente un proceso de cambio de rumbo de la ciudad, siguiendo varios ejes clave: un urbanismo social con la construcción de infraestructuras para fomentar la cultura y extender la educación en los barrios desfavorecidos, un sistema de transporte integrado que fomenta la accesibilidad e inclusión social, y la innovación empresarial y creatividad industrial.
Su reconocimiento internacional se consolidó al ser galardonada en 2016 con el premio Lee Kuan Yew, considerado como el Nobel del Urbanismo, el cual es otorgado cada dos años en Singapur para las ciudades que promueven la innovación urbana y el desarrollo sostenible. En este contexto, este artículo analiza también un evento cultural –El Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín, cuya gran participación ciudadana muestra un espíritu colectivo de anhelo de una sociedad mejor en una ciudad vanguardista.
Colombia is a country that opens to the world with a renewed, positive reality after decades of having suffered from political-armed conflicts and violence from criminal groups. Even before the country’s transformation, other intermediate territories —cities and regions— had already taken significant steps towards territorial change and marketing.
Medellin is a Colombian city that has experimented a remarkable urban and social transformation in terms of management and promotion during the last decade, investing in culture, education, social infrastructures and transport as drivers to improve its image. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the violence of the Medellín Cartel wreaked havoc on Colombia’s second city. However, at the beginning of the present century, the public local government city council and the state of Antioquia, and private stakeholders such as leading business grups, and also small local civic society associations embarked on a strategy to transform the city that a decade later has borne fruit, repositioning the image of Medellín very positively.
Along with Cali, the capitals of the states of Antioch and of the Cauca Valley respectively, they suffered from the violence of drug trafficking with signs that showed the names of each city, negatively affecting their reality and image for a long time. Although the reality of Medellin had already changed during the mid-90’s, the image of the city was still dragged along with the negative image of violence. Because of this, integral governance and branding was key in helping the exterior perception evolve toward a more positive image.
Due to this transformation, in 2016, Medellin received the Lee Kuan Yew Award, an award that is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Urbanism, which is awarded biannually by the Urban Redevelopment Authority Singapore and the Centre for Liveable Cities to promote urban innovation and sustainable development. «The key for its transformation is a daring and visionary leadership, as well as social and urban innovation. The chosen leaders showed strong political will and commitment to good government, citizen participation and equal opportunities for all citizens. Despite having limited resources, they creative and unconventional approaches were taken to deal with difficult problems. Medellin focused on education and culture to achieve changes on a smaller, but efficient, scale; with high impact urban projects that have transformed their communities and the city in a short space of time».
At present, the city is witnessing a wave of new cultural revitalization, and literature events such the annual Medellin Poetry Festival, which debates and divulges poetic and expressive tendencies, of international scope with several world languages, and is carried out in theatres and auditoriums, some of these open air, and several parks in neighborhoods of the metropolitan areas around the city. The festival has also won a Spanish literary award for its contribution to peace.
