The border was right here, says Juan Villamizar as he firmly plants his shovel into the soil.
This was a border that no one saw, but everyone knew was there. Villamizar shows a scar on his hand—a reminder of a blow he received from a machete when he crossed this border without permission, entering the territory of a rival gang. He was lucky; countless others from his neighborhood didn’t come back from such excursions at all.
Villamizar lives in La Sierra, a neighborhood in Comuna 8, high up on one of the mountain slopes overlooking Medellín’s center in the valley below. For a long time, this was one of the city’s most violent areas, where gangs linked to urban guerrilla and paramilitary groups fought for control. After 12 years running drugs for a gang, Villamizar recently traded his pistol for a spade and a set of overalls.
Together with more than 5,000 local residents, he is working on Medellín’s latest mega-project: El Cinturon Verde Metropolitano (the "Metropolitan Greenbelt"), an enormous urban park lining the upper reaches of the hillsides surrounding the city. “Five years ago, it was a war zone over here,” says Villamizar, who is 25. “We felt forgotten—the only option was crime. Now, there are opportunities, and we are working on the future, together.”
[For more of this story, written by, Stephanie Bakker & Yvonne Branwijk, go to http://www.citylab.com/design/...public-space/478692/]
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