Ciudad Juárez Hope: Medellín’s Case as a Pathway for Social Transformation

Abstract

This thesis examines the outcomes of a series of social, cultural and educational policies and strategies that have been developed in Medellín, Colombia to recover the city from drug cartels, from 2001 to the present day in order to determine whether one or more of these successful processes could be applied in the case of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and its current dealings with the effects of drug cartels. To achieve these, this research assesses the policies applied in Medellín and determines the effects they had on its society. Additionally, this thesis work also evaluates the path that Medellín has taken as it moves toward a more innovative and intelligent city. Likewise, it identifies the elements that favored the city’s success in the implementation of the government's policies and strategies to bring back the order and stability and to attenuate the violence caused by drug cartels. To address the posited hypothesis, I analyzed the processes established to solve the central social problems caused by the presence of drug cartels in Medellín. The research done confirmed that the social urbanism and cultural policies developed in Medellín affected the social and cultural dynamics and promoted integration, transparency, a sense of belonging, participation and democratization in the community. This facilitated the improvement of local safety and enabled the resolution of problems related to violence caused by drug cartels. Similarly, the research results indicate that the policies developed in Medellín from the beginning of the new century, affected the social relations between its inhabitants, and had a positive effect in the social transformation process. My research found that taking into account the similarities between Medellín and Ciudad Juárez, it is possible to apply some of the policies developed in Medellín in order to solve the social problems in Ciudad Juárez.