After years of relative quiet in Medellin, gang-related crime and violence in Colombia’s second largest city in 2018 is on a rebound.
The city has approximately 240 different gangs with an estimated 5,000 members, the majority of whom are loyal to the Oficina de Envigado, the organized crime syndicate that once was the local enforcer army of late drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Other illegal armed groups, particularly the paramilitary Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), are also present in the city. Guerrilla group ELN is present in Medellin, but has not carried out any violent actions in years.
Medellin homicide rate
Homicides in Medellin went up 30% in the first half of 2018, mainly because of an escalating turf war between gangs that are aligned with local crime syndicate the Oficina de Envigado, and their paramilitary rivals, the AGC, who control gangs in the west of the city.
Source: Medical Examiner’s Office
Homicides by district
Medellin’s downtown area has always had the city’s highest homicide rate because it is where most drug dealing, fencing and contraband trading takes place. Ongoing gang wars are mainly affecting the peripheries of the western districts of San Javier, Robledo and Belen.
Source: Medellin Ombudsman’s Office
Armed robbery
Locals reported more than 8,000 robberies in 2017, more than three times as many as five years before.
Source: Medellin Como Vamos
Robbery risk map
Robberies are most common in the city’s downtown area where hundreds of thousands of people visit every day to go to work, or regularly to do shopping in one of the 10th District’s shopping areas.
Source: Medellin Police Department
Extortion
Extortion is one of the most common criminal activities of La Oficina, which is considered an international drug trafficking organization by the United States. This practice is particularly common in the city’s lower and middle class neighborhoods where police are either absent or on the payroll of local crime lords
Protection payments, called “vacunas” (vaccines), are particularly affecting the city’s small business and transport sectors who must pay the local gang for permission to work in the area under its control.
Source: Medellin Police Department
Forced displacement
Forced displacement has become particularly common in Medellin after the demobilization of “Don Berna,” the founding leader of La Oficina. In some cases, people are displaced amid threats of sexual violence or to avoid the recruiting of children by gangs. In other cases, people’s homes are simply expropriated by gangs because of their strategic location.
Source: Medellin Ombudsman’s Office
Locals’ security perception
The security perception of locals hardly ever coincides with reality because of the city government’s control over public television and radio.
Source: Medellin Como Vamos
