The Congress has shared a video on X showing the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, visiting Medellín, Colombia, and walking through Comuna Trese.
“LoP Shri @RahulGandhi visited Medellín, Colombia, and walked through Comuna Trese — once a hub of violence, now a symbol of hope, transformed by the power of art and culture. Truly inspiring,” the party wrote on X.
In the video, Rahul Gandhi was seen spray painting walls and asking, “So the theme of removing violence with art is there in the city?” The delegation accompanying him responded, “Yes it is. It’s inside us. Inside the fortune.” Gandhi was also seen painting smiley faces on the walls.
During his visit, the Congress MP enjoyed local music, engaged with residents, and immersed himself in the city’s artistic culture.
He visited Terraza Arte Verde, a cultural space developed in partnership with the artist J. Balvin, where young artists from surrounding neighborhoods perform and sing despite limited opportunities.
He was shown two paintings of himself by a prominent artist of Terraza Arte Verde and expressed appreciation to the creator.
Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city, had one of the highest murder rates in the world twenty years ago.
Known as the Murder Capital of the World, the city saw an average of 16 killings daily in 1991.
Violence was driven by drug traffickers, local gangs, and guerrilla forces. Medellín was home to the notorious Medellin Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, which supplied up to 80 per cent of cocaine to the United States at the time.
In the mid-1980s, the cartel earned between $22 and $26 billion annually while Colombia’s GDP stood at approximately $35 billion.
Up to 70 per cent of Colombians lived below the poverty line during this period, and many residents of Medellín’s illegal hillside settlements lacked access to basic amenities.
The isolation of these overpopulated slums provided fertile ground for gang influence and illegal activity.
Today, Medellín is recognised as a model city of innovation. The city has received multiple awards including the Harvard University Veronica Rudge Green Award for urban design and was named The Most Innovative City of the World in 2013 by the Urban Land Institute, Citigroup, and The Wall Street Journal, surpassing New York and Tel Aviv.
Crime rates have fallen by 80 per cent since 1991 and poverty has decreased by more than 96 per cent.
The Medellín art movement played a pivotal role in this transformation. The movement, characterised by vibrant street art and urban expression, has acted as a medium for social commentary and community healing.
Notable features include the street murals of Comuna Trese, the integration of art into urban renewal, and a thriving scene at the Museum of Modern Art of Medellín.