Geographic Fabric for War: Armed Insurgency and Paramilitarism on the Urban-Rural Border of Medellín (1994-2003)

Abstract

This article aims to identify the reason and the way in which armed actors settled on the urban-rural border of Medellín to ensure geographical continuity between the city and the region. Despite the existence of urban structures, for greater capacity for action it was necessary to coordinate with regional structures. Therein lies the strategic character of the urban-rural border. Thus, the reasons that the armed actors themselves claimed to have for being in the city were contrasted with the georeferencing of their presence and behavior in the territory. This showed other possible purposes for the location in a specific place and the way in which they connected with their rear. The article indicates that the possibility of constructing corridors to the region’s west depended on the actor, since the infrastructure for the passage of the Cauca River has a greater presence of Public Forces and the characteristics of the territory made it vulnerable to armed insurgency against paramilitarism. This is why the sea access corridors are a historical construction of the paramilitaries for their drug trafficking economy, which currently continues to generate new and constant patterns of violence on the urbanrural border of western Medellín.