The most dangerous neighbourhood in the world!

Once labelled the 'Most Dangerous Neighbourhood in the World' Communa 13 in Medellin Colombia was not a very nice place to be.

The community was always planned to be one of the wealthiest in the city with its high hills and stunning views over medellin.

In reality though, Communa 13 placement in the whole makeup of Medellin, made it the perfect location for the Narcotics Trafficking.

The Community itself is completely made up of 'Invasions', the term that is used for houses which have been built illegally.

People trafficking, Drugs, Prostitution, Gun Crime and Murder... Up until 20 years ago it was all just part of daily life in C13.

The Community was for a long time run by three separate groups, Gangsters, Drug Traffickers and the extreme right wing Guerrillas.

Communa 13's unique layout made it impossible for the police to do anything to intervene.

The king pins had the high ground which meant, by the time the police had even made it half way up the hill, they were either surrounded or the criminals had long since been informed and simply escaped using a different route.

These routes were easy to navigate for the residents of communa 13 but not for the police. As there was a rule that you could not be a police officer in medellin if you or your family were from medellin... this rule was in place to try to tackle corruption and bribery but also meant that the majority of police were from bogota and had absoloutely no idea of the layout of C13.

20 years ago after the guerrillas had already worked with the police to eradicate the rival gangs, they found that their organisation had grown so large that they were beginning to turn their weapons on eachother... and so a peace treaty was signed, which failed at first but now still stands today.

There are still drugs being trafficked and all manner of illegal activities taking place. But at the time of writing, the communa has just managed to surpass 100 days without anyone being killed... well thats not a lot, you might think.
However, given that 20 years ago they had at least one murder per day for years running, it is obvious why the 100 fays is something that the community is proud of.

Since those days a community fund was setup to help turn C13 around.

They installed escalators to help people get up the hill (the 2nd external community escalators in the world)
And they bought the community together with dance, hip hop, and graffiti, which can be seen across the whole area.

It is now possible to take tours of C13 to see for yourself its massive and ongoing transformation.

The people here are proud of where they live and happy to welcome tourists into a once inhospitable neighborhood.