How a Japanese project helped to fix world’s most dangerous city | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

The cityscape of Medellin, Colombia, in February 2024 after the land readjustment project (Provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency)

Colombian collaboration with Japanese experts on urban development has played a key role in the rebirth of Medellin, a poverty-stricken and drug-infested city that was considered the most dangerous in the world.

Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city, was home to an internationally feared drug cartel and gained notoriety for its high murder rates.

Under the city’s revitalization program, parts of Medellin were remade by building public facilities and spaces in areas that were hotbeds for crime.

“Land readjustment can make a society better,” Augusto Pinto, former chief of the urban development division of Colombia’s National Planning Department, said of the Medellin project.

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