16/01/2026
After an international law conference, some brilliant women I met there invited me to visit Comuna 13, a part of Medellín I didn’t know much about beforehand.
When we arrived, at first glance, the entrance looked like a typical touristic street, with stalls selling local art, T shirts, souvenirs, etc..
Shortly after getting a tour guide, I realised we weren’t just walking into any typical tourist spot.
In Medellín, Comuna 13 in particular went through a prolonged, dark, and quite recent past. After Pablo Escobar’s era ended, the chaos did not simply disappear, as armed groups continued fighting over territory and control. Here especially, guerrilla militias had a presence in the hills. The state at the time responded with force, but not really to the benefit of its residents.
An infamous event called Operación Orión occurred in October 2002, where a major military and police operation was carried out to push guerrillas out. For many residents, what followed is remembered through fear, disappearances, and allegations of serious human rights abuses, including alleged links or collaboration with right wing paramilitaries.
As you walk through the hill paths of Comuna 13, you see houses stacked along the slopes… and midway through, you can look across to another hillside where a mountain is bare. They call it La Escombrera, a debris dump that families have long pointed to as a place where bodies may have been buried and hidden, many still unrecovered after all these years… unfinished stories.
TBContiniued in the comment section …
