Medellín’s tourist boom turns sour for many locals
Three decades ago, the city of Medellin in northwestern Colombia used to be the most dangerous place in the world with one of the highest homicide rates. While the cocaine trade grew and civil war raged, drug traffickers, local gangs, guerrilla militias, paramilitary groups, and petty criminals terrorized every sector of the city.
Today, the city with some 3 million inhabitants has become a top tourist destination. There’s been an influx of visitors and a growing crowd of digital nomads. They come to party and stay for the year-round springlike weather and low cost of living.
Thanks to better urban planning, improved public trasport systems and social improvements, neighborhoods like Comuna 13 turned from being urban battlefields of crime to hip tourist destinations.
But now, Medellin is staring down a wave of gentrification that's changing it completely. And while the influx of foreign money is hailed as a success story for other formerly crime-ridden cities, there are also downsides.
Reporter: Luis Gallo
Economic hope or a danger to democracy? A luxurious private City in Honduras
International investors are busy constructing Prospera, a luxurious private city on the northern coast of Honduras. It's a radical experiment: A city, organized like a private business, with its own laws, operated autonomously from the state.
The idea started a few years back, under the former autocratic president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was strongly into neoliberal politics. He wanted so called Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico, or Zones for Work and economic development, and even had the law changed to promote them.
In these areas, the Honduran state is not supposed to have any control. Instead, the new city will be run like a private company. The promoters say that this way, the city could be a great economic success - which is rare in Honduras, a country plagued by corruption, poverty and violence.
But is a private city really a good idea?
After all, a state is supposed to look after all its citizens and ensure their welfare. But a private company is interested in making money - so can and should private companies really take that role? Or could this model become a threat to democracy? Author Marie-Kristin Boese checked it out, her report is presented by Anne-Sophie Brändlin.
Reporter: Marie-Kristin Boese
Presenter: Anne-Sophie Brändlin