John Ramírez is moving out of Comuna 13, a vibrant, residential neighborhood turned tourism destination in the western hills of Medellin.
Ramírez’s family moved there when he was only four years old. Growing up in the area in the 2010s, he watched it transform from a conflict zone to a creative cultural hub. He founded one of the area’s most well-known tour companies to show visitors around his home.
But now, at age 35, he’s leaving. And that’s not because it’s gotten too expensive or his business isn’t doing well.
“It has become unbearable,” Ramírez said of his neighborhood.
Ramírez and an increasing number of Comuna 13 residents are relocating because of incessant noise, crowded streets filled with unlicensed vendors, tourists, and motorcycles, and an absence of government control. Due to the lack of regulation over the tourism industry, unlicensed tour guides, informal businesses, and gang extortion have taken over.
“There are no controls, no regulations,” said Ramírez, who helped found the company Zippy Tour. “Everyone talks about gentrification, but here in Comuna 13, that’s not the reason [people are leaving]. It’s actually because people are uncomfortable.”
An explosion of tourists
So far this year, the Comuna 13 neighborhood has seen around 136,000 tourists visit each month. Those numbers have made it the city’s number-one tourist destination. It’s part of Medellin’s tourism boom, which drew 1.2 million foreigners to the city in 2024.
“The neighborhood wasn’t made for that many people,” said Carlos Calle, who leads the city’s tourism observatory.
In the early 2000s, the sloping residential area was one of the most dangerous in the world. But it gradually became an example of Colombia’s transformation. The installation of escalators around the streets boosted access to the city and work opportunities for locals. Talented graffiti artists and dancers from the neighborhood gained international prominence. Safety improved across Colombia after the signing of a 2016 peace deal that ended the decades-long conflict between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Comuna 13’s new identity as a tourism and cultural hotspot is miraculous for residents who have lived there for more than 40 years, like shop owner Raúl Alzate.
“You used to wake up, look over, and see a guy with a weapon in his hand. It’s very different now to wake up and see people around, just peaceful,” Alzate said.
But Alzate admits he’d be happier to keep welcoming tourists if the industry was more regulated. Public walkways are now full of an increasing number of food, drink, and clothing vendors. Most of them do not have a city license. Motorcycles and small trucks also share the same walkways.
Every day brings new businesses
According to the Medellin Chamber of Commerce, more than 2,750 businesses registered formally in Comuna 13 as of 2023. That’s a jump compared to the 1,950 official businesses that were in the neighborhood in 2016. However, the number of informal vendors has also exploded. While informal vendors are common in Colombia, Comuna 13 has limited space for the dozens that line the road.
Local shop owner Ángela González lived in Comuna 13 since 1980 but decided to leave four years ago. She said things worsened in the neighborhood in 2021.
“You’d wake up, and there’d be four or five new businesses,” she explained, pointing out the loud music booming nearby from new restaurants and clubs that offer a view of the city.
González’s kids didn’t want her to leave Comuna 13, but staying felt impossible.
“This was my house, my whole life, the one I built with so many sacrifices, working my entire life and raising [my children] here,” she said. “[But] I’d rather rent it out and leave because of all the noise.”
She now commutes from a nearby neighborhood to sell beer, cigarettes, and snacks to tourists passing her shop.
On tour guides and gangs
Besides the noise and packed streets, Ramírez estimates as many as 500 guides are operating in the neighborhood. Only around 200 are certified through a city-required course. While many Comuna 13 natives still give tours, an increasing number come from places as far away as Venezuela, Chile, and France.
Ramírez lamented that the tourism police rarely check a guide’s documents. If they do, people show fake credentials or an email showing they’re enrolled in a tourism course. Many have never actually attended class. Plus, Calle of the tourism observatory said there are only about 30 tourism officers for the whole city, which weakens enforcement.
Local gangs often control who gets to open a new business or become a tour guide, filling the vacuum that the government left behind. Last month, city police arrested 14 people accused of extorting guides in Comuna 13, charging them 15,000 pesos ($3.50) per tour. Nevertheless, the same people left prison a few days later and started giving tours again, one local guide told Lazo Magazine, preferring to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation.
In a recent survey, 40 percent of businesses said they pay local gangs an extortion fee, known as a “vacuna.”
Economic gains vs. reality
Economically, the tourism boom in Comuna 13 has been a blessing for the neighborhood. According to a study by a handful of local non-profits, the quality of life in the city improved by 10 percent from 2010 to 2018.
In the city’s most recent development plan for the neighborhood, officials noted that economic progress is still lagging due to a lack of work opportunities and education. Calle argues that Comuna 13 needs an updated plan to allow cooperation between the tourism industry and law enforcement. That means implementing more than just short-term, reactive measures.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here,” Calle said. “Institutions have specific roles.”
Neither the tourism police nor the city agency that oversees public property, Public Space, responded to requests for comment.
Recently, Public Space took over an empty walkway a few blocks past Comuna 13’s tourism zone, dividing up portions of the sidewalk to license new businesses. The new mayor, who took office in January, wants to bring order to the neighborhood, but the process has been slow.
It no longer depends on us
Of course, not everyone wants to leave. Retiree Cecilia Árias said she has nowhere else to go.
“My son wants to leave, but I don’t want to [leave my home],” she said.
Ramírez emphasized that tourists are welcome. Still, the government must make the neighborhood livable for locals. Many people working in the neighborhood aren’t originally from there, which means they are less committed to its future.
“All the problems here in Comuna 13 have solutions, but it no longer depends on us,” Ramírez said. “We used to handle it when there were just a few of us from the neighborhood.”
Austin Landis is a multimedia journalist based in Medellín, Colombia, where she focuses on migration. She previously covered U.S. politics in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in BBC News, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, and The Guardian.