Where the Asphalt Ends: Bogota’s Periferies

At the southern end of Bogota, Colombia, in the cold, wind-eroded mountains, millions of people displaced by 60 years of war try to build the world of their dreams despite threats from armed groups and abuse from landowners.

“People have come here from different regions due to various conflicts, the ones in the 40s, in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s …” says Mauricio, director of the community schooling project Cerros del Sur, built on the highest point of the Potosí-La Isla hill, a dividing mark for the south of the city. We arrive here in a taxi that leaves us on the street that divides Potosí from the poorer and less well organized neighboring hill, Caracoli, where the paramilitaries’ word is law. With difficulty we climb the hill’s dirt paths to the door of the school, situated at 3000 meters above sea level.

One hour from the center of Bogota sprawls the immense suburb Ciudad Bolivar, at one million strong the most populated of the city’s 20 “localities.” Almost all the dwellings bear traces of the do-it-yourself construction that characterizes nearly all of this zone. Arriving in the Jerusalén area, where a belt of hills marks the city limits, the houses get poorer and poorer although almost all are made of bricks. Public services seem more precarious here: only the main streets, the avenues, are asphalted; shops and public transport are scarce; flat land gives way to steep hills. We are coming to the outskirts of the outskirts.”*

*From: http://americas.irc-online.org
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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