Medellin in 1979
Medellin is the second-largest city in Colombia, located in the Antioquia department of northwestern Colombia. Spain settled the town as "San Lorenzo de Aburrá" in 1616, but on 2 November 1675 a nearby town, "Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín", was named by Queen Mariana of Austria, and it eventually became the city center of the new city of "Medellin". The city was once the most violent city in the world due to the rise of the Medellin Cartel in 1982 and the advent of the cocaine trade, but the cartel's fall in 1993 led to violent crime dropping by 95% and poverty by 66%, with the poor being integrated into the city center; it became safer than American cities such as Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, and New Orleans. In 2013, Medellin had a population of 3,731,447 people (including the metro area).
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