A historical approach to the cycles of violence through which the city of Medellin has passed, beginning in the 1980s when the Medellin Cartel was formed, and then moving on to its termination and the consequences derived from it; We also analyze the violence caused by the formation of the popular militias and their confrontation with the paramilitary groups, passing through the demobilization of both armed forces and
concluding in the present time with observations about the organized structures outside the law derived from an urban conflict of more than 40 years with all kinds of violence. It concludes with the contrast between the cycles of violence and the punitive treatment by the state, addressing by way of conclusion what the criminal policy implemented by the Colombian state was during all that time and how it was articulated in a practical way in the city of Medellin