REGIONAL FACTS, BASE FOR GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES IN THE CITY-REGION MEDELLIN

Abstract

The urban fusion in the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Medellin, associated with the improvement in infrastructures that connect it with the near east and west, have changed the urban, regional, social and economical realities. Nonetheless, the public responses to the phenomena of conurbation and the country-city dynamics remain local and strongly determined by the central city, Medellin. This article aims at evaluating the government structures that are viable for the city-region that orbit around Medellin, and the government functions that should be undertaken. The methodology is in essence descriptive and based upon the usage of secondary resources that would lead to the analyses of viable options from within the triangulation through interviews with deputies of the Departmental Assembly of Antioquia and with the results of some public regional policies. The essential conclusion of this work resides in the fact that the territorial and legal conditions are granted in order to build government structures of metropolitan space; nonetheless, the political viability remains uncertain as long as the supra-municipal structures cut short the possibility to build up a power within the municipal and departmental bureaucracies.