This article invites us to review the imaginaries and perceptions about the transformation of Medellin that, by highlighting the innovation of urban projects carried out since the mid-2000s, attribute a direct connection with the overcoming of the crisis associated with violence and drug trafficking. It proposes turning our gaze to observe first, that the changes in violence do not obey a single cause nor should they be interpreted as a direct effect of the physical-spatial (although it certainly contributes), but rather that they derive from long political, social and cultural processes. Second, these processes do not date back to 2000s, but began to develop since the 1980s, when the articulated work between territorial social organizations, academia, NGOs and later, institutional and private actors emerged and consolidated, seeking alternatives to urban realities. Third, the reduction in violence does not depend exclusively on the local order, but is linked to the behavior of regional and national actors of the still active and complex armed conflict, and internal and international mafias and criminal groups. Finally, the city still faces profound social vulnerability, inequalities, social-territorial risks and differentiated violence derived from the rooting of criminal structures in many barrios and corregimientos.