“In memory of the murdered youth,” reads a ceramic plaque on a street in a Colombian neighborhood in the Ciudad Bolívar district. Beneath it, the younger residents play a game of “micro” or hang out chatting on a street corner. An innocent act that shouldn’t pose any risk, the act of being young. But during the 1980s, several armed groups began a campaign of extermination against the youth that continues to plague these neighborhoods. Hundreds of young people have lost their lives in the so-called social cleansing. The pretext is to eliminate gang members, but the result has been a climate of lawlessness and insecurity due to the murder of young people, many of them social leaders in their neighborhoods. Ciudad Bolívar is one of the areas of the capital with the strongest social movements. The targets of the murders shifted from gang members to any young person who wasn’t home after 9 p.m.

This southern Bogotá neighborhood, home to nearly a million people, originated in the 1950s with the displacement of thousands of families from all over Colombia due to the armed conflict. Today, its endless brick houses climb the hillsides, sheltering a significant portion of Bogotá’s working class. Life isn’t easy for many on this side of the city, but it’s the youngest who face the greatest risks. During their youth, faced with a lack of opportunities due to their birth in the south, other doors open for the young people of this neighborhood: drug use or trafficking, gangs, theft… Opportunities for quick money, a false illusion of economic advancement tempting to many.

This series of photos seeks to illustrate one of the ways of life for young people in Ciudad Bolívar: a humble, street-based, yet innocent existence. An adolescence in which they must navigate great risks and, simply because of their youth, are vulnerable to becoming victims.