“Turning Our Face to the River”: Leisure, Nature and Politics in Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract

In cities marked by their inequality, spaces of leisure and recreation stand in sharp contrast with urban injustices and political conflicts. The Gran Malecón, a 5-km riverside promenade along Barranquill’s Magdalena River, epitomises the city’s ambition to become Colombia’s first BiodiverCity and to bring people closer to the river as a mechanism to increase tourism and economic growth. Although attractive and widely used, the Gran Malecón is located in a riverine landscape of inequalities and environmental injustices. Nearby communities have unequal access to public infrastructures and are threatened by urban pollution and the future expansion of the Gran Malecón. Furthermore, this infrastructure is part of a broader project of green development in the Magdalena River system, which also includes an ecopark in the Mallorquín Marsh. These green and blue leisure projects have been funded by international organisations, but they have been administered and promoted by the local government. This amalgamation of local politics and green and blue projects have made the Gran Malecón a site of political contestation that identifies how excessive attention to this infrastructure obscures dire problems such as poverty and crime in the city. This reflection about the Gran Malecón contributes to current debates about the urbanisation of rivers, the politics of nature-based solutions and critical leisure studies.