ABSTRACT
In Medellin, the capital of Antioquia, functioned the Medellin Municipal Power Company, the second largest utility company in the country and the best example of city government ownership. A pioneer of municipal electrical service, Medellin had the largest city-owned utility in Colombia. From the introduction of electric service into Colombia in 1890, the central government had almost never intervened and had left the task of supervising the private utility companies to the city and provincial governments. To bail out the municipal utility, the Medellin city council turned to the Colombian government and received several large loans from national government institutions, in particular from the Central State Bank. The findings were extremely revealing about the operations of government institutions in Colombia, be they municipal or national organs. As Colombia's population mushroomed during the first half of the twentieth century, the agricultural frontier expanded as well, bringing not only greater pressure upon the land but also upon the supply of water.
