MEDELLIN, Colombia (November 7, 2007 04:34 AM EST) For anyone who followed the coverage of the Colombian drug trade in the 1980s, it's hard to hear the word "Medellin" without immediately thinking "cartel."

Nearly a decade and a half has passed since drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was killed by police, dealing a devastating blow to his Medellin cartel. And yet the city continues to struggle with its troubled past - and with a serious criminal element that lingers to this day.

During a recent visit to Colombia's second-largest city, asap examined Medellin's struggle to reinvent itself - and turned up some signs of progress.

Take a look at this video report to get a glimpse of Medellin in 2007.

http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/medellin/

---

asap contributor Andrea Zarate is a freelance writer based in Miami.