ABSTRACT
A third type of utility were those owned by the city governments. This type existed throughout Colombia but was most pronounced in the provinces of Antioquia and Caldas. In Medellín, 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. The difficulties Medellin faced were also experienced by other municipal utilities; thus, by the 1930s, municipal ownership ceased to spread, and by the 1940s the city utilities were gradually being absorbed into state organizations, with two exceptions. No takeover goals had motivated the central government when it first entered the electricity business in the 1930s. But diverse political pressures soon dragged the state into regulating the larger companies and providing subsidies for struggling utilities.
