The municipality is made by official departments (secretarías): Social promotion, urban culture, social development, education, evaluation and control, government, resources, public works, administrative services, environment, general department, private department, transport and women. There are also many departments with a certain autonomy: the Olaya Herrera Airport, the Public Library (Biblioteca Pública Piloto), the College of Antioquia (Colegio Mayor), the Urban Development Enterprise (EDU), the Public Service Enterprise (EEPPM), the Sport and Recreation Institute (INDER), the General Enterprises of Medellín (EEVVM), the Medellín Bus stations, the General Hospital of Medellín, the health service enterprise "Metrosalud", the Metropolitan Institute of Technology (ITM), the Metro de Medellín, the Department for the Administration of the Medellín parks (Metroparques) and Metroseguridad.
The city belongs to the Medellín Metropolitan Area that is made by ten municipalities. Medellín is divided into six zones and these are subdivided into 16 Communes. The barrios and urban institutional areas make the Communes. There are more than 249 barrios and 5 townships, which are part of the municipality of Medellín.
Zones
South-eastern Zone: El Poblado Commune.
South-western Zone: Guayabal and Belén communes.
West Central Zone: Laureles, La América and San Javier communes.
East Central Zone: La Candelaria, Villa Hermosa and Buenos Aires communes.
North-western Zone: Castilla, Doce de Octubre and Robledo communes.
North-eastern Zone: Aranjuez, Manrique, Popular and Santa Cruz commune.
Townships: Palmitas, San Cristóbal, Altavista, San Antonio de Prado and Santa Elena.
Street nomenclature
Streets in Medellín are somewhat defined based on the Cartesian coordinate system. Certain definitions for these streets are:
Street (Calle): any street running from east to west and vice versa. The numbers increase from south to north except in a zone of El Poblado where the street numbers increase from north to south adding the denomination "sur". e.g.: Calle 10 sur. In downtown streets are known by name and many of them honouring Latin American countries: Calle Colombia, Calle Perú, Calle Bolivia, Calle Venezuela, etc.
Street (Carreras): run from south to north and vice versa; Carrera 1st starting to the east.
Circulars (Circulares): these streets loop certain areas, for example in Barrio Laures around Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. They are known by numbers: Circular 1...
Transversals (Transversales).
Diagonal streets (Diagonales).
Avenues (Avenidas): usually wide and large streets, with some sort of importance. They have names : Avenida Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, Avenida Regional, Avenida El Poblado, etc.
Boulevards (Pasajes): Rather a pedestrian street with gardens, the most popular is "Pasaje Junín" between the Coltejer Tower and the Bolívar Square, downtown.
