Based on an ethnographic approach, this article describes how the notions of presence and absence of the state are manifested, simultaneously, in the Aguablanca District (Cali, Colombia). Within a context of urban violence, this is an obstacle when recognizing the effects of the state’s actions and omissions. Additionally, it can be noticed how the readings on violence intending to generate alternatives to mitigate this scourge enable the confrontation of imaginaries between communities from marginalized areas, elite areas, and the state. Thus, we see the emergence of signaling practices and discourses that assign violent identities to black communities and the Aguablanca District, which serve to present them as accountable for Cali being one of the most violent cities in the world, and it favors the execution of racial and territorial segregation practices, and “state” and “parastatal” actions that reproduce violence.