In this article, I will revise the effects of the urban renewal politics in the historical center of Bogotá, taking into account the experience of the former inhabitants of Manzana 5, located at Las Aguas neighborhood. In the first place, I will present a critical analysis of the discourse in which urban renewal takes place, and the strategic place of the historical center deterioration. In the second part, I will approach to the wastes generated by a renewal process that does not recognize the social factor: the ruins and urban displacement, a phenomenon that is based on legitimate and illegitimate strategies of territorial order. https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X33