Editorial

Outgoing President Duque: Decency, Moderation, Democracy Crucial to Continue Colombia’s Progress

Medellin Herald July 21, 2022

Politically centrist Colombian President Ivan Duque delivered a kind and honest farewell speech to the incoming Colombian Congress on July 20, as a nervous nation prepares for an erratic, demagogic incoming President Gustavo Petro on August 7. Duque, who beat Petro in a landslide election four

Editorial

Petro’s ‘Magical Surrealism’ Wins Colombia Presidency

Medellin Herald June 20, 2022

With 100% of votes now counted, socialist-populist Gustavo Petro won Colombia’s presidency last night with 11.28 million votes (50.4%) versus 10.58 million votes (47.3%) for a similarly unbelievable populist, former Bucaramanga Mayor Rodolfo Hernandez. Out of Colombia’s 39 million eligible voters, Petro won 28.9% of that total — meaning 71% of Colombia’s voters

Editorial

Rodolfo Hernandez Stuns Pollsters; Simple Math Indicates He’s Likely to Win Presidency

Medellin Herald May 30, 2022

Defying pollsters and traditional punsters, former Bucaramanga Mayor Rodolfo Hernandez soundly beat favored contender and former Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez in the first-round Colombian national elections May 29 — hence pitting Hernandez against stagnating socialist Gustavo Petro in the final round June 19. With 100% of the votes now counted, Petro yesterday

Editorial

Colombian Drug-Policy Experts: Legalizing Cocaine Would Only Make Matters Worse

Medellin Herald May 6, 2022

A sometimes-popular belief that just legalizing cocaine would eliminate Colombia’s bloody wars among violent gangs (and their left-wing or right-wing extremist allies) – while providing a policy alternative to the Colombian government’s flawed attempts to corral the trade — is pure nonsense, according to a remarkable Brookings Institution publication quoting

Editorial

Presidential Candidate Gustavo Petro: Taking Colombia Back to the USSR

Medellin Herald March 27, 2022

Socialist-populist Colombian presidential candidate and former M-19 guerrilla Gustavo Petro last week released a 54-page campaign platform and governance program that points to: While leading Colombian economists now sarcastically term the Petro political program as “delirious,” it could just-as-well remind people of The Beatles’ sardonic 1968 pop hit, “Back

Editorial

To Save Hidroituango, Kill Medellin Mayor’s Scheme to Replace Contractors: Pöyry Study

Medellin Herald January 23, 2022

A stunning final report from Finland-based hydroelectric-project engineering consultant Pöyry finds that the current contractors building the US$5 billion Hidroituango hydroelectric project in Antioquia should continue to finish the project as quickly as possible, rather than be replaced. Contractor continuation is the safest and fastest route to avoid a possibly

Editorial

Medellin Mayor Quintero Claims City’s Leading Businesses Are Mafia Gangsters

Medellin Herald January 10, 2022

Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero claimed in a shocking interview for the January 8 edition of Colombia’s leading weekly Semana news-magazine that Medellin’s leading businesses are in fact run by mafia gangsters who supposedly are out to “get” him. Facing a recall petition for mismanaging the city, for publicly slandering its most successful and civic-minded companies, […]

Editorial

Latest EcoAnalytica/Guarumo Poll: Two-Thirds of Colombians Fed-Up with Strikes, Blockades, Rioters

Medellin Herald May 30, 2021

The latest, just-released EcoAnalytica/Guarumo national poll of voting-age Colombians shows that people here are overwhelmingly fed-up with the month-long series of strikes, road blockades, violence, arson attacks, attempted (and actual) murders and attacks on police, and economic devastation seemingly ignored or in some cases even promoted by some members of the “Comite

Editorial

Top Medellin Industrialists Contradict Medellin Mayor Quintero’s Unproven Claims on EPM

Medellin Herald April 19, 2021

Grupo Argos President Jorge Mario Velásquez and Grupo Nutresa President Carlos Ignacio Gallego Palacio on April 19 both issued extraordinary public statements contradicting Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero’s latest unproven assertions claiming that Medellin’s leading industrialists have been trying to manipulate the naming of the EPM general manager and supposedly rob EPM.

Editorial

Medellin Mayor’s Favorability Ranking Plummets in Invamer Poll

Medellin Herald January 30, 2021

The latest Invamer poll of voting-age residents here (see: https://www.scribd.com/document/492368867/Informe-INVAMER-Poll-140#from_embed\) finds that Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero’s favorability rating has plunged from 84% at the start of his term in 2020 to just 55% today, with unfavorability rising to 42%, from just 12% initially. What’s more, 56% of Medellin residents