Welcome to Medellin Herald
If you’re coming to Medellin (and the surrounding Antioquia department) for business, for a conference, for investment, for events, for family-and-friends visits, for ecotourism, for studying, for medical procedures, for real estate — and for living here full- or part-time — then Medellin Herald can help you focus on what’s new and what’s most important.
Over the coming weeks and months, Medellin Herald will provide you with mainly business-oriented information (in English) that isn’t easily found in scattered publications, Google searches or web sites.
Recent visitors, resident expatriates and major foreign news media including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have all pointed to Medellin’s favorable transformation over the past 10 to 20 years.
Far in the past are the “wild-west” years of Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel street wars that terrified residents and simultaneously scared-off would-be investors, tourists, permanent expats and others.
Today’s Medellin instead is starting to realize a new image that includes vastly improved security, impressive business-sector growth, world-leading public transportation systems, massive construction of high-rise apartments, investment in high-tech industries, a booming conference/congress/trade-show sector, expansion of public parks and highways, medical tourism and a budding ecotourism sector.
Medellin still has its problems, however, including crime, pollution, traffic jams and crowding. While it’s not paradise, good things usually outweigh the bad or the not-so-good. A near-perfect climate, spectacular mountains, friendly people (mostly) and an ever-more-cosmopolitan experience await the traveler and expat.
However, the most current information on Medellin (and the surrounding Antioquia department) sought by foreign visitors, investors and potential or recently arrived expats typically is in Spanish.
Learning Spanish will be mandatory for anyone that plans to live here full-time. But the English-language Medellin Herald can help foreigners overcome some initial barriers.
Aside from language barriers, another issue for those considering Medellin as a destination for business, tourism and as a possible long-term residence is the lack of objective, English-language news and information, especially for a more-mature audience.
Several internet web-sites about Medellin instead are more oriented toward youthful back-packers, nightlife party-seekers, short-term adventurists and illicit pleasure-seekers. That’s not the target audience of Medellin Herald.
Some other publications focus upon crimes, politics, scandals, narco-legacies, the pompous and the superficially famous. Others may employ naive, misleading or politically biased reporting.
One example: Some reports describe the FARC and ELN as “left-wing” rebel groups, or refer to rival “paramilitary” groups as “right-wing.”
But as the vast majority of Colombians have known for decades, the FARC and the ELN in reality are narco-terrorist mafias with “socialist” propaganda facades. Similarly, so-called “paramilitary” groups are just criminal gangs that occasionally make war with the FARC or ELN over control of narco-trafficking and extorsion scams. Other times, they’re working hand-in-glove.
These groups don’t care anything about “social justice” or ideology, even though they may spew propaganda slogans. They only really care about money, terror, extorsion and dictatorial power, just like any other communist, fascist, anti-democratic, totalitarian, gangster-mafias — anywhere in the world.
Medellin Herald shares the hopes of the vast majority of Colombians that these terrorist groups — today mainly confined to remote, rural areas — will be corraled. But we aren’t so naive as to think (or report) that merely signing a piece of paper that claims to be a “peace agreement” with the government will suddenly turn Colombia into an Eden.
Rather than indulging in such fantasies, Medellin Herald instead will focus on practical information: deeds, events, business trends, opportunities, obstacles, facts, figures, regulatory changes, tax changes, visa changes, security issues and other practical information.
We will NOT foster corruption, scams, illicit ventures, violence, sex-and-drug tourism, environmental destruction or phony political posturing.
Instead, our focus is to encourage people that actually want to do something positive for Medellin and for Colombia — by doing legitimate business here, by investing here, by living here, by volunteering in charitable, dignified causes — and to support constitutional rules of law, justice, free speech, a free press, human rights, citizen duties and democracy.
Given that Medellin Herald will remain a work in progress, we will continue to seek your advice, ideas and comments on how to improve our coverage. So: Please send your comments to: medellin.herald@gmail.com.
Welcome to Medellin Herald!
