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On many people's minds is the question of how safe Medellin really is. Safety is naturally an extremely important factor when considering where to travel. Medellin and Colombia have a terrible reputation. Medellin is still associated with Pablo Escobar who was gunned down in 1993. I'll let you do the math. While it remains true that the illegal narcotics industry continues in a country that has suffered over four decades of armed conflict it is also true that things have improved in ways that most of the world is simply not aware of.
• Nationally, homicides and kidnappings are down by 37% and 72% since 2002. • Medellin has a murder rate of 37 per 100,000. • The biggest cities in Colombia (including Medellin) have the lowest number of homicides of all large cities in Latin America. Consider the following video about daily life in Medellin that I believe gives a necessary counterweight to the abundance of negative imagery and video footage concerning Medellin: If you wish to see more videos about life in and around Medellin
click here.
President Alvaro Uribe, educated at Oxford and Harvard, now in his second term has played a major role in transforming the country. It is not my intention to oversimplify the conflict nor to wilfully misinform anyone reading this but I strongly believe that my decision to move here to live on a part-time basis at the end of 2006 is a statement of how things are developing. There is a renewed optimism among people and the economy is booming at over 5% growth for the third consecutive year. Poverty, although still very high at 49% is down by 10%. There is an enormous discrepancy in the distribution of wealth and this is one of the greatest challenges facing Colombia as a whole. Something that strikes visitors is how wealthy the richest parts of the city are. It is a land of enormous contrasts and also opportunities for legitimate business, industry and investment that has already begun. Yearly, the U.S. contributes $600 million in aid as part of the Plan Colombia program that is now moving into a second phase focusing on greater aid for education and revitalizing of areas that have been deprived. Not without it's flaws, the program seems essential in helping the country develop.
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