OuTsTaNdInG pErSoNaLiTiEs

Alvaro Uribe Vélez

President of Colombia for two consecutive periods since August 2002 until the year 2010, he was born in Medellin on July 4 of 1952, graduated from Law School at the University of Antioquia and did postgraduate studies in Administration and Conflict Management at the University of Harvard and Oxford respectively.
He has held different public offices, among them, Head of Patrimony at Empresas Públicas de Medellín, Mayor and Councilman of Medellin, Governor of Antioquia, and Senator. While in the Senate, he was recognized as a Star Senator, Best Senator and as the Senator with the best initiatives.

Belisario Betancur Cuartas

Was born in Amaga, Antioquia, on February 4 of 1923. He was president of Colombia and during his term in office, national and international literature and poetry were promoted.
He is an attorney by profession and a poetry lover, he holds a Honoris Causa Degree from the Universities of Colorado and Georgetown in Washington D.C. He writes opinion papers for several newspapers and has written books on education, economy, sociology and politics.
He was also the Labor Secretary, Ambassador of Colombia in Spain and a representative of Colombia in several Arab countries.

Héctor Abad Faciolince

One of the most representative Colombian writers; he was born in Medellín in 1958. He started to study medicine, philosophy and journalism but never finished, at present he works as translator and has a column in Revista Semana; jobs that he alternates with writing novels and literary critic. He has received several awards such as the Simon Bolivar Opinion Journalism Award, the National Story Telling Award and the Award to the Best Foreign Novel Award.



Manuel Uribe Ángel

He was known as the most important intellectual of his time, he was born in Envigado in September of 1822 and died in Medellin in 1904.
He studied ecology and became the first person to practice this profession in Colombia. He also studied medicine and geography; he was a scientist, writer and was a passionate student of Colombia’s history. He published several books, was governor of the State of Antioquia, senator and co founder of the Universidad de Antioquia and its School of Medicine.


José María Córdova

Recognized as the most important Antioqueñan General during the independence of Antioquia, he was born in Concepción, Antioquia the 8th of December of 1799 and died the 17th of October of 1829. His performance during the battle of Ayacucho helped Antioquia to become independent from Peru, the creation of Bolivia and the independence of South America, for these reasons he is known as “The Hero of Ayacucho”


Fernando Botero

Recognized as one of the greatest artists in the world, this Colombian painter awakens the admiration of the people who look at his work. Born in Medellín, city with which he maintains not only a sentimental bond but also is recurrent in the images of his work. Our city has the largest collection of his work, thanks to a donation that he gave with the purpose of supporting the arts and generate cultural and educational spaces in the community.
His paintings and sculptures adorn the downtown area at the Museum of Antioquia and the Sculpture Park, preserve the work of this plastic artist whose color and massive figures exhibit the reality of the world seen through eyes of an unprecedented creative artist. The world has seen how his exhibits have reached cities such as Venice, Rome, New York, Madrid and many others, generating opinion and transforming the social language through art.



Juanes

Paisa musician. who at an early age, found in music a way of expression. This singer, guitarist, producer and author of all the music and lyrics of all the themes he sings, creates his music with a variety of styles, sources and themes which are a mix of vallenato, country, tango, bolero Cuban son and rock, the result is the expression of his feelings which many times are dedicated to his
country and his roots.



María Luisa Calle

With a degree in Administration of Agricultural Companies, Maria Luisa realized that she wanted to dedicate her life to sports and, made her first contacts with mountain biking from where she moved to compete in track and route competitions. This 38 year old paisa has dedicated 12 years of her life to cycling, specializing in the modality of track individual persecution. This paisa has participated in different national and international events, Olympic competitions, world championships, and Central American and Bolivarian games obtaining numerous medals including the Gold medal at the World Bicycle Track Competition in Burdeaus, France. This perseverant cyclist has remained strong without caring for the difficulties brought by the demanding sport.

Santiago Botero

Santiago Botero had his first contact with a bicycle at 7 years of age. In the nineties, his enthusiasm for mountain biking led him to win the individual persecution, imposing a new national record which permitted him to begin a new series of triumphs and obtain success in the different races in which he participated. Among the most important victories in his career are the stages against the clock in the Cundinamarca Tour, the Tour of Chile in 1997 and, the second stage of the Mitsubishi Gran Prize in 1998. He obtained his first victory in a stage, in the Tour of France, wining also the recognition as the best mountain racer. He was also professional world champion in the race against the watch.

Sergio Fajardo Valderrama

He became mayor of the city of Medellin the 1st of January of 2004, after obtaining the highest voting registered in history for this office. This mathematician and Master of Science from the University of Los Andes (Bogota) also holds a PhD in mathematics with a minor in economics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison U.S.A. He has participated in peace processes and lectured on the armed conflict in Colombia. He worked as a journalist and Associate Director of the newspaper El Colombiano and had an opinion column in the newspapers El Mundo, El Espectador and the magazine Dinero; he also worked in television programs such as Operación Ciudad of Telemedellin and Zanahoria of Teleantioquia, as well as radio talk shows like Viva FM of Caracol Radio. This mathematician committed with his city has initiated a great compromise of social transformation in which Medellín has moved from fear to happiness with perseverance and the diligent work of a leader and his team, convinced that through education and security, great changes and new leadership can be promoted.