Ambassador in Atlanta: Changed Colombia Continues to Welcome Private Investment

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As a steadfast ally, Colombia is increasingly “part of the solution, not part of the problem” when it comes to U.S. objectives in Latin America, the country’s envoy said during a visit to Atlanta this week.

“Colombia is changing — and has changed,” Ambassador Daniel Garcia-Peña Jaramillo said during a business luncheon hosted by ProColombia at the Midtown offices of law firm of Smith, Gambrell and Russell LLP.

While many Americans still view Colombia as a country rife with internal conflict, where drug cartels control major cities, Mr. Garcia-Peña said the perception is decades out of date.

A peace deal reached eight years ago disarmed the main rebel group, the FARC, and while other armed groups continue to battle the government, former no-go zones like Medellin and Cali are now thriving examples of urban innovation and biodiversity, respectively.

The ascent of President Gustavo Petro in 2022, a former rebel leader and Bogota mayor who became the country’s first leftist elected to the presidency, shows how Colombia has developed into a vibrant democracy, said Mr. Garcia-Peña, a news columnist and former university professor who worked for Mr. Petro in Bogota.

But it has also brought questions about whether Colombia remains committed to the spirit of free enterprise that led the U.S. to strike a free-trade deal with the country that could help shield it from some tariffs under the incoming Trump administration.

Mr. Garcia-Peña was unequivocal that Colombia still needs and welcomes private investment as it tries to enact policies that benefit “Colombia profunda,” or deep Colombia — the inland, rural areas away from the prosperous big cities, often populated by indigenous or minority communities.

These left-behind regions and groups have gained a larger profile in the Petro government, which brought in the first Black vice president and foreign minister, as well as an indigenous ambassador to the United Nations.

Before becoming foreign minister, Ambassador Luis Gilberto Murillo came to Atlanta to inaugurate last year’s Atlanta Black Chambers trade mission to Cali, then traveled with the group on what he called a historic trip.

While Mr. Petro has sought changes to the U.S.-backed campaign against drug trafficking, Mr. Garcia-Peña said working with the U.S. is now a bipartisan issue, and calls for reforming or removing the trade deal are no longer heard in Bogota.

“President Petro says this all the time: We don’t have enough resources in our public treasury to do everything we need to do. We need private investment. We need the private sector to come in. We need American companies, American technology, American knowhow, American markets,” he said.

While China has become the top trading partner for most Latin American countries, the U.S. remains in the No. 1 slot for Colombia, which with the right policies could be poised to benefit from companies shifting supply chains back to the Western Hemisphere from Asia.

China, however, has been more keen to invest amid a regional pullback from the U.S., Mr. Garcia-Peña said.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘abandonment,’ but in many ways, the priority that Latin America used to have in the U.S. in recent years —they’ve looked elsewhere,” he said.

Certain infrastructure projects have received no expressions of interest from U.S. firms, he added, despite the fact that in many cases, Colombia would rather have American expertise.

“Somebody asked me, ‘Why is the metro in Bogota being built by the Chinese?’ The U.S. never showed up,” he said.

Still, during five months in Washington, Mr. Garcia-Peña has witnessed broad bipartisan support for engagement with Colombia, thanks to the multifaceted relationship built over decades of partnership.

With the incoming Trump administration, the ambassador expects to find common ground on a variety of issues including migration. Mr. Garcia-Peña stressed Colombia’s welcoming of 2.7 million Venezuelan refugees since that country’s political and economic crisis began in 2019.

Colombia is also aiming to play a more constructive role in stemming the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap, the jungle wilderness between Panama and Colombia that has seen a growing presence of human traffickers taking migrants of many nationalities northward through Central America and onward to the U.S.

“We have many issues that we can work together on with the United States, regardless of the administration, and we are, in fact, looking forward to continuing in this new stage, knowing that there’s going to be emphasis differences from the current administration, but at the same time with the conviction that we need each other,” the ambassador said.

Having visited with Delta Air Lines Inc. executives before the lunch, he added that many more Americans are seeing the charms of Colombia for themselves, with a record 1.2 million U.S. tourists coming to the country this year.

That can only increase as Colombia’s reputation grows as the “country of beauty,” a label claimed by its national branding campaign. On the same day as the ambassador’s visit to Atlanta, Netflix released its 16-episode adaptation of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the masterwork by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The author’s family finally sold the rights after gaining two key concessions: that the work would be in Spanish first and that the production would be fully sourced and shot in Colombia, the ambassador said.

Studios in Georgia, an epicenter for film in its own right, are shooting movies in the country and exploring the opportunity for more, according to some film executives at the luncheon, which also welcomed members of the Atlanta Black Chambers Global Opportunities Committee as well as metro-Atlanta-based companies like Souto Foods, Equifax and more.

Watching is one thing, but Mr. Garcia-Peña said the best way to understand the new Colombia — and the opportunities it provides for businesses in tech, manufacturing, energy and beyond — is to experience it, like a group from the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce did on a November mission.

In her brief remarks, Consul General Adriana Arias Castiblanco agreed, turning to a former tourism slogan in a bid to lure Georgians down:

“The only risk is that you’ll want to stay.”

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