A demonstration staged by some of the Colombia’s indigenous, including communities from Huila, Putumayo and Guajira, began this morning and ended later in the day at the Alpujarra Center; peasant farmers from five communities in Antioquia affected by the Hidroituango project also participated.

Nearly 3,000 people walked along Medellín’s streets waving posters and chanting, primarily asking to be taken into consideration during peace talks between Farc and the Colombian Government underway in Havana, Cuba; they also fear the territories they have owned for so many years will be taken from them and are trying to keep it from happening.

By the end of this month, the administration will put out an invitation to tender to select an engineering firm that will design a solution for traffic issues at the bridge on South 4th Street where it exits to El Poblado.

The Secretary of Infrastructure, Jose Diego Gallo, said the goal is to make sure just one person doesn’t make a decision, but that it’s the result of a technical study, with the added bonus of competition among the private sector in order to obtain a more reliable product.

The Mayor of Medellín, Aníbal Gaviria, announced that 62 towns will have access to EPM’s residential natural gas services over the next two years. The service, made possible by the ‘Gas without Borders’ expansion plan, will benefit 104,642 families.

Mayor Gaviria believes this new project will reinforce the work done with local governments, which will allow projects to be developed more effectively. The plan will also generate employment for more than 7,000 people in construction and operations.

As of tomorrow, Comfama, Medellín’s Mayoralty and the Governorship of Antioquia are a partnership in the quest to provide healthcare services in Antioquia to 1’650,000 members of the subsidized system.

74 percent of the shares of the mixed EPS (Healthcare Promoting Entity, for its Spanish acronym) belong the State while Comfama owns the remaining 26 percent.

American lifestyle guru and business magnate, Martha Stewart, was in Medellín and surrounding areas this past weekend. ”We had a great time in the newly crowned ‘most innovative city’ Medellin. We learned so much about politics, food, horticulture and beauty”, she tweeted for 2,5 million Twitter followers.

On Saturday night, Stewart talked about visiting Carmen de Viboral, where she “looked at orchids and beautiful hand-painted pottery. Had a true Colombian meal for lunch”.

“In medellin-everyone exhausted after day of travel-watching woody allen and ordering in pizza-i never do this in US,” she said in another tweet.

On Monday morning, 9,000 students from schools all over the city were extras in a promotional video directed by Brad Furman and his team, a film meant to present Medellín as the ideal site for the Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

For the American filmmaker it has been a “unique experience” that will result in a “special product about Medellín and Colombia”.

Aside from the Atanasio Girardot stadium, where this portion was shot, the film also features special locations like the EPM and España Libraries, Plaza Botero, and Plaza Mayor, among others.

In the two first months of 2013, homicides increased 21,2 percent in Medellín, compared to the same time period in 2012. This was the result revealed by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.

According to the report, as of February 28^th, 2013, there had been 189 homicides reported in the city, while last year that number was 156. The most affected ‘comunas’ were 13 (San Javier) with 38; comuna 10 (La Candelaria) with 26; and 8 (Villa Hermosa), with 17. Those least affected were El Poblado, with no cases reported, comuna 1 (Popular) and 2 (Santa Cruz), each with three.

Medellín took the award for the Innovative City of the Year, according to an announcement made this morning by the Wall Street Journal.

“Our Number One City was so proud of their accomplishments that response was overwhelming, the WSJ said on its webpage.

More than one million votes were cast by January 31st of this year, it was shared 1,300 times on social networking sites, tweeted 40,000 times and received 150,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook.

The journal said Medellín has found new solutions to old problems, such as lack of mobility and environmental issues.

Read the whole article here: http://online.wsj.com/ad/cityoftheyear

Following an investment of 196,000 million pesos, Antioquia’s Governorship set up an ambitious plan to move forward with a “renaissance” for the department’s secondary roads.

The plans include five major projects that will be put out to tender for nine sub-regions, some of which were grouped together to make things more efficient; however, the east and southeast will be dealt with individually because they have the highest density in roads.

Proposals will be accepted until March 13th and contracts awarded by April 16th. “The goal is for construction to begin in May so they can be ready by December 31st of 2015,” said Secretary of Infrastructure, Mauricio Valencia.

A new Buen Comienzo (Good Start) preschool equipped to benefit more than 350 children opens today in Moravia. These schools are unique because they are developed with help from organizations that specialize in comprehensive early childhood care.

Including this one, Medellín’s Mayoralty has opened 12 of these preschools, with two more set to open in April and construction scheduled to begin on another four later this year.

The schools also give women in the community the opportunity to be trained and possibly get jobs working with the children.