City Report: Barranquilla - Global Miami Magazine

City Report: 

Barranquilla 

COLOMBIA’S “GOLDEN GATE” BECKONS FOR BUSINESS WITH U.S. NEARSHORING, 

CALL CENTERS, AND INVESTMENT 

Sponsored by AMCHAM Barranquilla 

Atlantic Quantum Innovations • The Caribbean Health Group • Florida International Tax Advisors 

LATAM • King Ocean • Lean Solutions Group • MIA • Pay Cargo 

Port Everglades • Port Miami • Seaboard Marine • Tecnoglass • Winston & Strawn LLP

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SPECIAL REPORT 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 


8 

CITY REPORT: 

BARRANQUILLA 

Colombia’s fourth-largest metro area by 

population, the port city of Barranquilla 

is now building a reputation as a hub 

for “nearshoring,” both in manufacturing 

for U.S. sales and in call centers for 

U.S. clients. 

22 

THE NEW OFFSHORING 

How furniture maker Kannoa moved 

production from China to Barranquilla, 

employing about 130 people in Colombia 

and 40 in Miami. 

24 

GOING BILINGUAL 

Call center company Atlantic Quantum 

Innovation is building a new 

facility to boost employment to 4,500. 

26 

MOVING TO MIAMI 

Why Barranquilla companies like 

Finotex and Procaps are investing in 

South Florida. 

28 

CELEBRATE ON 

Barranquilla’s pre-Lenten Carnival 

shines as Colombia’s largest cultural 

extravaganza. 

30 

SNAPSHOTS 

Four international stars from the 

Colombian city live or have lived in 

Greater Miami. 

49 

60 

62 

64 

66 

68 

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City Report: 


MANUFACTURING, NEARSHORING, CALL CENTERS, AND INVESTMENT 

TECNOGLASS IS THE 

LARGEST MANUFACTURER 

IN BARRANQUILLA, MAKING 

SPECIALTY WINDOWS USED 

IN HIGH-RISES ACROSS 

LATIN AMERICA, THE U.S., 

AND FLORIDA, INCLUDING 

MIAMI’S BRICKELL CITY 

CENTRE AND RELATED 

GROUP’S PROJECTS. 

8

BY DOREEN HEMLOCK 

What’s most important is people. 

Everyone in Tecnoglass has my personal 

phone number and email. 

CHRISTIAN DAES, ABOVE, COO OF TECNOGLASS 

Barranquilla, Colombia – This tropical city off the Caribbean coast is best 

known overseas for its cultural and sports treasures: its festive Carnival, singer 

Shakira, actress Sofia Vergara, fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi, and baseball 

great Edgar Renteria, to name a few. 

Now, the port city is building a reputation as a hub for “nearshoring,” both in 

manufacturing for U.S. sales and in call centers for U.S. clients. It’s also emerging as 

a model for sustainability. Its public parks program just won a global prize, chosen 

among entries from 155 cities. And it’s the first area in Colombia rolling out English 

studies in all public middle and high schools, aiming to ensure the language skills for 

long-term business with its top trade partner, the United States. 

Colombia’s fourth-largest metro area by population, Barranquilla is leveraging 

its location as the country’s biggest city close to the U.S. It’s just 2.5 hours by air from 

Miami, a flight shorter than the Miami-New York route. Executives from Florida 

can fly in and out the same day. And Barranquilla is just three to four days by ship 

9


USA 

Miami 


Cartagena 

Santa Marta 

Medellin 

Bogota 

COLOMBIA 

Barranquilla at a Glance 

Population: 1.2 million in the city proper and 

2.7 million in the Atlantico Department (state). 

Ranking: Capital of Atlantico Department and 

Colombia’s fourth-most populous city. 

Economy: Manufacturing and port activities, 

with 25-plus industrial parks and four 

free-trade zones; growing tourism. Atlantico 

represents about 4 percent of Colombia’s 

economy and 5 percent of its population. 

Economic Growth: About 4 percent yearly 

over the past decade, faster than Colombia’s 

national average, thanks largely to closer 

collaboration between the public and private 

sectors. 

Trade: Exports of $2.4 billion in 2022, with the 

U.S. as its top trade partner. 

Links to South Florida: Daily flights to Miami 

and Fort Lauderdale that take about 2.5 hours; 

at least twice a week shipping service to 

South Florida, with freight arriving in as little 

as three days. 

Source: ProBarranquilla agency; AmCham Barranquilla. 

Our orientation as a port city is international. 

We see the United States as our natural partner 

and Florida as our primary gateway to the U.S. 

VICKY IBAÑEZ, SHOWN RIGHT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF 

AMCHAM-BARRANQUILLA 

from South Florida, with freight costs now as low as $1,600 for a 

40-foot container, cheaper than many transits within Colombia or 

the U.S. itself. 

“Our orientation as a port city is international. We see the 

United States as our natural partner and Florida as our primary 

gateway to the U.S.,” says Vicky Ibañez, executive director of Am- 

Cham Barranquilla, the largest American Chamber of Commerce 

in Colombia relative to city size. 

BUILDING ON ITS HISTORY AS COLOMBIA’S “GOLDEN GATE” 

Barranquilla’s location by the Caribbean and proximity to Florida has 

long been key to its development. In the early 1900s, especially around 

World War II, its seaport welcomed diverse immigrants, including 

Jews from Europe and Middle Easterners, both Christian and Muslim. 

That influx prompted its nickname, “Colombia’s Golden Gate,” 

and explains why Middle Eastern food is now considered “local” 

cuisine. 



The city also was the launchpad for Colombian aviation. The 

airline that became Avianca, Colombia’s flag carrier, began in 

Barranquilla in 1919, making it the world’s second-oldest, after the 

Netherlands’ KLM. Initial flights from the airport, named Ernesto 

Cortissoz for an Avianca president, headed to South Florida. 

When Colombia started free trade-zones to encourage exports, 

Barranquilla opened the first one – back in 1958. That zone now 

hosts some 70 companies, most selling to the U.S. 

Still, it’s only been in the past 16 years that Barranquilla has 

shaken off its late 20th century doldrums to again shine among Colombia’s 

dynamos. The spark came from a group of visionary mayors 

led by Alex Char, the son of a wealthy family that owns Colombia’s 

Olimpica supermarkets and other businesses. Char was elected in 

2007, pledging to forge a public-private partnership and tackle such 

pressing problems as severe flooding after rains. He delivered, even 

installing underground pipes to channel rainwater. Barred from consecutive 

terms, he was re-elected in 2015 and just won re-election for 

another four-year term starting in January. Peers from his group have 

won in between, providing continuity in policy and laying out a city 

plan through 2100, with an emphasis on international business. 

“The most important change in these 16 years is our mentality. 

Now, we think big and long-term,” says Lelio Sotomonte, who runs 

the city’s biggest call center, Atlantic Quantum Innovation, which 

serves many U.S. clients. “We’re reclaiming our role as Colombia’s 

Golden Gate.” 

TECNOGLASS: BARRANQUILLA’S LARGEST MANUFACTURER 

The clearest example of Barranquilla’s U.S. export success is Tecnoglass, 

a company founded by a family of Middle Eastern heritage. It is now 

LELIO SOTOMONTE, ATLANTIC QUANTUM INNOVATION 

TECNOGLASS’ MONUMENT VENTANA AL MUNDO (WINDOW TO THE WORLD) 

listed on the New York Stock Exchange and will soon reach $1 billion 

in sales. The company makes specialty windows used in numerous 

high-rises across Florida and the U.S., including Miami’s Brickell City 

Centre, One Thousand Museum Tower, and Related Group’s projects. 

Tecnoglass started out in 1983 producing solar water heaters 

for Colombian homes but pivoted with changing market conditions. 

In the 1990s, it began exporting specialty glass to Miami, and in 

the 2000s, started selling its specialty windows in South Florida. In 

the 2010s, it listed its stock on Wall Street, first on the NASDAQ 

exchange. Last year, it posted sales topping $716 million, almost all 

in the U.S., from Miami to Chicago and as far west as San Francisco, 

says chief operating officer Christian Daes. 

“We went public on Wall Street not for money, but for credibility. 

Outside Miami, when we’d say we’re from Colombia, we’d 

often get questions like: ‘Where is Colombia? What can I do if 

there’s no delivery?,’” Daes says. “After listing, we could say, ‘Look at 

our stock ticker and reports. We’re for real.’ “ 

Tecnoglass now employs more than 9,000 people in Barranquilla, 

making up to 3,000 custom windows daily and even 

mobilizing robots for inventory control. To keep exports growing, 

the company just moved its global headquarters to Miami. Daes 

commutes regularly from Florida to the Barranquilla factories, as he 

also develops a large Miami area showroom to serve U.S. clients. 

Beyond exports, Tecnoglass stands out in Barranquilla for the 

city monuments that it has donated and maintains. In the past five 

years, it’s unveiled the colorful Ventana Al Mundo (Window to the 

World), often shown on TV as the city’s icon and rising some 15 

stories; and Ventana de Campeones (Window of Champions), a 

landmark often called “Shark Fin” that stands about 10-floors high. 

Daes calls the landmarks part of his company’s “social respon- 


Cruise Capital of the World 

Global Gateway of the Americas 

CRUISE & CARGO 

WORKING TOGETHER 

13


ABOVE: BARRANQUILLA IS LOCATED ON MAGDALENA RIVER, WITH ACCESS TO THE CARIBBEAN SEA 

ABOVE RIGHT: MARCELA BARRIOS, VP OF THE BARRANQUILLA FREE ZONE 

“Nearshoring is not just for companies, but for the people who 

come to do business here,” says Barrios. “We’re a city with Germans, 

Americans, Middle Easterners, and a multiplicity of cultures and 

cuisines that make newcomers feel welcome.” 

Also vital for nearshoring: strong sea and air links. Barranquilla’s 

main seaport has been investing and diversifying its services 

to grow. Since 2021, the Port of Barranquilla has been owned by 

Miami-based infrastructure fund iSquare Capital, which has helped 

update operations, trim costs, and reduce accidents, says chief 

operating officer Aldo Signorelli. The seaport now offers most forms 

digitally so that users can pay bills online and track cargo status in 

real time. Last year, the port’s terminal handled some five million 

tons of freight, from containers to liquids and breakbulk, to place 

among Colombia’s five busiest. Service to South Florida came from 

at least two Miami-based lines, Seaboard Marine and King Ocean. 

The seaport is expanding into logistics services too. It now offers 

a large, refrigerated warehouse for perishable and frozen goods, 

which handles exports of avocados, blueberries, and frozen fruits and 

vegetables for the U.S. and other nations. Plus, there’s space for more 

projects on its sprawling acreage, says Rene Puche, the seaport chief 

of 10 years. He left a career with a Norwegian fertilizer company, 

which included years in Europe and Africa, to return to his hometown 

and lead the port, encouraged by the city’s turnaround and its 

growing collaboration with business. “There’s an honest and open dialogue 

between the private sector and government on ways to foster 

long-term growth and sustainable development,” says Puche. 

Barranquilla’s airport is also becoming more international in 

focus. Besides flights to many Colombian cities, it now serves some 

half-dozen destinations overseas in the U.S., Panama, the Dominican 

Republic, and the Dutch Caribbean islands. American Airlines 

flies daily from Miami and Spirit Airlines daily from Fort Laudersibility,” 

which also features college scholarships for employees and 

their families, on-site health clinics and sports facilities at factories, 

wheelchair donations, and strong participation in the Barranquilla 

Carnival, among other programs. 

“What’s most important is people,” says Daes, whose family 

immigrated to Colombia a century ago seeking opportunity. “Everyone 

in Tecnoglass has my personal phone number and email.” 

ASSETS FOR NEARSHORING: FREE-TRADE ZONES, 

SEAPORTS, AIRPORTS 

Located on the lowlands of the Magdalena River some 15 miles 

inland from the Caribbean Sea, Barranquilla touts more than proximity 

to the U.S. to attract nearshoring. Its four free-trade zones also 

offer tax breaks and other incentives for exporters. Hundreds of companies 

now operate in the zones, making everything from shampoo 

to scaffolding, mainly for U.S. buyers. Some, such as outdoor furniture 

maker Kannoa, have relocated production from distant China. 

Costs are part of the lure. At today’s exchange rates, Colombia’s 

minimum wage runs about $300 per month, slightly less than Mexico’s 

and about a third of Costa Rica’s, says Manuel Herrera, general 

manager of the Cayena Free Zone, the busiest zone in Barranquilla. 

Cayena now hosts tenants that directly employ about 3,000 people, 

double the number of two years ago, Herrera says. 

Since the COVID pandemic, businesses are looking more 

at “quality-of-life” issues for managers and staff, and Barranquilla 

is gaining there too, says Marcela Barrios, vice president of the 

Barranquilla Free Zone, the city’s first zone and the only one with 

its own seaport. The metro area of some two million residents now 

offers a miles-long riverwalk, a mangrove eco-park, award-winning 

restaurants, and more international schools. 



In the footsteps of author Gabriel 

García Márquez 

Before earning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982, Colombia’s most 

celebrated author Gabriel García Márquez lived and wrote in Barranquilla. 

Born in the nearby province of Magdalena in the small town of 

Aracataca, he grew up in the port city, and, in the 1950s, worked at its 

newspaper El Heraldo. He was part of a mid-century cadre of artists, 

writers, and intellectuals dubbed the Barranquilla Group. 

Today, visitors can trace some of his footsteps at a remodeled 

version of La Cueva bar that the group frequented. The house that 

hosted the bar has been renovated as a restaurant and cultural center, 

full of photos of “Gabo” and his peers, plus memorabilia and exhibits. 

One notable motif: footprints of an elephant set in concrete and 

painted gold on the home’s verandah. The story goes that La Cueva’s 

owner, Eduardo Vila, told patrons he was closing one day, insisting “not 

even an elephant can make me open.” One patron noticed a circus in 

town, paid off a circus worker and showed up at the house with an 

elephant. At the exit, staffers suggest that you make a wish by placing 

your hands on a block of ice, the very substance “discovered” in the 

first line of Gabo’s novel “100 Years of Solitude.” 

Several civic groups in Barranquilla are now working to develop a 

“Macondo Route,” named for the town in that epic novel. They envision 

La Cueva among some 15 stops in the city and 50-plus locations 

nationwide. In South Florida, a film critic wants to honor Gabo too. 

Hernando Olivares, who was born in Barranquilla and lived in Miami, 

is raising funds to make a full-length movie about García Márquez, 

focusing on his Heraldo newspaper days and tentatively titled “A Coffee 

for Gabo.” 

RENE PUCHE, THE SEAPORT CHIEF, SAYS THERE’S SPACE FOR 

MORE PROJECTS ON THE SEAPORT'S SPRAWLING ACREAGE 

dale. Colombia’s Avianca also flies from the city to Miami several 

times a week, says Marcel Di Muzio, the marketing manager with 

the airport’s private operator. 

The airport handled a record 3.1 million passengers in 2022, 

up from 2.8 million in 2019, as more visitors came to Barranquilla 

for business travel, Carnival festivities, and increasingly, for medical 

tourism at the city’s abundant eye-care and dental clinics, says Di 

Muzio. He sees room for growth not only for passengers and cargo 

but also for refueling and maintenance. The airport has a lengthy 

runway – about 10,000 feet long – that already serves as a landing 

strip for U.S. Air Force jets on maneuvers over Colombia. 

“We can land the world’s largest planes like the A380 with no 

problem, and being at sea level, can become a hub for refueling too,” 

the tri-lingual Di Muzio told Global Miami Magazine. 

TOUTING FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES 

To spread the word about its offerings, Barranquilla is turning to 

conventions, some at its newly built, riverfront Puerta de Oro Convention 

Center, touted to hold up to 16,000 people cocktail-style. 

The city recently beat out larger rivals to host the Latin American 

convention of the American Association of Port Authorities 

(AAPA). The Dec. 4-6 event is set draw some 1,000 ports leaders, 

users, and suppliers from dozens of countries to the center, both for 

talks and for city tours. 

Port leaders see the timing as especially propitious. Seaports 

near the U.S. now have an edge in the transport of goods to U.S. 

buyers: Ocean shipping averts the serious congestion and delays 

facing trucks crossing the U.S.-Mexico land border, making water 

transit generally faster, less costly, and more environmentally sound, 

says Rafael J. Diaz-Balart, the Cuba-born, Miami-based execu- 


17


A Global Model for “BiodiverCity” 

To understand Barranquilla’s rise as a “BiodiverCity,” you need only 

stroll along the Malecon promenade (above), which spans more 

than four miles along the Magdalena River. The public park now 

attracts at least 10 million visitors a year for walks, family outings, 

meals, or other activities, according to city estimates. 

Barranquilla opened the Malecon in 2017 after offering incentives 

for factories to leave the riverfront. The promenade is central to the 

city’s “Everyone to the Park” program, which now has more than 90 

percent of residents living within an eight-minute walk of a public 

park. The World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Cities gave the 

program its 2021-22 grand prize, selected from 260 submissions by 155 

cities in 65 countries. The U.S.-based center praised Barranquilla as 

Colombia’s first “BiodiverCity” and an urban model. 

The “Todos Al Parque” program developed from a business mission 

to Tampa in western Florida, led by AmCham-Barranquilla. Visitors 

admired Tampa’s riverwalk and abundant parks, and the mayor’s office 

asked Tampa for help in how best to create and run parks. It then 

worked with local neighborhoods to gain input on their needs and 

engage them to improve the public spaces. 

Over the past decade, Barranquilla has revitalized 200-plus 

parks and opened some 50 more, adding benches, playgrounds, and 

exercise gear, plus access ramps for seniors and families with small 

children. Funding came partly from the regional Andean Development 

Corp., known by its initials in Spanish as CAF, with support from the 

Inter-American Development Bank, France, and the United Kingdom, 

among others. 

Barranquilla also is part of the “BiodiverCities by 2030 program,” 

developed by the World Economic Forum, which recommends 

“nature-based solutions” to boost urban resilience. Solar panels on city 

government buildings are part of that push, cutting costs for energy 

and trimming carbon emissions. Says Mayor Jaime Pumarejo: “BiodiverCity 

can be a motor of development.” 

RAFAEL J. DIAZ-BALART, AAPA COORDINATOR FOR LATIN AMERICA 

tive who is AAPA’s coordinator for Latin America. “Don’t let this 

moment pass by to take advantage of nearshoring in Colombia,” 

Diaz-Balart told a meeting in Barranquilla, a city where he says 

people “embrace visitors like members of your family.” 

Going forward, many see opportunity beyond manufacturing 

– into cleaner energy. Already, the mayor’s office is installing solar 

panels on government buildings to expand renewables as part of its 

“BiodiverCity” push. Barranquilla recently teamed with a Danish 

company to explore development of a 350 MW offshore wind farm 

that would be Colombia’s first, tapping the area’s strong winds. Plus, 

the Atlantico Department has potential to develop natural-gas 

reserves offshore that could boost exports, studies show. 

“We have everything we need to be an energy hub, not only for 

Colombia but for the world,” says Vicky Osorio, executive director 

of investment promotion group ProBarranquilla. She envisions the 

city mobilizing its skills in metal-working to build industrial components 

for a growing energy sector. 

There’s also a push to expand business promotion along Colombia’s 

entire Caribbean coast, with Barranquilla teaming up with 

such nearby cities as Cartagena and Santa Marta – much as South 

Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties often 

collaborate to attract investment. 

“If we jointly promote Colombia’s Caribbean region, we can 

attract more attention and more business for us all,” says the tri-ligual 

Osorio. She worked in investment promotion for varied entities 

from New York, Bogotá, and Brazil, but returned to Barranquilla 

two years ago to help her now transforming hometown. 

Key to the future, leaders say, will be keeping up both the 

strong union between business and government and the long-term 

vision sparked by Char and his peers. “Right now, we’re all aligned 

and working together for the city to progress,” says Osorio, proud of 

the changes made since the 2000s. “What’s important is continuity 

of the private-public partnership for decades to come.” l 


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19

Images of 




When Miami-based entrepreneur Luis 

Blasini was looking for a place to 

manufacture outdoor furniture in the early 

2000s, the choice was clear: Guangzhou, 

China, where a cluster of companies had 

been making furniture for decades, employees 

knew the craft well, and supplies were 

abundant. 

His venture, Kannoa, began contracting 

Chinese factories to make chairs, tables, and 

other items for hotels, country clubs, apartment 

buildings, and diverse spaces. Over 

time, Kannoa began offering more customized 

orders, and Blasini needed a space to 

produce smaller batches on-demand. In 

2012, he opened his own factory in that 

same cluster. 

But costs in China kept rising, and 

shipping across the Pacific meant four to six 

weeks at sea to deliver his custom orders. So, 

Blasini started looking closer to home for 

his small-batch, custom production. Central 

America and the Dominican Republic 

offered opportunity, but he worried what 

might happen if “we stepped on someone’s 

foot in a small country,” led by a relatively 

small group of people. So, he looked a bit 

further south to Colombia, home to some 

52 million people and next to Blasini’s 

homeland of Venezuela. 

“The hunt for nearshore manufacturing 

began in 2014. We saw lead times from China 

were long,” Blasini says. “We were looking 

for a country with stability, and Colombia 

provides strong judicial security.” 

Blasini knew he wanted to produce in 

a free-trade zone, which could provide tax 

breaks and other incentives for exporters. 

Colombia offered some 120 options. He 

visited more than two dozen free zones in 

varied cities, including Bogotá, Medellín, 

Cali, and Pereira, and opted for Barranquilla 

because of its coastal location, with easy 

access to a port with direct shipping service 

to Florida. 

“In Colombia, with all the mountains, 

it’s hard to move goods around the country,” 

says Blasini. From inland zones, “I could pay 

as much in freight for the goods to reach the 

coast as I do to ship to Miami.” 

By 2019, Kannoa had started production 

in Barranquilla. Soon after, the 

pandemic hit, disrupting global supply 

chains. Blasini could no longer visit his 

China operations. As factories and seaports 

strained, freight costs from Asia skyrocketed 

too, rising from about $2,000 per container 

to as much as $18,000 – sometimes “costing 

more for freight from China than the value 

of what was inside,” he says. 

The New Offshoring 

HOW FURNITURE-MAKER KANNOA MOVED PRODUCTION 

FROM CHINA TO BARRANQUILLA 

Blasini revved up operations in Colombia, 

not only for custom orders but also 

for standard products. Shifting production 

wasn’t easy, he concedes. He didn’t realize 

electricity costs in Colombia were significantly 

higher than China. He couldn’t 

buy all the inputs required from domestic 

manufacturers, as in China, so he had to 

import some basics, including aluminum. In 

China, workers are often paid by the piece, 

so they learn to produce quickly and put 

in long hours to earn more. In Colombia, 

work tends to be hourly, and employees are 

less familiar with furniture-making, so labor 

productivity has been lower. Plus, stricter 

labor and environmental norms made compliance 

more expensive. 

While production costs are higher in 

Colombia than China, however, some offsets 

help keep operations competitive, says 

Blasini. Quicker delivery times mean that 

Kannoa need not keep as much inventory 

in Miami, saving lots on storage. Freight is 

cheaper – usually $2,000 to $3,000 per container 

for direct shipments that arrive in as 

little as three days. And it’s easier to manage 

near-shore manufacturing, trimming both 

spending and stress. 

“A two-and-a-half hour flight from 

Miami is so simple. I fly out at about 11 in 

the morning, and I’m in the factory at 2:30 

in the afternoon. Before, to China, it took 

me a day and a half going and a day and a 

half coming back. You get destroyed by the 

time change,” says Blasini. “And when I sat 

with an attorney in China, I understood 


A two-and-a-half hour 

flight from Miami is so simple. 

I fly out at about 11 in the 

morning, and I’m in the factory 

at 2:30 in the afternoon. 

Before, to China, it took me 

a day and a half going and a 

day and a half coming back... 

OPPOSITE: LUIS BLASINI, FOUNDER OF 

KANNOA IN THE BARRANQUILLA FACTORY 

ABOVE: KANNOA NOW EMPLOYS ABOUT 

130 PEOPLE IN COLOMBIA, MANY IN 

LABOR-INTENSIVE WORK MAKING FUR- 

NITURE FOR HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, 

AND OTHER SPACES. 

maybe three words. In Colombia, I speak 

the same language, either Spanish or English. 

I understand everything. It’s definitely 

a much nicer experience.” 

Kannoa now employs about 130 people 

in Colombia and some 40 more in Miami. 

About 90 percent of sales are destined for 

the U.S. and the rest largely for Latin America 

and the Caribbean. 

To cut costs in Colombia, Kannoa is 

adding welding machinery and automating 

some production processes. It plans to add 

solar panels on its factory later to reduce 

electricity costs. Longer-term, it hopes to 

develop a furniture industry cluster in Barranquilla, 

as in China, that could offer inputs 

and other services to those in the cluster, 

while nurturing generations of workers 

attuned to industry needs. 

“I could see an upholstery factory next 

to a lamp factory next to an outdoor furniture 

maker, so we can offer more manufacturing 

options and services beyond producing 

for your own brand,” says Blasini. 

For fellow manufacturers interested in 

Colombia, Blasini suggests contacting local 

business and investment promotion groups, 

especially ProColombia, ProBarranquilla, 

the U.S. Embassy’s commercial service in 

Bogotá, and AmCham-Barranquilla, where 

leaders are eager to help foreign companies 

set up in the country and create needed 

jobs. 

“We’re in Barranquilla because of Pro- 

Barranquilla, and we’re in Colombia because 

of ProColombia,” says Blasini. “When we 

visited other countries, none had the infrastructure 

and services of ProColombia. We 

had lunches and dinners with ProColombia’s 

president. ProColombia operates more 

like a private business than a government 

agency. They do amazing work.” 

Blasini says the local business groups 

can help newcomers vet potential partners, 

make contacts, and develop links. “Business 

in Colombia is very personal. You go out to 

lunch and dinner. You need to build relationships. 

It’s not the same to cold-call and 

say, 'I’m Juan Perez from a U.S. company,' 

as to have AmCham or the Embassy take 

you by the hand. They act as a filter and add 

weight to what you’re doing.” l 

23


Going Bilingual 

BETTING ON ENGLISH FOR ECONOMIC 

DEVELOPMENT 

L 

elio Sotomonte remembers being called crazy when he and his 

partners set out to sell English-language services to U.S. customers 

from their call center in Barranquilla in 2009. Back then, few 

young people in the city spoke English well. The quality of English 

education in local public schools was weak. 

Today, many call Sotomonte a pioneer. Thanks to closer collaboration 

between business, government, academia, and civic groups, 

Barranquilla now boasts the strongest English skills program in 

Colombia, helping its call-center industry soar to some 8,000 jobs, 

many reliant on English. 

The company that Sotomonte leads, Atlantic Quantum Innovation, 

now employs roughly 3,500 people, about four times the 

number of a decade ago, and it’s building a new center set to employ 

some 1,000 more. Already, about half of Atlantic’s employees are 

bilingual, mainly in Spanish and English, serving U.S. customers in 

such diverse fields as healthcare and telecom. Bilingual employees 

earn more and get hired for jobs faster than applicants who speak 

just one language, says Atlantic’s international business development 

manager Andrea Bruges, who speaks Spanish, German, French, and 

English. 

“The industry is following what we’re doing here, and other 

cities are considering support for bilingual programs to foster the 

economy and jobs,” says Bruges, 32, who moved from Colombia’s 

capital of Bogotá for university studies in Barranquilla and stayed 

because of call center opportunities. 

Prompting the expanded use of English is support from 

the city government. With advocacy for English from the Am- 

Cham-Barranquilla and a call center association, Sotomonte says 

the mayor’s office mobilized unprecedented resources from Colombia’s 

SENA training institute. The mayor’s team also spurred 

donations from companies and business groups, and customized the 

curriculum in public schools, offering English-language classes for 

middle school students. SENA now offers classes in Barranquilla to 

bring students to the upper-intermediate B2 level required by call 

centers, providing a steady stream of job applicants. 

English-language skills benefit more than call centers, of 

course. “The creation of this cluster,” says Sotomonte, “built an ecosystem 

that lets us manage not just customer care, but also computer 

technical support, healthcare, energy, and logistics to expand our 

portfolio.” Manufacturers selling to the U.S. market, hotels welcoming 

overseas visitors, transport firms serving Florida, and other 

international businesses all gain from staff versed in English, says 

Vicky Ibañez, executive director of AmCham-Barranquilla since 

its founding in 1998. She’s grown her group to become the second-largest 

of Colombia’s five AmCham chapters and the biggest 

for its city size, now counting nearly 200 affiliates. 

Ibañez knows the importance of English from the many 

business missions she has organized to cities in Florida, including 

Tampa, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee. A mission to Miami in August 

featured 14 Barranquilla companies that held 180-plus meetings 

with potential partners for import, export, and two-way investment. 

“You can’t go to the U.S. for business and not know English,” Ibañez 

says. “That’s why we back this bilingual education project.” l 


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Moving to Miami 

WHY BARRANQUILLA COMPANIES ARE 

INVESTING IN SOUTH FLORIDA 

For business between Barranquilla and the U.S., Florida shines as 

the No. 1 gateway. That’s true for Colombian producers sending 

goods north. It’s also the case for larger companies from Barranquilla 

that are increasingly setting up operations in Greater Miami 

to reach U.S. and global clients more easily. 

Once Colombian exporters have a large enough client base 

in the U.S., they often opt to open a sales or marketing office – or 

even a specialty factory – inside the U.S. itself to be closer to North 

American customers. They also find it’s sometimes simpler to run 

marketing for the Americas from Miami, given the area’s role as a 

hub for business throughout Latin America. 

Consider the examples of Finotex, a maker of labels for clothing, 

and Procaps Group, a producer of pharmaceuticals. Both were 

started by immigrant families in Barranquilla, expanded through 

exports, and today, have significant operations in South Florida. 

You may be wearing Finotex products right now. The company 

makes labels for Calvin Klein, Dickies, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, 

and other major brands, says general manager Fabian Duque. 

Founded in Barranquilla in 1984, it opened a small factory in 

Miami in 1989, mobilizing South Florida’s superior international 

logistics to supply apparel producers in Central America and the 

Andean Pact nations of South America. Back then, Colombia’s 

international logistics were not well developed, Duque says. 

Over time, Finotex also launched factories throughout the Caribbean 

Basin to be close to the apparel plants using its labels there. 

And as U.S. brands expanded production in China and Mexico, 

Finotex set up factories there too. Today, the family-owned business 

employs about 1,000 people worldwide, operating 10 plants 

globally, making printed and woven labels, hangtags, and heat 

transfers. In Miami, about 25 people handle sales and marketing 

for the U.S. and Caribbean Basin markets and some international 

logistics. 

“It’s a big competitive advantage to have a commercial office 

TOP: THE PROCAPS GROUP OPENED SOFGEN IN SOUTH FLORIDA 

ABOVE: FABIAN DUQUE, GENERAL MANAGER OF FINOTEX 

in Miami to reach the major brands,” says Duque. “Many people 

feel more protected when a U.S. office operating under U.S. law 

handles their brand.” 

Procaps, meanwhile, is so active in North America that it’s set 

up two factories in South Florida to produce pharmaceuticals and 

supplements. An immigrant family from Poland started the venture 

in Barranquilla nearly 50 years ago, opening leather tanneries that 

spun off such byproducts as gelatin for medicine capsules. 

Today, Procaps has offices in 13 countries, with factories in 

Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and the U.S. Its stock trades on the 

NASDAQ exchange, and net revenue reached $410 million in 

2022. Keen on innovation, the company holds 43 patents, with another 

48 pending, says attorney Marcela Carvajalino, vice president 

of corporate affairs. 

In 2021, Procaps bought an 86,000-square-foot factory in 

West Palm Beach to make soft-gel pharmaceuticals and is now developing 

a factory in Broward County to make its Funtrition-brand 

gummies. While the company holds U.S. Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA) approval since 2009 for its Colombian factories to 

export prescription products to the U.S., demand is so strong for 

some items that it makes sense to make them in Florida both for 

U.S. sale and export elsewhere, says Carvajalino. 

“U.S. production opens opportunities in other regions with 

which the U.S. has free-trade accords or other protocols for sale of 

pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements,” including Mexico, 

says Carvajalino. “Our vision is global.” l 


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SANDRA GOMEZ OF CARNIVAL SA, AT THE CARNIVAL MUSEUM 

Celebrate On 

BARRANQUILLA’S CARNIVAL BRINGS GROWING 

ECONOMIC BENEFITS 

Joyous dancing to cumbia music. Troupes parading with animal 

masks. Floats brimming with fresh flowers. A Carnival Queen 

wearing an elegant gown. Indigenous groups playing wooden flutes. 

Barranquilla’s pre-Lenten Carnival shines as Colombia’s largest 

cultural extravaganza mixing European, African, and native American 

cultures. It’s also an important economic driver for the city, 

attracting visitors from around the globe both for the event itself 

and year-round through the publicity it brings. 

Now, leaders aim to boost that economic impact through increased 

marketing, greater cultural exchanges with other Colombian 

cities and, later, more consistent presentations of Colombia’s diverse 

cultural offerings overseas. 

Already, promotions feature a world-class Carnival Museum 

launched in Barranquilla in 2021. The museum offers videos, photos, 

costumes, and other exhibits that trace the history of Carnival 

globally and dive deep into Barranquilla’s version, which some rank 

among the world’s largest, after Rio de Janeiro’s. 

Sandra Gomez, a former journalist, heads up the public-private 

partnership Carnival SA that organizes the annual event. She describes 

the February 2023 Carnival as its most attended yet, drawing 

nearly 670,000 visitors from across Colombia and from such overseas 

nations as the United States, Spain, Germany, Canada, and Japan. 

Those visitors filled almost all of the city’s roughly 8,600 hotel rooms 

during its peak weekend and an average 83 percent of those rooms 

on its four main days. In all, out-of-town Colombians spent roughly 

$500 each and overseas guests some $700 each during the fete – or 

$350 million-plus from visitor outlays, a new record this past year. 

That doesn’t count the money that locals spend on Carnival 

– to make costumes, decorate floats, attend events, and buy food 

and drink. And it omits the value of buzz generated in media, both 

traditional and social, prepared by 600-plus journalists from outlets 

such as CNN en Español and Celebra Peru, and from folks posting 

700,000 times on Facebook alone. 

“Carnival is the biggest enterprise in Baranquilla,” says Gomez. 

“It generates 30,000 direct and indirect jobs – in creative industries 

for dancers, musicians, artisans, designers, and make-up artists, and 

for many others [such as] security staff, food vendors, drivers, and 

hotel workers. We prepare for it all year-round.” 

Key to the Carnival’s success is diversity, especially in music. “You 

identify Rio Carnival with samba, Trinidad & Tobago’s with calypso, and 

New Orleans’ Mardi Gras with jazz. But here, we have many different 

rhythms. One group may be dancing cumbia, another garabato, another 

mapale and another son de negro. We have many cultures with different 

folkloric traditions, and we all share together,” says Gomez. 

Barranquilla’s modern Carnival has roots dating back more 

than a century. Records show the first Carnival King crowned in 

1888, the first Battle of Flowers held in 1903, and first Carnival 

Queen named in 1918. Organizers added the Grand Parade and 

orchestra competitions in the 1960s, while the United Nations Educational, 

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated 

the celebration among the world’s masterpieces of intangible 

cultural heritage in 2003. 

Gomez now seeks to leverage that heritage with more regular 

cultural exchanges within Colombia. Later, she envisions tours 

worldwide with folkloric artists from across Colombia, helping 

promote the country’s cultural offerings and attract more travelers. 

“Carnival is one of the happiest moments in the city. We 

welcome guests like family,” says Gomez. “Everybody becomes an 

ambassador for Carnival.” l 



Snapshots 

SO MANY SOUTH FLORIDA LINKS... 

IT’S “QUILLAMI” 

Barranquilla and South Florida are so intertwined 

that at least four international stars from 

the Colombian city live or have lived in Greater 

Miami. Indeed, there’s a slang word that unites 

the two places: Quillami. It can refer to everything 

from high-rises in ‘Quilla that look like Miami 

towers to those ‘Quilleros who aspire to live as if 

they were in Miami, acting a bit showy at times. In 

Greater Miami’s Kendall area, there’s even a Quillami Fast Food 

restaurant offering typical Barranquilla fare. Here’s a look at four 

renowned Barranquilleros linked to Miami: 

SHAKIRA: SINGER, SONGWRITER, ACTRESS, AND DANCER Superstar 

Shakira now lives in Miami Beach with her children. She was born 

and raised in Barranquilla and made her recording debut with Sony 

Music Colombia at age 13. Her “Hips Don’t Lie” dancing style 

builds on her dad’s Lebanese roots. Billboard's magazine says that 

with 95 million-plus records sold, Shakira is the top-selling Latina 

singer of all time. Her Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation has 

built schools in Colombia, including sites in Barranquilla. 

SOFIA VERGARA: MODEL, ACTRESS, AND ENTREPRENEUR Vergara came 

to Miami with her son at age 22 to work for Univision TV on travel 

shows. She’s best known in the U.S. for her role as Gloria on the 

TV series "Modern Family" and as a judge since 2020 on "America’s 

Got Talent," ranking her among the highest-paid women on 

TV. Born and raised in Baranquilla, she studied dentistry there. Her 

businesses include clothing, fragrances, jewelry, home décor, and 

new beauty brand Toty, her childhood nickname. 

SILVIA TCHERASSI: FASHION DESIGNER Tcherassi says her global brand 

offering “Effortless Elegance” was born in her hometown of Barranquilla 

but blossomed in Miami, her longtime residence. She runs 

more than a dozen boutiques in the Americas and Europe, sells 

her clothes in such top stores as Neiman Marcus and Harrods, and 

recently expanded into luxury hotels, with a namesake property in 

Colombia’s Cartagena. She studied interior design in Barranquilla 

and fashion at Parsons School in New York. 

EDGAR RENTERIA: SHORT-STOP IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Renteria 

helped the Florida Marlins win the 1997 World Series. He also 

earned the 2010 World Series’ Most Valuable Player award with the 

San Francisco Giants. Renteria founded the Colombian Professional 

Baseball League, which plays in Barranquilla in a stadium 

named in his honor. Now retired from MLB, “Barranquilla Baby” 

mostly lives in his hometown, enjoying its recent progress, from its 

improved roads to eco-parks. He told Global Miami Magazine from 

the Palo de Mango restaurant: “With these changes, we’re opening 

to the world.” l 


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City Report: Barranquilla - Global Miami Magazine

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