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The newspaper notes that a new wave of artistic talent is emerging from the South American country, and “Columbia’s artistic energy is spreading across boarders and even starting to draw foreign artists to its own dangerous backyard.”

“It’s one of the last refuges left here in Colombia: to be an artist,” said Fernando Gaitan, the creator of the television show “Ugly Betty,” during the recent Hay Festival, one of many cultural conferences taking place in Colombia these days.

The four-day arts festival, held annually in Wales, set up an overseas conference in Cartagena last year, in part because of the artistic talent emerging from Colombia.

“People who are unsettled communicate in any way they can,” Hay organizer Juanjo Arzubialde told the Miami Herald. “And that’s what’s happening here.”

Colombia has always boasted an array of artistic talent, from renowned writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez to artist Fernando Botero. But until now, it had been overshadowed by the country’s leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug mafias.

The Miami Herald: Colombia’s artistic energy is exploding, spreading