HOW SAFE IS COLOMBIA?

November 7, 2024

HOW SAFE IS COLOMBIA? By: Jaime Rincon

This is the concern that any traveler has when they think about coming to Colombia for the first time and it is totally understandable, due to the past of this country that has left a reputation that is difficult to change. For many people around the world, when they think of Colombia, drugs, cartels, bombs, kidnappings and guerrillas are the first things  that come to  their minds.

That was what used to be seen on the news everywhere, about this country, but, if we should realice that it is the past and things have been changing in Colombia during the last years.

Today this is a much safer country and that is why it has become one of the most important tourist destinations in Latin America. People wouldn't come if it was that dangerous. To understand how things have changed, first of all we are going to analyze what happened to the cartels, guerrillas, paramilitary groups, bombs and kidnappings to dismantle the myths about Colombia, and then we are going to look at what the current situatuation is, regarding security in the country.

*DRUG CARTELS

Although the drug trafficking business is still in force, the cartels have disappeared since the 90's. That is a business that transforms and is now in the hands of other types of groups, but those mafia organizations, gangster type that were called cartels, are something of the previous century.

In the 80's and 90's, drug trafficking groups such as The Medellín Cartel, Cali Cartel and Norte del Valle Cartel were well known. The first, still widely mentioned in the media, was led by Pablo Escobar and was known for the war they waged against the Colombian government and society to avoid their extradition to the United States, where tens of thousands of people were murdered. This group was disintegrated with the death of Escobar in 1993 and the control of the business was left in the hands of the other 2 cartels mentioned, which were less violent and were eliminated at the end of the 90's, when their members were arrested or murdered.

*GUERILLAS

These illegal armies, which began as groups of communist ideology, were the ones that took over the drug trafficking business after the fall of the cartels, as well as their rivals, the paramilitaries groups, which we will talk about a little later.

Although the guerrillas had been operating since the mid-20th century, it was in the 90's where they reached their maximum power, because with money from drug trafficking they were able to buy weapons and support their armies of thousands of combatants. We are talking about multiple groups, where the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army) stood out.

Between 2002 and 2010, the Colombian Government fiercely fought the guerrillas, to the point that they were diminished and thus they agreed to start processes for a peace agreement. The one carried out with FARC was successful and was signed on November 24, 2016, ending a decades-long war with that guerrilla that murdered, kidnapped and caused harm to millions of Colombians and foreigners.

The peace process with the ELN has been interrupted several times and has not been posible yet. That Guerrilla is still active, but it operates only in specific points of the country and its power is much less than that of the guerrillas in the past.

There are currently other guerrilla groups active in Colombia, which are made up of former FARC members who did not accept the peace process and continued committing crimes. They are called “FARC Dissidents”, “EMC (Central Major Command)” and “The Second Marquetalia”. We will talk about these a little later.

*PARAMILITARY GROUPS

They were born as self-defense groups of the countryside that fought the guerrillas, but in the 90's they became drug trafficking armies, same as their enemies. Even some of the members of the cartels who survived, took refuge in these armies and became their commanders. There were multiple paramilitary groups operating in different regions of the country, acting under the name AUC (Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).

They carried out a peace process with the government, even before the guerrillas, between 2002 and 2008, where their commanders were extradited to the United States, where they were wanted for being drug traffickers. After this process, some of its combatants decided to continue committing crimes and founded groups such as “El Clan del Golfo”, “Autodefensas Gaitanistas” or “Las Águilas Negras”, which are much smaller than the previous AUC, but are still active in certain regions. of the country. We will also analyze the present of these organizations a little later.

*BOMBS

Bombs and particularly car bombs were a tool used by the drug cartels and to a lesser extent by the guerrillas, to terrorize Colombian society and to eliminate enemies. They were part of daily life in Colombia at the end of the 20th century, but in recent decades they have been rare.

In the last 10 years bombs have no longer been part of Colombian life and, although they have existed, the number is very small and even their intensity has been very reduced, compared to those of the past.

The explosions have occurred sporadically in regions where there is still a presence of armed groups, such as Cauca, and have been low-capacity devices such as grenades; that cannot be compared with the car bombs with hundreds of kilos of explosives from the past. These attacks have been carried out mainly against military personnel.

The last car bomb occurred in 2019 inside a Police Academy in Bogotá and its perpetrator was the ELN guerrilla. Without a doubt it is still a regrettable fact, but it must be analyzed that these events did not occur again in public places, against the civilian population.

*KIDNAPPING

This was a financing tool that armed groups used for a long time. There were thousands of citizens and members of the public force who were kidnapped at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Many of them had to wait years for their ransom to be paid, living as prisoners in camps in the jungle and subjecting themselves to dangers such as diseases or snake bites, not to mention mistreatment from their captors. The maximum time that someone was kept kidnapped in Colombia was 13 years and 5 months.

This crime was significantly reduced after the peace agreements with armed groups. Today kidnappings still happen, but they are rare and almost never happen to tourists. In 2024, 450 kidnappings have been recorded in the country.

 

CURRENT SITUATION

In general terms, Colombia is a safe country. Of course, there is crime, but compared to other countries in the region and to its past, Colombia's security situation is favorable; to the point of receiving more than 5 million tourists a year, which shows that visitors feel safe in this country.

Among the security problems that a visitor to Colombia may face, we can list:

*PRESENCE OF GUERRILLAS OR PARAMILITARY GROUPS

These groups operate in specific regions of the country, such as the departments (or states) of Cauca, Nariño, Chocó (Pacific coast), Arauca and Norte de Santander (border with Venezuela). So, to avoid risks, it is preferable not to visit these areas.

Sometimes these groups are present in other areas, but it is sporadic. Even so, it is advisable to take precautions, such as avoiding traveling by land to the Caribbean coast (they have appeared on the highway from Medellín to the coast) or visiting the region of Caquetá (there is also a presence in this area in the north of the Amazon).

*ROBBERY IN CITIES

As in almost any city in the world, there may be thieves waiting for tourists. It is normal that during a trip to Colombia you visit cities such as Bogotá, Medellín or Cartagena, where thefts sometimes occur. They are not so common, but it is always good to take precautions.

To give you a statistic, in the city of Medellín, which has 2.5 million inhabitants and more than 2 million tourists a year, 101 daily robberies were recorded in 2024. It is a shame that 101 people lose their belongings every day, but for the size of the city, it is not a serious figure.

These thefts can occur in the following ways:

- Pickpockets. When you are in a crowded place, such as an event or on public transportation, keep your bag closed and in front of you. Don't put your phone or money in your back pockets.

- Armed robbery. Eventually assaults where the criminal threatens with a weapon occur, normally when walking through very lonely places or after having withdrawn money from an ATM, for this reason withdraw money in places that are as reliable as possible, such as inside a shopping center and avoid walking through lonely areas.

- Street scams. This can occur in the Cartagena area and is when someone offers an item or service that is supposedly free or cheap and turns out to have an expensive charge. For example, you are at the beach and they kindly offer you a plastic chair to sit on and then they charge you for the use of the chair. Or a street vendor offers you a free sample of their product and then charges for it. When the person refuses to pay, they may be surrounded by several individuals or threatened with a weapon. The best thing is to know that NOTHING IS FREE, do not accept free samples and always ask the price of things before consuming them, otherwise in the end they can say any price they want.

- Disappearance of phones or items left on a table. This may be the most common and occurs due to people's carelessness. If you leave your phone on the bar table and go to the bathroom, it is very possible that when you return there will be no phone; We always have to take care of our belongings.

- Scopolamine. This is a drug that is applied in the form of a powder that the person breathes or swallows and put them in a state of obedience, where they answer everything asked, such as the password for his debit card or where he keeps his belongings. It has become famous and is one of the terrors of many foreigners when coming to Colombia, but the truth is that its use is rare and cases are not common.

Summarizing, as long as you have common sense and follow the basic security measures that you have on any trip to any country, Colombia will be a safe destination.

In Colombia there is a popular phrase that says: “Don’t give papaya”, which means do not give a chance to be hurt. If you withdraw money from the ATM and count the bills on the street, you are giving papaya. If you walk down a busy street with your phone in your back pocket, you're giving papaya. Don't give papaya and you will be fine.

Being a victim of crime can also be a matter of luck. To give you an idea, as a tourist guide in the last 6 years, I have done more than 1,200 tours in Colombia for more than 2,500 foreigners and none of them have had any safety issue during the tours. In fact, some have left phones or bags forgotten in restaurants or different places and when we return, a waiter or someone else has kept them and returns them to the owners; nothing has been lost.

On all of those tours, the only thing that has happened is that once while we made a stop on a city tour, a rearview mirror was stolen from the car. For more than a thousand tours, I think it's not bad at all.

Don't get carried away by Colombia's bad reputation, when you come you will realize how pleasant and safe it is and that is why millions of people visit us every year and keep coming back. Maybe you noticed that at the beginning of the article I said that safety is a concern when you think about coming for the first time, because after having come that concern disappears, as do the notions and myths of the supposed danger of this country. That's why many come back, I've had people on my tours who have come 2, 3 and even 4 times and they still have a great time.

There is another phrase that we have here: In Colombia the only risk is that you want to stay.