Travel Warning for Colombia (U.S. State Department, June 25, 2010)

[rabs]

SAFETY AND SECURITY: While security in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years, violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas as well as large cities. The potential for violence by terrorists and other criminal elements exists in all parts of the country.

In recent months there has been a marked increase in violent crime in Colombia. Murder rates have risen significantly in some major cities, particularly Medellin and Cali. Kidnapping remains a serious threat. American citizens have been the victim of violent crime, including kidnapping and murder. Firearms are prevalent in Colombia and altercations can often turn violent. Small towns and rural areas of Colombia can still be extremely dangerous due to the presence of narco-terrorists. Common crime also remains a significant problem in many urban and rural areas. For additional details about the general criminal threat, please see the Department of State's Country Specific Information for Colombia.

The incidence of kidnapping in Colombia has diminished significantly from its peak at the beginning of this decade. Nevertheless, terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians for ransom or as political bargaining chips. No one is immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Kidnapping in rural areas is of particular concern. On July 2, 2008, the Government of Colombia rescued 15 hostages, including three Americans, who had been held for more than five years. Although the U.S. government places the highest priority on the safe recovery of kidnapped Americans, it is U.S. policy not to make concessions to or strike deals with kidnappers. Consequently, the U.S. government's ability to assist kidnapping victims is limited.

U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia are permitted to travel to major cities in the country, but normally only by air. They may not use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside urban areas at night. All Americans in Colombia are urged to follow these precautions.

Much more

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1090.html#safety

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This is in response to the tourism puff story by the L.A Times reporter in another thread. The reporter only quoted uribe and managers of the fancy hotels.

Seems the U.S. State Department thinks tourism to Colombia is not as rosy as that story would have people believe. This advisory is from less than two months ago, June 25.

[rabs]

1. The wonders of Medellin

Colombia's second largest city Medellin calls in help from the national government Wednesday after massive warfare between gangs paralyzed the city's west.

Mayor Alonso Salazar called on newly sworn-in Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to speed up the process to elect a new Prosecutor General, who can adopt special measures to help local authorities fight the soaring murder rate.

Salazar visited the troubled San Javier neighborhood in the west of the city where on Tuesday several members of one gang were executed and combat between the gangs broke out in the streets. The violence forced inhabitants to stay inside, locked 250 children inside their school and forced public transport to be suspended until way after midnight.

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Story in El Tiempo says there are at least 140 armed gangs in Medellin. They are fighting for control of cocaine trafficking, extorsion and other low-life trades. The gangs belong to the two warring factions of The Office of Envigado.

[Judi Lynn]

3. That 8 bn. + the U.S. government has taken from U.S. citizens' taxes, and sent to Colombia

has really worked well, hasn't it?

I've seen a similar picture to the one you've posted of government forces looking down at night on Medellin. Very eerie, very strange for a country which is so inviting as a vacay place, isn't it?

Recommending.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Isn't that crazy? These loons have been running their Colombia travel puff pieces for 2 weeks

at least. It was easy to see they were complete trash just from looking at the titles. They DO follow on the heels of a TON of information violent crime in Colombia has been going wild, climbing like crazy. So pathetic, isn't it?

True to form the State Department's missive to potential travelers doesn't mention the fact the demobilized paras reorganized long ago and have been back doing business as usual, and instead choose to misdirect attention to the leftist groups when those of us who've taken the time to watch the news have read it's the new groups who've taken over all over again.

As long as our government and its mouthpieces can try to keep everyone in the dark about what's what in Colombia, we end up with a lot of loud, angry idiots wanting to scuffle about their erroneous "takes" on what's going on there.

Here's an article which could help, I hope:

31 July 2010 Last updated at 00:38 ET
Colombia sees crime rise in major cities By Jeremy McDermott
BBC News, Medellin

When Juan Manuel Santos takes office on 7 August as Colombia's new president, one of his biggest challenges will be urban crime.

After six years of falling violence, 2009 saw the murder rate rise by 12%, the increase mainly in cities and, above all, in Medellin.

The number of murders in the city almost doubled to 1,432 in 2009 - in a city of just more than two million - and this year has seen a similar trend.

The rise in crime can in part be ascribed to the government's success in demobilising more than 30,000 right-wing paramilitaries and dismantling many drug-exporting syndicates.

This has resulted in former paramilitaries setting up new, smaller drug cartels.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10560568

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Murder rate soars in Cordoba department .
Thursday, 29 July 2010 07:54 Leo Palmer

The homicide rate in Colombia's north-west department Cordoba continues to increase, with 307 murders reported between January and June this year.

According to national police data presented in a study by the Cordoba regional government, 2010 has seen an increase in the homicide rate in the department, which has risen every year since 2005.

In 2005 homicides reached 158, less than the total reported in the first four months of 2010. 282 homicides were reported in the first six months of 2008, out of a total of 512 throughout the whole year. 297 homicides were reported in the first six months of 2009, out of a total of 532 throughout the whole year.

The areas most affected are Montelibano, Monteria, Planeta Rica, La Apartada, Tierralta, Buenavista and Lorica.

There have been several incidents of violence reported in the Cordoba department recently, including a massacre of six men and a minor attributed to the criminal gang "Los Paises" in Buenavista.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11072-murder-rate-soars-in-cordoba-department.html

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Trade unionists in the crosshairs of global capital
Outrage over murdered trade unionists must lead to concrete action, writes Tony Burke

by Tony Burke
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

The recently published International Trade Union Confederation’s Annual Survey Of Trade Union Rights has documented a significant and appalling rise in the number of trade unionists murdered during the past 12 months.

The ITUC has documented more than101 killings – a shocking increase of 30 per cent in 2009.

The survey also reveals growing pressure on workers’ employment rights around the globe as the economic crisis bites deep.

Of the 101 murdered trade union members and activists, 48 were killed in Colombia, described as “the union murder capital of the world” and still the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. Sixteen lost their lives in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six in Mexico, six in Bangladesh, four in Brazil, three in the Dominican Republic, three in the Philippines, one in India, one in Iraq and one in Nigeria.

Twenty-two of the murdered Colombian trade unionists were senior union leaders, and of those, five were women. “Colombia was yet again the country where standing up for fundamental rights of workers is more likely than anywhere else to mean a death sentence, despite the Colombian government’s public relations campaign to the contrary”, says Guy Ryder, the ITUC’s outgoing general secretary.

Colombia’s record of anti-union violence comes on top of the country being named as the most violent nation in Latin America in the Global Peace Index for 2010.

More:
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/07/28/trade-unionists-in-the-crosshairs-of-global-capital/

(This doesn't count, of course, the dead victims the paras take across the border and dump in Venezuela.)

'Paramilitaries dump murder victims' bodies in Venezuela' .
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 12:47 Alex Hocking


Paramilitaries are commiting murders in Colombia and then dumping the bodies in Venezuela to impede the investigation, according to a report by investigative website Verdad Abierta.

The website estimates that since the year 2000 more than 200 people have been murdered in Colombia's Norte de Santander department and surrounding areas before being dumped in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, making it difficult for Colombian authorities to recover the bodies or investigate the deaths. The victims include peasants, smugglers, social leaders, business owners and the mentally ill.

The practice continues today, even after the paramilitary groups have been formally disbanded, according to the report.

Fear of reprisal from the criminal groups, the lack of organization of Venezuelan authorities, and the political tensions between Colombia and Venezuela all contribute to making the recovery of bodies and the investigative process more difficult.

The township of Juan Frio, in Norte de Santander, is a major focal point for violence. Situated on the Colombian side of the border from Tachira, it was a major stronghold for the Frente Fronteras, an urban paramilitary group that formed part of the Catatumbo Bloc of the AUC paramilitary coalition. After the group's official dissolution in 2004, a number of splinter groups emerged that have continued the violence in the region, including dumping bodies over the border.

Llano de Jorge is a small area in Tachira just across the Venezuelan border, where several sets of bones have been found in recent months. It is believed that there are at least five more dumping sites along the border between Norte de Santander in Colombia and the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Tachira.

Verdad Abierta reports that when the Venezuelan authorities find a body, they store it only for a few days before disposing of it in a mass grave. If they find a skeleton, it is sent to Caracas for analysis, but in both cases the identity of the body usually remains unknown. No photographs are taken and no record is made of personal effects prior to disposal.

There are problems on the Colombian side too. The Justice and Peace Commission has asked demobilized paramilitaries for information regarding the identity of the bodies, but they have refused to help and Accion Social, Colombia's presidential aid agency, cannot investigate the deaths because they cannot operate outside of Colombia.

Even when the Venezuelan government issues a death certificate for a Colombian found across the border, it is not recognized by the Colombian government, making it impossible for the victim's family to claim compensation from Accion Social or make any other filing.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9275-paramilitaries-dump-murder-victims-in-venezuela.html


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I think it's very easy to assume Uribe has ordered his 5 U.S. public relation firms to plant these puff pieces in the corporate media to be picked up by idiots in order to attempt to add some polish to his "legacy" as he leaves office by falsely portraying Colombia as one sweet vacation getaway spot.

Thanks for your thread. It's the "icing" on a very grisly "cake," isn't it? Wow.

[Bacchus39]

4. I take it you won't be traveling there anytime soon?? n/t

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