Caption: ´´Missing Persons Poster. These are posted around cities like we see missing pet signs in West Hollywood.´´It´s really not as dangerous here in Colombia as the news suggests, but it´s still no northern Europe or Japan .
Caption: ´´Standing near these guys you feel as if you are an extra in a bad futuristic action movie with Sylvester Stallone. To tell you the truth I was a little scared to snap a photo, but I had to.´´
The cities in Colombia tend to be more dangerous than the countryside. In the city if you don´t have any food you wont eat, and when someone doesn´t have food they get desperate and shit goes down. Now if you are in the countryside and you don´t have food you go over to your neighbors place and pick some platanos. The people in the countryside, while they can be just as poor as the poorest people in the city, are not desperate and in general have more teeth. You will see more violent crime in the cities, but that holds true all over the world and is nothing special in Colombia . The great thing about Colombia , and for me on the bike, is there is lots of countryside still left here. To me, the place seems like one big rainy jungle with lily pads in the shape of cities.
Caption: ´´This fortress is in a nice neighborhood in Medellin. You would think there would be something really important inside, but the store sells cell phones.You can hear the snaping of the electric wires along the roof when you walk by.´´
The situation has really improved as of late, but there are still tell-tale signs of the not so distant past. There are metal bars and glass on the convenient stores like you will see in the Korean liquor stores in the ghetto in the States. There are security guards outside of every shopping center and apartment complex. The regular shops put security tags on everything, including batteries. All moto drivers must wear vests that have their license plate clearly displayed after a law was enacted to try and cut down on the number of moto-assassinations that were occurring in Bogota. In clubs and bars you have to take care and watch your drink so no one slips you something and you don´t wake up naked and broke in a park with a horrible headache the next day. Also, you cannot take any cigarettes or crackers or drinks offered to you by sweet smiling grandpas on the bus since they are also probably laced.
What was my point again? Oh, yes, since it was not safe for a while, and now it is getting better, Colombia is just now starting to open up for tourists. It´s always nice to catch a country in this blooming stage because they have not yet perfected the art of how to truly rip off a tourist. Visit Vietnam , Thailand , Peru and Ecuador if you want a lesson in how to get fleeced.
Recently I biked through an indigenous demonstration on the road who was asking for land that was promised to them by the Colombian Govt but was not given to them. For me it is fascinating to see pure indigenous people because in the States we did such an industrious job of exterminating all of them. Here in Colombia they alive and debating.
I spoke to a European Colombian and asked him what he thought of the indigenous people marching into Calí to start a dialogue with the President Uribe regarding their grievances. I will paraphrase him, ¨On one hand the indigenous people have legitimate grievances to get land that was rightfully theirs before Spain arrived, but they want more land than what is reasonable. The truth of the matter is the half the indigenous people are hard working and the other half is lazy drunks. They want more land so they can turn around and sell it, make a few million pesos and then stop working. They do not care about getting back their ancestors holy land per say, they want govt handouts.¨
http://us.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/23/colombia.shooting/index.html This CNN link is the protest that I innocently biked through. The roads were shut down going both ways to auto traffic but the police did not mind my bike going through. I waved to the police when I entered, then waved to the indigenous people, then waved to the police that were book ending the procession. The article says the police shot at the demonstrators, which is true since it was captured on video, who were throwing stones and molotov cocktails. Luckily this must have been after I biked through because I missed all the action. I did snap these photos though. 
Caption: ´´The indigenous protesters and the police. Yep, I biked right past these guys with no problems. I guess I missed the gun shots by a few hours.´´
So Colombia still has its political problems even though the President has the highest approval rate of any president in a democratically elected nation, ranging from 75 to 85% in the polls. Some say that the results of these polls are dubious, and I would have to agree.
For me it is a tough philosophical question to answer. Is a loss of freedom worth the increase in security? No one can deny President Uribe´s stats since he has been in office. Kidnapping, murders, and all crime are all way down. Only 5 years ago people that had money would buy old crappy cars to attract less attention for fear of being robbed. Colombians could not travel within their own country for fear of being captured by guerrillas on the road. Now, thanks to the military, the roads are open and safe. People with money can now purchase a BMW and drive without fear between major cities on the autopistas. For anyone with money, or for a traveler, this is a great thing. Foreign business is now willing to invest because there is social stability and no worries about guerrillas taking your business for hostage. The economy has grown by leaps in the past 8 years, mainly due to the investment by the foreigners and the standard of living, at least for the middle class, is improving. But all is not fair and well. Military enrollment is mandatory for all young men, unless you can pay the 400 USD to pay your way out of it. This leaves, as it usually does, the poorest to do the shit work of holding the guns on the highways. Also, the govt has been accused of murdering members of opposition parties with little or no trials. I guess all is fair in war, and there is a war going on. FARC supporters (FARC is part of the Guerrillas) say they are no more terrorists than the people that were against the Nazi’s pre-WWII Germany , since Hitler like Uribe, was also democratically elected.
Uribe is also great friends with our President Bush. So you know instinctively all cannot be kosher. Colombia , along with Israel and Egypt , is in the top three of foreign aid in the form of cash and military aid from the States. A quick lesson in Colombian politics: There are three warring factions. 1) Paramilitaries that were originally the paid bodyguards for the campesinos, the farm workers in the low lands that grew food and coco, to protect them from the Guerrillas. 2) Guerrillas mainly grow coco in the highlands (away from military presence) and and unlike the Paramilitaries they would use kidnapping to gain access to more land and to take control of drug trafficking. 3) The Govt which is the Military. All three groups use violence and intimidation to get what they want.
Uribe originally rose to power as the candidate for the Presidency being supported by the Paramilitaries. He used their influence to get into power, and once he got into power he double-crossed them by handing over the Paramilitary leaders to the States to be tried. Since then the Paramilitaries have lost some of their strength but they are regrouping, according to my chef on the Cuidad Perdida trek, who was a Paramilitary until just recently.
Both the Paramilitary and the Guerrillas have used brutal means to intimidate and get innocent farm owners off their lands to use for growing coco. One of the firsthand stories I heard was they took an 8 year old boy from the pueblo and dragged him down the street to a corner and shot him. But they would not shoot to kill him. They would shoot him in the leg, then drag him to the next corner, and shoot him in the arm, and drag him around the neighborhood sending the entire pueblo a message until the kid finally bled to death. Another technique they used would be to kidnap a child, then chainsaw his body into parts and leave the parts around the village. It was yet another way to send a message to the people.
So these people, fearing for their lives and their children, left their lands. Colombia has the largest displaced population of people within its own borders of any country in the world (2 to 3 million people), and is second in number of total displaced people to Sudan .
(http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4444d3ce20.html).
The farmers left their lands in a mass exodus, and having no where to go they ended up in the cities like Medellin , Cali , Bogota , Barranquilla , and Bucaramanga . Uribe’s Govt has not fully addressed the problem, mainly because those displaced people are unregistered and cannot vote so their needs are swept under society’s rug.
One of my travel friends attended a meeting with the lawyers of the displaced persons in Medellin and was informed that one of the Paramilitary leaders responsible for killing an entire village of 1000 owns a finca (a farm) right next to Uribe’s. You can now see why there is not much attention or help is being given to the displaced people when these guys are rubbing shoulders with the President of Colombia.
America ‘gives’ financial aid to Colombia to help fight the war on drugs and to stem the tide of the left Guerrilla elements that are still alive and well in their country, like FARC. As evil as Bush and his advisors are they are no idiots. Once Colombia receives this money they have to use it to purchase arms and herbicides (for the coco fields) and helicopters, etc from American companies who are amigos of Bush Inc. Everyone is happy since Colombia gets what it wants, the owners of the companies in the States have a guaranteed market, and Bush is happy with his increased campaign contributions from those companies he helped. All is great except for the American tax payer who is getting shafted and whoever is getting sprayed with those bullets and herbicides.
One last note: Your main risk in Colombia is being run down by a black smoke producing bus or twisting your ankle in a pot hole while not paying attention. Oh, and today an American guy staying at the hostel took a wrong turn into the wrong neighborhood and was robbed at knife point by a gang of youths. When the guy came back to the hostel a little shaken the owners of the hostel asked him where he was. ''Ah, that's a bad neighborhood. An Irish guy wandered into the same area and came out buck-naked about a month ago, so you should consider yourself lucky.''
This very same afternoon, today, I was taking a walk with a two hostel friends up to the city look out. A few Colombians came up to us to warn us that there were two groups of two guys following us. One waiting for us below and the other watching us on top of the hill, and that we should be cautious because they are known to be bad. The important thing is that we understood what they were saying, and then walked down the backside of the hill with this friendly bunch of Colombians that was trying to help us out. At home you know what neighborhoods to avoid but when you are traveling you can be 'exploring' a city and end up in the wrong area very quickly.
So Colombia is far from free of its problems but in my opinion it is a great place to take a holiday. I want to have my honeymoon here. I am thinking you are still yet to be convinced, especially after those photos.
