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How did a country even survive during that violent era with the drug Cartels, Paramilitaries, and Guerillas?
So at the same time, you had men like Escobar killing cops setting off car bombs killing anyone. The Guerillas fighting with the paramilitaries who were just as brutal to civilians. The Cali Cartel cleaning up Cali by killing street kids, prostitutes, homosexuals. Everyone kidnapping each others family, while also fighting each other. Lost Pepes running around killing everyone.
Was there anywhere in Colombia that was safe? I guess Bogota the capital. How come civilian not just rise up and start another La Violencia all over again. The government obviously had no control.
Why Government allow paramilitaries to exist? How hard could it really have been to find Pablo Escobar, and all the other drug dealers? Who was the toughest, the Cartel, guerillas, or paramilitaries?
How did a country even survive during that violent era with the drug Cartels, Paramilitaries, and Guerillas?
The country survived because of a "stable" conservative-minded elite and upper middle class and to its long running, though admittedly weak and not entirely far reaching democratic institutions - the longest running on the continent.
I was always sent from the UK to Colombia practically every year when I was young during the school summer holidays. Even during the height of the violence I never felt in danger or that I was in the middle of a quasi-war zone. In fact everything seemed pretty tranquil and normal & free (for a young kid who loved to play and run around), why? Because I was in the city of Armenia in the coffee region. Of course the violence elsewhere had an impact on the country productively, politically and economically but the true violence was centred around the cartels in two particular cities or remote rural areas where land was stolen and smuggling routes established.
At its height in 1993 Medellin had a homicide rate of 384 per 100,000 and Cali a homicide rate of 104 per 100,000. However, even then I remember travelling to Cali with my family frequently around 1990-1992 and even then, although I remember my family were a bit more cautious, we still did all the sight seeing touristy things and ate out. The fact of the matter is that homicides were clustered in specific areas of the city: more than half (54%) occurred in 59 neighbourhoods in which 37% of Cali's population resided. So even in these cities you could still live a "normal" life despite obviously being at a higher risk of harm as the statistics evidently illustrate. The economy had steady growth (until the 1998 recession), there was food, there were events, parties, weddings, people working and buying.
Although terrible, it wasn't the all out war zone many people around the world envisage in their minds. Especially when you talk about cities like Armenia, Manizales, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, which hardly experienced a thing.
This is what I remember of 90's Colombia; Armenia's La Vida park, museum of gold, 14th street (calle real), the stadium, the velodrome, the University (chasing Uni girls at age 15), Fundadores park, the delicious natural fruit juice lollies, the coffee farms & surrounding working class coffee towns and scenery. Not once did I feel unsafe in the region and I used to take the bus and bike around the city & state with my cousins and friends I made there (you can drive a bike from age 14). My favourite childhood and teenage memories are my summer holidays in Colombia in the 90's.
The country survived because of a "stable" conservative-minded elite and upper middle class and to its long running, though admittedly weak and not entirely far reaching democratic institutions - the longest running on the continent.
I was always sent from the UK to Colombia practically every year when I was young during the school summer holidays. Even during the height of the violence I never felt in danger or that I was in the middle of a quasi-war zone. In fact everything seemed pretty tranquil and normal & free (for a young kid who loved to play and run around), why? Because I was in the city of Armenia in the coffee region. Of course the violence elsewhere had an impact on the country productively, politically and economically but the true violence was centred around the cartels in two particular cities or remote rural areas where land was stolen and smuggling routes established.
At its height in 1993 Medellin had a homicide rate of 384 per 100,000 and Cali a homicide rate of 104 per 100,000. However, even then I remember travelling to Cali with my family frequently around 1990-1992 and even then, although I remember my family were a bit more cautious, we still did all the sight seeing touristy things and ate out. The fact of the matter is that homicides were clustered in specific areas of the city: more than half (54%) occurred in 59 neighbourhoods in which 37% of Cali's population resided. So even in these cities you could still live a "normal" life despite obviously being at a higher risk of harm as the statistics evidently illustrate. The economy had steady growth (until the 1998 recession), there was food, there were events, parties, weddings, people working and buying.
Although terrible, it wasn't the all out war zone many people around the world envisage in their minds. Especially when you talk about cities like Armenia, Manizales, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, which hardly experienced a thing.
59 neighborhoods is a lot of a city the size of Cali. Where was the FARC and ELN then? How did they affect the regions they were in?
59 neighborhoods is a lot of a city the size of Cali. Where was the FARC and ELN then? How did they affect the regions they were in?
FARC were present mainly in the Llanos region (the tropical savannah to the east bordering Venezuela), in the south in rural Cauca & Nariño states (Andes) and Caqueta state in the Amazon. ELN were mainly around the north-east Caribbean region and Andean foothills of the Northern Santander state (again bordering Venezuela).
The main fighting between FARC and paramilitaries took place in the rural regions of Antioquia, north of Medellin and around the city of MonterÃa (where Uribe's ranchlands were) in the Caribbean plains. There was also a lot of power struggles between these 2 opposing groups along the banks of the Magdalena river valley and along the entire Pacific coast.
Undoubtedly the violence was far reaching and it was a terrible time but most of the urban centres, aside from a handful, (mainly MedellÃn, Cali & MonterÃa - and to an extent Bogota due to terrorist attacks against government institutions), were still very livable cities. And as I said, although Cali was pretty bad you could still pretty much manage the city with the right precautions.
It was awful, just not the all out war zone many imagine. I know several Brits and a Russian lady that actually holidayed in Colombia during those years and only have great things to say about their time there. In those days British Airways flew to Bogota and Lloyds existed in Colombia. Big British business pulled out only a few years before Colombia's big turnaround - an untimely move. With Brexit, there's a lot of will on both sides to establish these links again, as shown by the Queen's state visit invitation last year and Prince Charle's time in Colombia.
Last edited by Pueblofuerte; 11-03-2017 at 10:04 AM..
your questions are just too random and nonsensical to be answered.
I don't see anything wrong with asking a question if you're not entirely informed. I can imagine most people upon reading about the Cali Cartel vs the Medellin cartel and the Paramilitaries vs the Guerillas, the collusion between government and paramilitaries and drug money and before that 'La Violencia', where the Liberal and Conservative party were at war. It's not difficult to imagine people outside the country reading all this and being like "WHAT THE HELL?"
What they don't factor in is that Colombia is a huge country with different speeds of developments and huge natural barriers which have kept regions isolated from each other, basically like different countries. So whilst one region may be in the midst of horrific violence, another region is actually relatively peaceful and economically prosperous (for developing countries). The impact however was undoubtedly felt everywhere to vastly varying degrees.
Just as its difficult for US borders and customs to control the inflow of drugs into the US, its difficult to combat smuggling routes, especially in a country as complicated topographically as Colombia.
for one, it makes no sense to ask why "civilians" didn't start "another La Violencia". La Violencia was between Liberal and Conservative party, and it was a totally different moment. it's not related.
it's stupid and trivializing to ask such questions here. just, read a book.
it sounds like OP is some underage with attention deficit who just finished watching Narcos.
for one, it makes no sense to ask why "civilians" didn't start "another La Violencia". La Violencia was between Liberal and Conservative party, and it was a totally different moment. it's not related.
it's stupid and trivializing to ask such questions here. just, read a book.
it sounds like OP is some underage with attention deficit who just finished watching Narcos.
Colombia isn't the centre of the universe. If the OP is taking an interest at all, enough to post a series of questions on Colombia's recent violent history, I say all credit to him. He probably did read a book (you must have to know about "La Violencia" - how many foreigners know about "La Violencia"??) After reading a book or wikipedia or whatever, there's nothing wrong with posting questions.
La Violencia is mentioned in Narcos, so are the other topics he brought. Most likely he brought them here from watching Narcos.
if you are really interested in such topics you don't ask such trivializing, descontextualized questions.
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