Corruption in Colombia, a reflection

(The following was written four days after returning from Ciudad Perdida. Please feel free to post comments or corrections. Most of the information obtained was from talking to various people during our travels.)


Laws and regulations abound in Colombia, but there is always a way to bend, twist or blatantly ignore them. During a 72 hour prohibition of selling alcohol this past weekend, I shared a bottle of wine with friends, drank a beer and watched as our waiter swept away our bottles as the police patrolled past the outdoor café. Of course, I imagine if you did get caught selling alcohol, you could just pay off the police to overlook the incident. So no worries. Drink all you want during the 72 hour prohibition. If you ignore the law, you can even have 4 bottles of beer while driving a Chiva full of tourists as our driver did from Ciudad Perdida. But what if there isn’t room for all of the tourists to ride with the beer guzzling driver? Just send some people to sit up on the roof and quickly stuff them into the Chiva when you get close to a city. The prevailing attitude here isn’t following the rules because they’re there to protect you. The attitude is more like “do what you want but don’t get caught.” Why worry about getting caught? Because then you have to pay authorities off and this can be costly. In places outside of large cities like Medellin and Bogota, the “pay off” is even more complicated.

Some of you may know that over three years ago the land around Ciudad Perdida had its fair share of guerrilla and paramilitaries (Paras). Over the past 3 years, the guerrilla has been ousted out of this territory by the Paras and the government due to a kidnapping of some tourists visiting the lost city 3 years ago. According to our tour guide, a group of guerrilla called the ELN snuck down into camp early in the morning and kidnapped several of the hikers. They left behind the sick and out of shape travelers and took the rest up into the mountains. Colombian President Uribe responded to the kidnapping by sending thousands of military into the Sierra Nevada to find them. They found them, gun fire ensued and the ELN threatened to kill the hostages so the military was instructed to back off. Eventually the ELN released hostages a month later. Rumors of the government negotiating an exchange for ELN prisoners are the most prevalent reason for their release. Soon there after, the FARC, another guerrilla group in the area, was not pleased that their territory was now being patrolled by thousands of military and offered to hunt down the ELN that took the tourists. They found them and handed them over to the authorities. The FARC have been pushed back into other territory beyond Ciudad Perdida. So now the land is protected by military and free and clear of all corruption right? Not exactly. In reaction to the guerrilla control and violence throughout Colombia, a group called the Paramilitaries began to form several years ago. They are referred to by Colombians as Paras. Paras claim to want to protect the poor and disenfranchised from the “evil” guerrillas (The guerrillas actually have a communist-like agenda of wanting to rescue the poor from corruption and greed or something like that) so the Paras formed small groups, initially under the funds of wealthy ranchers trying to protect their land from the guerrillas. After a time, the Paras grew in power and have become more and more successful at controlling the guerrillas and limiting their influence. The Paras soon established control in the Sierra Nevada surrounding Ciudad Perdida after the guerrilla was squeezed out of the area. And in places where the Paras have a stronghold, they have taken it upon themselves to exert their power and moral stance over the land. Some say that women have a certain dress code in some parts of Para territory. And the Paras also charge fees to EVERYONE. They call it paying for “security.” The guides that take tourists to Ciudad Perdida pay their fair share for “security” in the high sierras. Some say that over a third of what Ciudad Perdida hikers pay to the tour agency goes straight to the hands of the Paras. The Paras, like the guerrilla, also make money in other ways such as controlling the cocaine production in the country. Since most of the land on the way up to Ciudad Perdida is Para controlled, many parts of the Sierras have small coca factories and farms. During our hike, we were taken for a tour of a factory which was more like a make shift tent made out of sheets of plastic. At the coca factory, we were shown how coca leaves were made into paste by the owner of the factory. Our “tour guide” ( A nice old man with very few teeth) told us a story about a time when the farmers in the area were once consuming too much of the cocaine paste (Paste is the first initial product made by adding various products to extract the cocaine such as gasoline, salt, and lime), so the Paras, in an effort to ensure a continuous supply of coca paste, told the farmers that if they were caught consuming, they would be killed. Not only did they kill some of the users, they killed the people that knew about the users. Sure enough, the cocaine problem in the area has been drastically reduced. Apparently death is also the penalty for getting caught stealing on the third offense. Are the Paras starting to sound a little like the Italian mob to you? You may be wondering how the Paras can be so above the law considering that in areas like Ciudad Perdida, the land is regularly patrolled by military? It seems that President Uribe’s parents were both killed by guerrilla. Most are saying that Uribe has made an arrangement to ignore or overlook the actions of the Paras in an effort to allow the Paras to dominate the guerrilla. The trade off is that the Paras also dominate the cocaine supply and the poor people in the process.

But what about Plan Colombia? Doesn’t Uribe have a plan, supported and presumably heavily funded by the US, to eradicate and eliminate coca crops in the country?
Can’t farms agree to destroy their crops and receive a handsome fee from the government for doing so? Of course they can. We saw a farm that received such a payment for destroying their crops three years ago. The land is now covered by three year old coca plants. And isn’t there a demilitarization plan for all Paras where they can trade in their guns, “demilitarize” and receive a monthly pension from the government? The Paras run a racket around this to. Apparently they give a non-Para member an old gun, have them say they were Para and tax them part of the pension they receive each month.


It seems that the most powerful law of the land is bowing down to the dollar that comes from cocaine. Whoever controls the cocaine protects their funding source with violence and intimidation. So people pay their “security” fees and obey the law—the law of the corrupted whoever they might be. So tell me, just who are the bad guys in this scenario? The government for turning a blind eye to corruption? The Paras for providing “security” with intimidation and force? The guerrillas for fighting for a new government for the people while funding their war with their own cocaine production? Maybe I should be asking are their any good guys left?

So as a tourist visiting Colombia, I enjoyed my wine during prohibition. I laughed at the thought of guys riding on the roof of a truck at dangerously high speeds. I was shockingly amused at our beer guzzling driver taking us back to the big city, away from the Paras, away from our big adventure at the Lost City. And now I am heading back to the states, where I feel safe and secure. Where I will follow all the rules and obey the laws because I can’t pay anyone off and because they will send me a ticket in the mail if I run a red light.