Recent events in the Department of Boyacá

I was in Bogota a week in November. I should come up with a trip report, but my bosses also think I should fill out the year-end reports on time and show up at the conference in a week prepared to do more than stammer and do PowerPoint shadow puppets.

During my week in Bogotá I got down to La Mesa, about an hour to the south, and up to Raquira and Villa de Leyva. Both are near Tunja in the Department of Boyacá. Tunja is about 3 hours northeast of Bogotá. This trips were made with a family I was visiting, and obviously I relied very heavily on their judgment concerning what was and wasn’t safe.

In today’s edition of El Tiempo there is a story about a massacre of 15 people on a bus from Sogamoso to Labranzagrande, in the Department of Boyacá. Looking at the map, I would guess that this territory is around an hour northeast of Tunja. The story can be found here: http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/02-12-2001/naci138901.html

According to this article, the assailants were apparently with the paras, and they apparently believed that those they killed were associated with the guerrillas. The article also states that this is the first time anything like that has happened in that area in 20 years. I could rationalize to myself that a family on an outing in a van marked as a school bus (it was used as such Monday-Friday) would be less likely to attract such attention compared to a (chartered?) bus. I could rationalize to myself that there were frequent retenes and that it appeared that the police and army had a fairly firm grip on the rather touristy areas where we traveled, and that it was probably safer south of Tunja than the area further on to the north. Would I do the same thing over again? Yes. But one wants to maintain situation awareness and go in with one’s eyes open. And I’m certainly open to comments from those who’ve spent more time in Colombia.

By the way, after getting used to seeing frequently seeing Colombian national police and soldiers in battle dress with M16s, I was a little shocked at seeing US soldiers in battle dress with M16s in the concourse in LAX on my return.

[mustang]

Fred, I know what you mean about the soldados. I'm used to seeing them in Cali and Bogota.

Try Nashville!!! 2 hours through security, Army rangers (well, they had black berets) everywhere. And we're not exactly on the primary targets group.

But life, has changed.........