Is Colombia as safe as the U.S.? Poll says yes
Source: Reuters
By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Cities in Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine exporter infamous for crimes related to its four-decade-old guerrilla war, have become as safe as those in the United States, according to a poll by a Bogota think tank. Urban crime has fallen as part of President Alvaro Uribe's popular crackdown on Marxist rebels who still control wide rural areas. He has stepped up patrols to reduced kidnappings on the highways. From October 2005 through the same month last year, 15 of every 100 Colombians said they had been the victim of some type of crime compared with 17 out of every 100 in the United States, said the poll published on Thursday by the Security and Democracy foundation. "Colombians have developed sophisticated techniques of survival, such as refusing to give out personal information and women driving with their bags in the trunk of their cars rather than in the passenger seat. This helps," said Pablo Casas, who prepared the poll. The survey, held in Colombia's six biggest cities, also showed the Andean country compares well with Great Britain, which registers 24 crime victims out of every 100 citizens. The think tank said the poll is 95.5 percent reliable and more accurate than official figures as many crimes go unreported here. It did not take into account the thousands who are killed or displaced in the war every year, or the average three Colombians per day who step on land mines. Despite billions of dollars in U.S. aid aimed in part at fighting Colombia's insurgency, the guerrillas still rule wide swathes of countryside with an iron fist. Their operations are funded by cocaine trade, and to a lesser extent by kidnappings. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, dragged four civilians out of their village homes and executed them on Jan. 1 in northern province of Antioquia, local officials said. "The government has a lot to do before it can claim to have taken control of the whole country," Casas said. "Illegal groups are still fighting for control of rural cocaine-producing land, and that accounts for Colombia's overall high murder rate." Twenty six Colombians out of every 100,000 are murdered with firearms each year compared to the world average of three to four out of every 100,000, according to the United Nations.
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