Where you should and shouldn't go

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - The U.S. government continues to issue travel warnings for Colombia, citing violence from narco-terrorist groups, including the threat of kidnapping. In its most recent warning in August, the State Department warned that violence remains high in some small towns and rural areas, plus the port city of Buenaventura.

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But since 2005, the U.S. advisories have noted a marked decrease in violence in many urban areas, including Cartagena, Bogota, Medellin and Barranquilla.

Kidnappings in Colombia have dropped steadily from a peak of 3,572 in 2000 to 521 last year, according to the Free Country Foundation, a group that assists kidnapping victims and their families. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a rightist who took office in 2002, has been credited with decimating the guerrilla ranks.

Two leftist revolutionary groups have been responsible for most of the kidnappings. Those groups claim to represent the rural poor against Colombia's wealthy classes and fund their activities with ransoms and the drug trade.

Violence also has come from right-wing paramilitary groups, which were formed to protect land and business interests from the leftist guerrillas but also became involved in drug trafficking, killings and kidnappings. An umbrella paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, signed a controversial peace deal with the Colombian government in 2003.

While the vast majority of kidnapping victims have been Colombian, some 324 foreigners were kidnapped from 1996 through 2007, 32 of them North Americans, according to the Free Country Foundation. In July, the Colombian government rescued 15 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, who had been held for more than five years.

While U.S. government employees in Colombia and their families are permitted to travel to major cities by air, they are not permitted to travel by bus or by road outside of urban areas at night. The State Department urges American visitors to take the same precautions.

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