Why Luis doesn't like car travel in Colombia

January 2002

Intellectual awareness can come from a book; gut awareness usually comes from personal experience. Travel enables me to share, at times, the gut experiences of those in other lands. Such was a visit to Cartagena, Colombia for a meeting in January 2002 to discuss future scenarios of Amazonia with leaders from Andean Amazonian countries of the NGO, Conservation International.

Luis is both a colleague from the Woods Hole Research Center and a native Colombian. After lunch one day, we chatted about life in Colombia. Before coming to Cartagena, I had heard about the breakdown in peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels. My advisees in Acre worried that kidnappings would increase and that I might be a target. We joked that my real worth would be measured after they passed around a hat to ransom me. But the FARC didn't respond immediately to the breakdown, and I went to the meeting.

One of the most interesting hotels I have ever seen, the Santa Clara, is within the shell of an old convent and has the benefits of both history and modern facilities. The night we arrived, I tuned in to CNN Español and learned that a spate of bombing attempts had occurred in Bogotá, my next stop. When I mentioned this to Luis, he shrugged and said that people in Bogotá are accustomed to these events. What I shouldn't do in Bogotá, he advised, is to drive outside the city. Luis explained that frequently FARC rebels blockade the roads, take civilians prisoner, and then do a triage. Those driving expensive cars and Toyota Hi-Lux pickups are held for ransom, as are foreigners (blonde American geochemists who speak Portuguese fall into this category). As for Luis, his fate depends on the cards in his wallet. His MBL library card would label him as having foreign employment, hence a good candidate for ransom. Better to leave that card at home. His military card shows that he has had anti-guerrilla training. In this case his captors would force him to serve a year in FARC, training new recruits. But he can't leave this card at home, for if he travels without it and is stopped at a military checkpoint, he will be arrested and held until his status is verified.

This conversation at a Woods Hole bar would have made me reflect and be sad about the situation, but it wouldn't have been personal. That day in Cartagena, I had taken an early morning walk outside the hotel. Army soldiers stood guard on every corner. When I mentioned this to Luis, he replied, "Claro. Who do you think are the prime kidnapping targets for ransom? It's those in a high-priced hotel like this." I shuddered at the prospect of spending weeks or months as a prisoner and felt a twinge of the gut-wrenching fear that Colombians have known for decades. We can only hope that forty million Colombians will someday soon live without such fear.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2008