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Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay!

'Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay' is tha name of a campain designed to promote this country as a tourist destination for the rest of the world. It metions 'risk' refering to the security matter, that is one of the first that come up when Colombia is the topic. The question is: could a country be safe when it is known as one of the most violent in the world, faces one of the longer armed conflict in the western hemisphere and whose crime and kidnapping rates increase and the higest rate of death is killing?

Beleive it or not, the answer is yes. And I tell you why:

Although the left-winged Revolucionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC has been fighting governments for more than four dacades, its atacking power lowered in the last eight years thanks to the former president Alvaro Uribe's Democatic Security policy. The new government, whose president is Juan Manuel Santos, in two months in the power has hit FARC hardly. Even though FARC is still alive, it is reduced nowadays. The other side, paramilitar, are even more reduced, their leaders are in prison. Therefore the killings rates have lowered and so does the crime since the National Police, the same as the other Armed Forces, has streightened and are more effective.This is no paradise, it is far away from it, but it is, for sure, much safer than before when the guerrillas, the paramilitars and the narcotrafick used to control the nation. Of course, the conflict leaves concequences but we are working on them and we are doing well.

To all of that you add the natural and cultural wealth and, of course, the cordiality and the enthusiasm of Colombians, and what you get? One of the best places to visit in the world. A proof of that is the considerable increase of foreigners who visit Colombia nowadays. According to my inquiries, it is expected at the end of 2010 that two million of tourist would have visited our country this year. It is just enough to walk around the main cities and tourist places of Colombia to notice that quantity of foreigners everywhere.


Because of all of that, if you are not from Colombia and are not here, come over and visit. You will not regret of it and will change your mind about this country and its natural and cultural wealth and the cordiality and enthusiam of its people. You indeed will be safe, the only risk is wanting to stay.

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