Colombia is one of the most affected countries by criminality and violence in Latin America and the world. The situation continues to expand and so do the responses from the government. In just the last ten years,
has increased 140 percent, reaching over 30 billion Colombian pesos. Meanwhile, the
for the country in 2023 was around 274 billion dollars, almost the double when compared to 2015. Overall, gang activity, illegal drug trafficking, and corruption in the national territory tell a complicated story of violence that continues to torment all Colombian residents, provoking mass migration to other countries and a perpetuating state of insecurity.
Fluctuating homicide rates
In 2023, Colombia ranked third with the
highest homicide rate in South America, only behind Ecuador and Venezuela. During that same year, the
homicide rate decreased for the second year in a row to around 25.7 cases per every 100,000 inhabitants, which translates to more than 13,500 people losing their lives. Even though this figure is still among the worst globally, it shows an improvement from past decades, including some of the most violent years in Colombian history, from the period known as “La Violencia” (1948-1959) and the operations of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, 1964-2016). Past armed conflicts and criminal organizations make the use of illegal firearms one of the main problems related to crime and homicides to solve for the government. In fact, almost 77 percent of
homicides were with firearms.
Femicides in Colombia
Femicide can be defined as the killing of women or girls due to their gender, in Colombia, the legal framework is the killing of women due to their condition of being a woman or gender identity motives. Femicide was not typified as a crime in the country until 2015. Eight years later, 525
victims of femicide were reported in Colombia, 95 cases less than the previous year. Antioquia, Bogota, and Valle del Cauca were the
departments with the highest number of femicides with more than 50 each. As in other countries, women are most likely to be
killed by the people closest to them. In most Colombian cases, the perpetrator was either a current or former steady partner or an ex-boyfriend or boyfriend.
The war against cocaine
Drugs are a dangerous and lucrative business. It is estimated that one
kilogram of coca paste base is worth 2.8 billion Colombian pesos (around 588 USD, at the exchange rate of end of December 2022) in the region of Catatumbo. At the same time, the minimum monthly wage in Colombia in 2023 was around 1.3 million COP. To end the
illicit cultivation of coca the government eradicated around 70,000 hectares in 2022, but like a Hydra -- a never-ending problem of more heads growing after taking one off -- it was estimated that during the same year around 204,000 hectares of national territory were used for the illicit cultivation of coca, almost eight times more than the
harvested area for soybeans. The government announced that in 2021 approximately 88,600 metric tons of coca paste, and another 783 metric tons of cocaine were seized.
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Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
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