Colombian president gets serious with tourism, declares war on terror

By Hazel Heyer

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe may have been a no show at his own press conference on Monday, but when he showed up later that same night to address the crowd at the opening ceremony of the seventeenth General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, he delivered an impassioned speech on his country’s commitment to tourism.

Cartagena, Colombia (eTN) - At yesterday’s opening ceremony of the seventeenth General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), President Alvaro Uribe Velez underscored his determination to eradicate Colombia’s terrorists in a bid to accelerate an unexpectedly growing tourism. Marred by years of drug-related crimes, the country’s tourism has suffered in the last two decades from statewide terrorist acts.

President Uribe said: “Terrorism will not prevail. Terrorists have brought us nothing good. We will leave no stone unturned in curbing terror.”

The country has suffered a great deal while struggling for decades to shed notoriety well-earned in the days of the drug cartel. As the most dangerous in the world, the annual murder rate in 1991 was 381 per 100,000 people translating to more than 500 homicides a month. In 2002, it was 184 per 100,000. Last year, it fell below 30, making Washington, DC look bad in comparison, according to Newsweek.

When Uribe took over as Colombia's president, he promised a tough stance towards his approach to security. He said they have over two million displaced citizens who fled abroad; another two million were displaced internally. And, though the country has 100 million kilometers of land, illegal drugs have destroyed most of Colombia’s forests, Uribe said.

“Terrorism has become the enemy not only of families, but also of tourism. We have more authority to combat these forces today. Certainly, I will get attacked by detractors just as much as I get supported by our people. But we don’t allow terrorists to lie and tell their story to the world. We don’t want terrorism to deceive the neighboring countries of our fatherland,” he said at the current gathering, which is the supreme organ of the UNWTO attended by the most important senior tourism officials and high-level representatives of the private sectors from all over the world.

To this regard, the government has assigned forest steward families who were engaged in illegal drugs in previous decades. Today, they look after the forest. “We need more than 100,000 forest stewards because our forest is our planetary reward; the preservation of our forest is our contribution,” he said.

Significant problems of displacement in lodging are widespread. “We have reduced the displacement and solved the problems through immediate humanitarian aid. We had rampant incursion by 60,000 terrorists before I took office. Some are in jail today, some are still at large and some (approximately 2000) have checked into rehabilitation programs nationwide,” Uribe said.

To the supporters of the government, Uribe would like to cultivate solidarity against terrorists. Five years ago, the public and private sector investments had increased only by 21 percent. “We are showing the world a sound position of our accounts. Today investment in Colombia is supported by over US$28 million in foreign depositories,” he said, adding that the introduction of a 30-year tax exemption and the additional 30-year tax break on businesses operating at the economic zone have made the country attractive to international businessmen.

Today, topping the tax holiday the Uribe government offers, any hotel developer who invests in Colombia gets the government to sign a guarantee agreement for building and operating the project. “Anyone who wants to invest in Colombia, will always find willing and able counterparts to work with. In addition, we have qualified labor and excellent quality managers. Cruises who have started calling on ports of Colombia have added to the bottom line.

Uribe said Colombia needs four million visitors to make tourism sustainable. With a term that started in 2002, Uribe is on the road to making Colombia a model country. Law enforcement has increased just as soon as conventions, meetings and events have been staged at their cities.

“Happiness is coming back to all Colombians,” Uribe said, alluding to lady who has revived her local hammock business after losing revenues in the dark ages of the cartel.

“Let’s promote incentives to tourism by telling the world we are fighting terrorism,” he said, closing the forum by giving his private number to assure his seriousness in promoting security. Telephone 315 068779 is the direct line to the Colombian president, should a tourist in-distress want to reach Uribe.

Printable Version | published Nov 28, 2007

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