Bogotá

It's home to around a quarter of a million people, so it's pretty small, and it sits on Colombia's Caribbean coast, roughly equidistant between Santa Marta, where some of you may have been on holiday, and the Venezuelan oil-rich city of Maracaibo.

Just along the beach from Santa Marta is Barranquilla, which is Colombia's fourth largest city, behind Bogota, Medellin, and Cali, but it feels an is very different from those three places.

It would take almost a full day of driving, for example, to get from Bogota to Barranquilla.

So these Caribbean places have always felt politically distant from the Colombian state, but being the country's main maritime gateways into North America, Barranquilla and nearby Cartagena have been prime narco real estate ever since there was cocaine to transport out of Colombia.

During the 1990s, following the death of Pablo Escobar, Barranquilla is the headquarters of the North Coast Cartel, led for years by a man named Alberto Holandes Gamboa, a.k.a. El Caracol, or The

Caracol uses smaller cities running all the way up to the Venezuelan border, this peninsula that both countries share, to process or ship products, usually alongside smaller local vassal groups.

The North Coast cartel's downfall begins in December 1997, and that is when Colombia amends its constitution to allow extradition to the United States, famously a big part of the Escobar story.

Colombian authorities capture El Caracol in a huge operation the following June, and it takes Bogota over two years to approve his extradition to trace drug trafficking, bribery, kidnapping, murder, and money laundering charges in a Manhattan court.

This is the Columbia Calling Podcast.

I am your host, Richard McColl, here in Bogota, and this is episode 637 of the Columbia Calling Podcast.

This week, we will be discussing with Daniel Quezada and Sergio Guzman of Columbia Risk Analysis their latest report called Columbia's Inconsistent Relationship with the Middle East.

Certainly, Columbia is at an inflection point under President Abelardo de las Preyas, When it comes to countries in the Middle East, a vault fast from the policies of former President Gustavo Petro.

They specialize in designing custom adventures for couples, families, and friends, ensuring that every moment is shaped by your personal interests and desires.

This is the Columbia Calling podcast.

I'm your host, Richard McColl, here in Bogota, Colombia, 2,600 meters closer to the stars.

And this week, we're getting back on, well, favorites of the Columbia Calling podcast, favorites of the listeners as well.

So CJNG, Sinaloa, they've invested a lot of time, money, and effort in making sure that product is being made and getting to its destination.

The arrest of the two individuals took place at the El Dorado International Airport in Bogota.

The Colombian authorities verified what was suspected at one time.

The Mexican cartels have sought to transfer the manufacture of the opioids to Colombia.

Yeah, and those plans included setting up shop in Colombia and manufacturing fentanyl by the 100,000.

Carlos and Silvano left the flight from Mexico City with a specific task, contact local drug traffickers and coordinate a plan for the production, sale and export of fentanyl.

For this reason, they had several meetings scheduled in Medellin and Bogota, where they intended to set up clandestine laboratories for processing.

And what would happen is whoever the local criminal group is, they'd get a cut, right? Oh yeah, you let us put it on your land.

De hecho, yo viví en Colombia dos años antes de vivir acá en Estados Unidos.

Y estaba en Bogotá.

Entonces, la capital, Bogotá, no es tan parecida al resto de Colombia.

La verdad no lo es.

Y, por ejemplo, un comentario recurrente allá es que a la gente que no habla como ellos... que ellos admiran mucho, como que España, Ciudad de México, eso es como debe ser.

Es lo mismo, realmente.

Entonces, con ellos sí me sentí identificado.

En Bogotá sí, siempre supe que no era el lugar donde...

So CJNG, Sinaloa, they've invested a lot of time, money, and effort in making sure that product is being made and getting to its destination.

The arrest of the two individuals took place at the El Dorado International Airport in Bogota.

The Colombian authorities verified what was suspected at one time.

The Mexican cartels have sought to transfer the manufacture of the opioids to Colombia.

Yeah, and those plans included setting up shop in Colombia and manufacturing fentanyl by the 100,000.

Carlos and Silvano left the flight from Mexico City with a specific task, contact local drug traffickers and coordinate a plan for the production, sale and export of fentanyl.

For this reason, they had several meetings scheduled in Medellin and Bogota, where they intended to set up clandestine laboratories for processing.

And what would happen is whoever the local criminal group is, they'd get a cut, right? Oh yeah, you let us put it on your land.

Soy Paz Rodríguez Niell desde Buenos Aires.

Y yo soy Jorge Espinosa y estoy en Bogotá.

Es martes, 27 de octubre y esto es todo lo que usted debería saber hoy.

[música tranquila]

Tony turned back to her, shoving his girl against the wall before he started ranting about how she'd betrayed him, how she was going to be sorry, and how he'd make sure that she never did it again.

He called her all kinds of terrible things, and how he'd make sure that she was back in Bogota by the end of the week because he had friends in high places.

That last part was bullcrap, something he used to scare her, but even though they weren't directed at me, his words cut deep.

I could see her flinching every time he raised his hand to her while tears were streaming down her face, and then he backhanded her so hard it actually echoed around the sparsely decorated apartment.

Yeah, it's automation.

So I think like given all these negatives and we look around the world and we see historical examples like, you know, Amsterdam that decided, hey, we are going to make we're going to ditch car dependence or Bogota, which did a similar thing.

But more recently, the city of Paris, which has made a dramatic transformation over a really short time period to dramatically reduce its car dependence and increase these kind of livable, pedestrianized roads.

safe biking routes.