The depiction of Colombia in popular culture, especially the portrayal of
Colombian people in
film and
fiction, has been asserted by Colombian organizations and government to be largely negative and has raised concerns that it reinforces, or even engenders, societal
prejudice and
discrimination due to association with
narco-trafficking,
terrorism,
illegal immigration and other criminal elements,
poverty and
welfare.[1] The Colombian government-funded Colombia is Passion advertisement campaign as an attempt to improve Colombia's image abroad, with mixed results[2] hoping for more positive views on Colombia.
Aside from the Colombia is passion campaign,
Soccer has been known for being a major part in creating positive views as perhaps the most important to Colombians.
Failings in the background research and the reproduction of the country are very common in films depicting Colombia. Some of these mistakes include showing
Bogotá or
Medellín as
sylvatic or coastal regions, using
Mexican or
Puerto Rican actors (with noticeable accents), Mexican
costumes,
anachronisms and a general inaccuracy regarding the depiction of how the
conflicts between government and drug-trading cartels work.
Some examples of fictional Colombian settings are:
Fraser portrayed a Colombian druglord
Depp portrayed an American with ties to Pablo Escobar
Schwarzenegger portrayed a man that fought the Colombian rebels
Saldana portrayed a Colombian woman fighting drug traffickers
Norris portrayed a Colonel fighting Colombian drug lords
Diesel portrayed a man fighting a Colombian drug lord
Blunt portrayed a DEA agent working alongside a former Colombian drug lord
Benicio del Toro portrayed Pablo Escobar
Al Pacino portrayed a man that fought a Colombian gang
Bedazzled: The Devil makes
Brendan Fraser´s character a Colombian Drug Lord, loosely resembling
Pablo Escobar. Most of the Spanish phrases are at times very hard to make out, and with a lot of grammar and pronunciation mistakes. Traditional
Spanish music is heard in the background, not Colombian. Beginning with the butler, almost everyone speaks with a clear Spanish accent and slang, and certain elements belong to the Spanish culture, like the "
Bota bag", the traditional leather bag in the shape of a boot, used to drink alcoholic beverages.
Medellín is depicted as a tropical
jungle.
Collateral Damage: Gordon Brewer (played by
Arnold Schwarzenegger), looks to avenge his son's and wife's deaths at the hands of a
guerrilla commando, by traveling to
Colombia. Gordy enters Colombia through the
Darién Gap. This Gap is in the Colombian department called
Chocó, the most
Afro-Colombian populated region of the country. However, throughout the whole movie, a black person is never shown. The
National Police of Colombia and army forces use blue uniforms, instead the green they actually use. The accent of the native "Colombians" is actually Mexican. There is a scene of a soccer match, between America and
Chivas, two popular teams from
Mexico which are mistakenly set in Colombia.
Lord of War:
Nicolas Cage plays an illegal arms dealer, which during a business deal with a
Colombiandrug lord, gets paid in
cocaine instead of cash. Again, the accent and slang words used by the 'Colombian' drug lord are Mexican.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith: A couple of assassins tell the story of their first meeting in
Bogotá,
Colombia, where they met during a crossfire, while both were secretly on the run from Colombian authorities. The film depicts Bogotá, the capital of Colombia as a small town, when in reality Bogotá is one of the biggest and most populous cities in
Latin America. Also, Bogotá is portrayed as a warm/hot city while in reality it is located over the
Andean cordilleras and has an average temperature of 58 °F all year long and has an altitude of 8,530 feet (2,600 m). Filming locations were actually in
California.
Bruce Almighty: In the morning, Bruce Nolan (
Jim Carrey) states "I'd better manifest some coffee", and uses his god powers to conjure fictional Colombian coffee icon character
Juan Valdez who pours him a cup of coffee while stating his enjoyment for fresh grown coffee in the hills of Colombia.
Romancing the Stone: Joan Wilder (
Kathleen Turner) is a romance novelist who receives a package from her dead brother-in-law Eduardo, who was recently murdered and dismembered in
Colombia. Her widowed sister, Elaine (
Mary Ellen Trainor) calls Joan and begs her to come to
Colombia with the package; Elaine has been kidnapped, and the package is the ransom. Though supposedly set in Colombia, all the Hispanic actors speak with a distinct Mexican accent. The supposed Colombian jungle features non-Colombian animals such as
AustralianSulphur crested cockatoos. Filming locations were actually in
Xalapa, Mexico.
Miami Vice: Posing as drug smugglers "Sonny Burnett" and "Rico Cooper",
Miami-Dade Police detectives James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs offer their services to a Colombian cartel. The topography of Colombia's northernmost peninsula known as
Guajira Peninsula is basically an
arid desert, quite different from the jungle backdrop used to describe the smuggler's airplane. Filming locations were actually in the
Dominican Republic.
Green Ice: 1981 film. American electronics expert O'Neal is visiting Latin America and gets recruited into a scheme to steal
emeralds from a Colombian consortium. Filming locations were actually in
Mexico.
Scarface: 1983 film, depicts a Colombian gangster dismembering another gangster with a
chainsaw to extract information.
Superman III: Villain Webster (
Robert Vaughn) wants to monopolize the world's
coffee crop. Infuriated by
Colombia's refusal to do business with him, he orders Gus Gorman (
Richard Pryor) to command an American weather satellite to create a
hurricane to decimate the
nation's coffee crop. Webster's scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the hurricane and saves the harvest. In the movie, Colombia is located in the
Southern Hemisphere, being actually located in the north hemisphere most of its territory. There are no hurricanes in Colombia.
Sicario a 2015 film starring
Emily Blunt and
Benicio del Toro where Del Toro portrays a former Mexican prosecutor, seeking revenge for the killing of his family. He is referred to by the Mexican cartels as "Medellín," a reference to the Colombian "sicarios," (assassins) who were often dispatched to Mexico by the Colombian cartels to shift the balance of power, when Colombia was the drug-smuggling epicenter in the 70's/80's. Mexico was at that time competing with Colombia, for prominence in the drug trade. At one point in the film, he tells Emily Blunt's character that he "[comes from] Colombia," which may allude to him seeking refuge there and training to be an assassin, after his family was killed and he fled Mexico.
The mainstream of
Colombian cinema follows the trend of the foreign cinema, depicting mostly
narcotrafficking related issues,
hit men stories, and films with a high content of poverty and human misery. Criticism of this type of film-making
argued that these films did not treat their subject with profoundness, instead taking a superficial approach to the issues.[3]
Some examples are:
The True Story of Killing Pablo: 2003 documentary made by
The History Channel that reviews in detail the final events that led the
National Police of Colombia to the killing of Pablo Escobar and the opinion of the ones behind the operation.[4]
Black Coffee: 2005
Canadiandocumentary film examining the complicated history of
coffee and detailing its political, social and economic influence from the past to the present day.
Sins of My Father: 2009 Argentine documentary film about Pablo Escobar from the inside perspective of his son
Colombia in television
Foreign
Modern Family: two of the main characters
Gloria Pritchett and
Manny Delgado, played by
Sofia Vergara and
Rico Rodriguez respectively, are Colombians and in contact with their culture and costumes. Vergara represents a woman who comes from a small village in Colombia that is the murder capital of the country.[5] Vergara has brought Colombian culture to life in the television show and has helped ensure that the writers are accurate when it comes to presenting the culture on television. Modern Family tries to be as accurate as possible when it comes to Colombian culture, down to how people would dress at a party.[6] Rico Rodriguez portrays Vergara's Colombian son, Manny, in Modern Family.
Narcos: Brazilian actor
Wagner Moura portrays Colombian
Pablo Escobar in Netflix's 2015 series Narcos, which was filmed in Colombia.[7]Narcos depicts how police officers and politicians worldwide dealt with Pablo Escobar, the famous drug lord from Colombia who changed history. Although the filming was done in Colombia, the actors in the show were not all Colombian.
Paulina Gaitan who is Mexican portrays Escobar's wife in the show,
Luis Guzman who is Puerto Rican portrays Escobar's partner, and Brazilian
Andre Mattos plays the role of Escobar's rival. Although the show has been very popular among the American audience, it is not as popular among Colombians due to the poor attempt at Colombian accents.[8]
The Sopranos: "Gallegos" (played by
Jessy Terrero) is a wealthy Colombian
drug trafficker killed by Paulie Walnuts as a final warning to his organization that they were operating on Soprano family territory in
New Jersey. Paulie and Big Pussy also steal a lot of cash from his hotel room. Paulie notifies Tony of Gallegos' death by saying "
Juan Valdez has been separated from his donkey", a reference to the
Colombian coffee commercials.
Family Guy: In the beginning of the Family Guy episode "
Let's Go to the Hop", a Colombian drug cartel plane crashes and drops a cargo full of
psychoactive toads which becomes a drug
fanaticism in the local schools. In the beginning of the Family Guy episode "
Barely legal",
Adam West sends all the Quahog police to Cartagena, Colombia.
The Simpsons: In the episode "
Mobile Homer",
Marge, influenced by a "Wifetime TV" movie about when a wealthy man without insurance dies and whose widow and children are forced to live on the streets, decides to save
money by buying imitation brands of
cereal and
coffee; a coffee can is shown with the Juan Valdez (a sad Valdez) logo with a phrase on it: ..."Colombian shame".
Colombian television
Television in Colombia consists mostly of soap operas which are known in most countries of Latin America, the most famous and the one that had biggest reception by international audience was Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, which starred
Ana Maria Orozco as Beatriz Aurora "Betty" Pinzon Solano and
Jorge Enrique Abello as Armando Mendoza Saenz. The story was set in
Bogota, Colombia and revolved around the relationship between the two main characters. The soap opera originally premiered in Colombia on October 25, 1999, but was later adapted from half-hour episodes to full-hour episodes that were shows in the United States. Yo Soy Betty, La Fea was adapted and remade in over 50 countries in many different languages including English, Japanese, and Chinese. The soap opera inspired the very popular American hit Ugly Betty.[10]
Lately, there has been a rise in shows that portray drug dealing which have been controversial in the country because the characters are law breakers who are glorified; some examples are:
El Cartel de los Sapos ("The
Cartel of the
Snitches". Also publicly known as simply "El Cartel".): Depicts the whereabouts of a cartel of drug lords and their relations with a corrupted government.
My Colombian Death: 2008 book by Matthew Thompson relating his 2006 experiences in
Colombia, when he roamed the country spending time at carnivals and with gang members and
cocaine dealers, ran with bulls, played the explosive drinking game of
tejo and met
Salvatore Mancuso, the then-head of the right-wing paramilitary
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a US-designated terrorist organisation[11]
Out of Captivity, subtitled Surviving 1967 Days in the Colombian Jungle: 2009 book written by
Marc Gonsalves,
Keith Stansell, and
Thomas Howes with the assistance of author Gary Brozek. It narrates the time they spent in the Colombian jungle as prisoners of the
FARC, a narco-terrorist organization, who accused them of being members of the CIA after their plane crashed in a mountainous region.
Drug trafficking and Capitalism: a contemporary paradox: 2008 book by
Eliana Herrera Vega (English translation)[12] The book explains the actual drug problem as a communicational
paradox between major social systems.
America's Other War: Terrorizing Colombia (
ISBN978-1842775479) by
Doug Stokes, examines US intervention in
Colombia and argues that it has primarily been driven by a desire to secure a stable supply of
oil and to pacify threats to US economic and political interests.
Dying Words: Colombian Journalists and the Cocaine Warlords: 1990 book by
Coke Newell
Cosmic Banditos: 1986 novel by
Allan Weisbecker, about the adventures of a
marijuana smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Colombia with his dog, High Pockets.
Rey de Noches, a fantasy book, has a nation named Emeraldsia. The name is a reference towards Colombia's rich quality of
Emeralds. The history mentioned is corresponding to the real life era of the union between Colombia,
Ecuador,
Venezuela, and
Panama known as
Gran Colombia. As well as its culture history.[13][14][15]
Magical Disinformation: (ISBN 978-0648966913) A spy novel by Lachlan Page which depicts a British spy fabricating intelligence reports to remain close to his love interest in Colombia.[16]
Black Lagoon: In the episode 9, "Maid to Kill", appear Roberta and the Lovelace Family who are from South America; Roberta dispatches the majority of the cartel members, and Garcia is shocked at her combat prowess. Revy inadvertently reveals the Lagoon Company's presence during the firefight, and is knocked unconscious when Roberta fires a 40 mm grenade at her. Garcia asks the Lagoon Company to take him with them, and they manage to escape. One of the cartel members identifies Roberta as a former FARC guerrilla with a large bounty on her head. In the coming third season, Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail is presuming that the characters are in Colombia and Venezuela.
Excel Saga: In episode 19 ("Menchi's Great adventure"), Menchi and a young rich girl go to Colombia and drink coffee
Hellsing: In OVA 7, is told that Bernadotte's Great Father died in Colombia
Video games
The fictional country of Boa in Haze is loosely based in Colombia
In Hitman: Codename 47 the agent 47 complete contracts for killing cocaine trafficker Pablo Belisario Ochoa in Colombia through a staged drug raid, among other murderers.
As consequence of the negative depiction of Colombia and the Colombian people, Colombians are often subject of prejudice and discrimination in several countries.[23] Some examples include:
Colombians are among the main targets of
xenophobes and
neonazi attacks in
Europe, especially in
Spain[24] and
France.[25] Spanish
paramedics have reportedly refused to provide care to Colombian victims of such events.[26]Police have been reported to refuse received complaints of the victims.[25]
"We don't sell to Colombians" signs are common in
Ecuadorian stores[citation needed].
Lynching and
necklacing of Colombian people have been reported in
Ecuador.[27] Police and media are accused of creating the image that every
delinquent band has Colombian leaders. Police reportedly refuse to file a police report for crimes against Colombians.[28] Colombian children are often rejected from schools, and "preventive"
battering of unrelated Colombians in the vicinity of a crime scene has been reported.[29]
Colombian
passport sometimes makes the person suspicious to international custom authorities[citation needed]. Extensive
cavity searches, dismantling of
luggages,
clothing and personal items and Illegal retention in the airports without food or basic facilities have been reported[30]
^"Country Reports on Terrorism". Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. 30 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-15. US State Department list of terrorist organisations.
^Peters, Mike (January 2, 2009).
"Mother Goose and Grimm". Grimmy, Inc. Archived from
the original(GIF) on February 24, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
^*(Spanish) Narcotráfico: un pretexto para la discriminación de los migrantes colombianos y de otras nacionalidades
Colombia, Documentos De La Red
ISSN1900-639X, 2007 vol:2 fasc: 1 págs: 74 - 92
Autores: WILLIAM MEJIA OCHOA,
The depiction of Colombia in popular culture, especially the portrayal of
Colombian people in
film and
fiction, has been asserted by Colombian organizations and government to be largely negative and has raised concerns that it reinforces, or even engenders, societal
prejudice and
discrimination due to association with
narco-trafficking,
terrorism,
illegal immigration and other criminal elements,
poverty and
welfare.[1] The Colombian government-funded Colombia is Passion advertisement campaign as an attempt to improve Colombia's image abroad, with mixed results[2] hoping for more positive views on Colombia.
Aside from the Colombia is passion campaign,
Soccer has been known for being a major part in creating positive views as perhaps the most important to Colombians.
Failings in the background research and the reproduction of the country are very common in films depicting Colombia. Some of these mistakes include showing
Bogotá or
Medellín as
sylvatic or coastal regions, using
Mexican or
Puerto Rican actors (with noticeable accents), Mexican
costumes,
anachronisms and a general inaccuracy regarding the depiction of how the
conflicts between government and drug-trading cartels work.
Some examples of fictional Colombian settings are:
Fraser portrayed a Colombian druglord
Depp portrayed an American with ties to Pablo Escobar
Schwarzenegger portrayed a man that fought the Colombian rebels
Saldana portrayed a Colombian woman fighting drug traffickers
Norris portrayed a Colonel fighting Colombian drug lords
Diesel portrayed a man fighting a Colombian drug lord
Blunt portrayed a DEA agent working alongside a former Colombian drug lord
Benicio del Toro portrayed Pablo Escobar
Al Pacino portrayed a man that fought a Colombian gang
Bedazzled: The Devil makes
Brendan Fraser´s character a Colombian Drug Lord, loosely resembling
Pablo Escobar. Most of the Spanish phrases are at times very hard to make out, and with a lot of grammar and pronunciation mistakes. Traditional
Spanish music is heard in the background, not Colombian. Beginning with the butler, almost everyone speaks with a clear Spanish accent and slang, and certain elements belong to the Spanish culture, like the "
Bota bag", the traditional leather bag in the shape of a boot, used to drink alcoholic beverages.
Medellín is depicted as a tropical
jungle.
Collateral Damage: Gordon Brewer (played by
Arnold Schwarzenegger), looks to avenge his son's and wife's deaths at the hands of a
guerrilla commando, by traveling to
Colombia. Gordy enters Colombia through the
Darién Gap. This Gap is in the Colombian department called
Chocó, the most
Afro-Colombian populated region of the country. However, throughout the whole movie, a black person is never shown. The
National Police of Colombia and army forces use blue uniforms, instead the green they actually use. The accent of the native "Colombians" is actually Mexican. There is a scene of a soccer match, between America and
Chivas, two popular teams from
Mexico which are mistakenly set in Colombia.
Lord of War:
Nicolas Cage plays an illegal arms dealer, which during a business deal with a
Colombiandrug lord, gets paid in
cocaine instead of cash. Again, the accent and slang words used by the 'Colombian' drug lord are Mexican.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith: A couple of assassins tell the story of their first meeting in
Bogotá,
Colombia, where they met during a crossfire, while both were secretly on the run from Colombian authorities. The film depicts Bogotá, the capital of Colombia as a small town, when in reality Bogotá is one of the biggest and most populous cities in
Latin America. Also, Bogotá is portrayed as a warm/hot city while in reality it is located over the
Andean cordilleras and has an average temperature of 58 °F all year long and has an altitude of 8,530 feet (2,600 m). Filming locations were actually in
California.
Bruce Almighty: In the morning, Bruce Nolan (
Jim Carrey) states "I'd better manifest some coffee", and uses his god powers to conjure fictional Colombian coffee icon character
Juan Valdez who pours him a cup of coffee while stating his enjoyment for fresh grown coffee in the hills of Colombia.
Romancing the Stone: Joan Wilder (
Kathleen Turner) is a romance novelist who receives a package from her dead brother-in-law Eduardo, who was recently murdered and dismembered in
Colombia. Her widowed sister, Elaine (
Mary Ellen Trainor) calls Joan and begs her to come to
Colombia with the package; Elaine has been kidnapped, and the package is the ransom. Though supposedly set in Colombia, all the Hispanic actors speak with a distinct Mexican accent. The supposed Colombian jungle features non-Colombian animals such as
AustralianSulphur crested cockatoos. Filming locations were actually in
Xalapa, Mexico.
Miami Vice: Posing as drug smugglers "Sonny Burnett" and "Rico Cooper",
Miami-Dade Police detectives James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs offer their services to a Colombian cartel. The topography of Colombia's northernmost peninsula known as
Guajira Peninsula is basically an
arid desert, quite different from the jungle backdrop used to describe the smuggler's airplane. Filming locations were actually in the
Dominican Republic.
Green Ice: 1981 film. American electronics expert O'Neal is visiting Latin America and gets recruited into a scheme to steal
emeralds from a Colombian consortium. Filming locations were actually in
Mexico.
Scarface: 1983 film, depicts a Colombian gangster dismembering another gangster with a
chainsaw to extract information.
Superman III: Villain Webster (
Robert Vaughn) wants to monopolize the world's
coffee crop. Infuriated by
Colombia's refusal to do business with him, he orders Gus Gorman (
Richard Pryor) to command an American weather satellite to create a
hurricane to decimate the
nation's coffee crop. Webster's scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the hurricane and saves the harvest. In the movie, Colombia is located in the
Southern Hemisphere, being actually located in the north hemisphere most of its territory. There are no hurricanes in Colombia.
Sicario a 2015 film starring
Emily Blunt and
Benicio del Toro where Del Toro portrays a former Mexican prosecutor, seeking revenge for the killing of his family. He is referred to by the Mexican cartels as "Medellín," a reference to the Colombian "sicarios," (assassins) who were often dispatched to Mexico by the Colombian cartels to shift the balance of power, when Colombia was the drug-smuggling epicenter in the 70's/80's. Mexico was at that time competing with Colombia, for prominence in the drug trade. At one point in the film, he tells Emily Blunt's character that he "[comes from] Colombia," which may allude to him seeking refuge there and training to be an assassin, after his family was killed and he fled Mexico.
The mainstream of
Colombian cinema follows the trend of the foreign cinema, depicting mostly
narcotrafficking related issues,
hit men stories, and films with a high content of poverty and human misery. Criticism of this type of film-making
argued that these films did not treat their subject with profoundness, instead taking a superficial approach to the issues.[3]
Some examples are:
The True Story of Killing Pablo: 2003 documentary made by
The History Channel that reviews in detail the final events that led the
National Police of Colombia to the killing of Pablo Escobar and the opinion of the ones behind the operation.[4]
Black Coffee: 2005
Canadiandocumentary film examining the complicated history of
coffee and detailing its political, social and economic influence from the past to the present day.
Sins of My Father: 2009 Argentine documentary film about Pablo Escobar from the inside perspective of his son
Colombia in television
Foreign
Modern Family: two of the main characters
Gloria Pritchett and
Manny Delgado, played by
Sofia Vergara and
Rico Rodriguez respectively, are Colombians and in contact with their culture and costumes. Vergara represents a woman who comes from a small village in Colombia that is the murder capital of the country.[5] Vergara has brought Colombian culture to life in the television show and has helped ensure that the writers are accurate when it comes to presenting the culture on television. Modern Family tries to be as accurate as possible when it comes to Colombian culture, down to how people would dress at a party.[6] Rico Rodriguez portrays Vergara's Colombian son, Manny, in Modern Family.
Narcos: Brazilian actor
Wagner Moura portrays Colombian
Pablo Escobar in Netflix's 2015 series Narcos, which was filmed in Colombia.[7]Narcos depicts how police officers and politicians worldwide dealt with Pablo Escobar, the famous drug lord from Colombia who changed history. Although the filming was done in Colombia, the actors in the show were not all Colombian.
Paulina Gaitan who is Mexican portrays Escobar's wife in the show,
Luis Guzman who is Puerto Rican portrays Escobar's partner, and Brazilian
Andre Mattos plays the role of Escobar's rival. Although the show has been very popular among the American audience, it is not as popular among Colombians due to the poor attempt at Colombian accents.[8]
The Sopranos: "Gallegos" (played by
Jessy Terrero) is a wealthy Colombian
drug trafficker killed by Paulie Walnuts as a final warning to his organization that they were operating on Soprano family territory in
New Jersey. Paulie and Big Pussy also steal a lot of cash from his hotel room. Paulie notifies Tony of Gallegos' death by saying "
Juan Valdez has been separated from his donkey", a reference to the
Colombian coffee commercials.
Family Guy: In the beginning of the Family Guy episode "
Let's Go to the Hop", a Colombian drug cartel plane crashes and drops a cargo full of
psychoactive toads which becomes a drug
fanaticism in the local schools. In the beginning of the Family Guy episode "
Barely legal",
Adam West sends all the Quahog police to Cartagena, Colombia.
The Simpsons: In the episode "
Mobile Homer",
Marge, influenced by a "Wifetime TV" movie about when a wealthy man without insurance dies and whose widow and children are forced to live on the streets, decides to save
money by buying imitation brands of
cereal and
coffee; a coffee can is shown with the Juan Valdez (a sad Valdez) logo with a phrase on it: ..."Colombian shame".
Colombian television
Television in Colombia consists mostly of soap operas which are known in most countries of Latin America, the most famous and the one that had biggest reception by international audience was Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, which starred
Ana Maria Orozco as Beatriz Aurora "Betty" Pinzon Solano and
Jorge Enrique Abello as Armando Mendoza Saenz. The story was set in
Bogota, Colombia and revolved around the relationship between the two main characters. The soap opera originally premiered in Colombia on October 25, 1999, but was later adapted from half-hour episodes to full-hour episodes that were shows in the United States. Yo Soy Betty, La Fea was adapted and remade in over 50 countries in many different languages including English, Japanese, and Chinese. The soap opera inspired the very popular American hit Ugly Betty.[10]
Lately, there has been a rise in shows that portray drug dealing which have been controversial in the country because the characters are law breakers who are glorified; some examples are:
El Cartel de los Sapos ("The
Cartel of the
Snitches". Also publicly known as simply "El Cartel".): Depicts the whereabouts of a cartel of drug lords and their relations with a corrupted government.
My Colombian Death: 2008 book by Matthew Thompson relating his 2006 experiences in
Colombia, when he roamed the country spending time at carnivals and with gang members and
cocaine dealers, ran with bulls, played the explosive drinking game of
tejo and met
Salvatore Mancuso, the then-head of the right-wing paramilitary
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a US-designated terrorist organisation[11]
Out of Captivity, subtitled Surviving 1967 Days in the Colombian Jungle: 2009 book written by
Marc Gonsalves,
Keith Stansell, and
Thomas Howes with the assistance of author Gary Brozek. It narrates the time they spent in the Colombian jungle as prisoners of the
FARC, a narco-terrorist organization, who accused them of being members of the CIA after their plane crashed in a mountainous region.
Drug trafficking and Capitalism: a contemporary paradox: 2008 book by
Eliana Herrera Vega (English translation)[12] The book explains the actual drug problem as a communicational
paradox between major social systems.
America's Other War: Terrorizing Colombia (
ISBN978-1842775479) by
Doug Stokes, examines US intervention in
Colombia and argues that it has primarily been driven by a desire to secure a stable supply of
oil and to pacify threats to US economic and political interests.
Dying Words: Colombian Journalists and the Cocaine Warlords: 1990 book by
Coke Newell
Cosmic Banditos: 1986 novel by
Allan Weisbecker, about the adventures of a
marijuana smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Colombia with his dog, High Pockets.
Rey de Noches, a fantasy book, has a nation named Emeraldsia. The name is a reference towards Colombia's rich quality of
Emeralds. The history mentioned is corresponding to the real life era of the union between Colombia,
Ecuador,
Venezuela, and
Panama known as
Gran Colombia. As well as its culture history.[13][14][15]
Magical Disinformation: (ISBN 978-0648966913) A spy novel by Lachlan Page which depicts a British spy fabricating intelligence reports to remain close to his love interest in Colombia.[16]
Black Lagoon: In the episode 9, "Maid to Kill", appear Roberta and the Lovelace Family who are from South America; Roberta dispatches the majority of the cartel members, and Garcia is shocked at her combat prowess. Revy inadvertently reveals the Lagoon Company's presence during the firefight, and is knocked unconscious when Roberta fires a 40 mm grenade at her. Garcia asks the Lagoon Company to take him with them, and they manage to escape. One of the cartel members identifies Roberta as a former FARC guerrilla with a large bounty on her head. In the coming third season, Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail is presuming that the characters are in Colombia and Venezuela.
Excel Saga: In episode 19 ("Menchi's Great adventure"), Menchi and a young rich girl go to Colombia and drink coffee
Hellsing: In OVA 7, is told that Bernadotte's Great Father died in Colombia
Video games
The fictional country of Boa in Haze is loosely based in Colombia
In Hitman: Codename 47 the agent 47 complete contracts for killing cocaine trafficker Pablo Belisario Ochoa in Colombia through a staged drug raid, among other murderers.
As consequence of the negative depiction of Colombia and the Colombian people, Colombians are often subject of prejudice and discrimination in several countries.[23] Some examples include:
Colombians are among the main targets of
xenophobes and
neonazi attacks in
Europe, especially in
Spain[24] and
France.[25] Spanish
paramedics have reportedly refused to provide care to Colombian victims of such events.[26]Police have been reported to refuse received complaints of the victims.[25]
"We don't sell to Colombians" signs are common in
Ecuadorian stores[citation needed].
Lynching and
necklacing of Colombian people have been reported in
Ecuador.[27] Police and media are accused of creating the image that every
delinquent band has Colombian leaders. Police reportedly refuse to file a police report for crimes against Colombians.[28] Colombian children are often rejected from schools, and "preventive"
battering of unrelated Colombians in the vicinity of a crime scene has been reported.[29]
Colombian
passport sometimes makes the person suspicious to international custom authorities[citation needed]. Extensive
cavity searches, dismantling of
luggages,
clothing and personal items and Illegal retention in the airports without food or basic facilities have been reported[30]
^"Country Reports on Terrorism". Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. 30 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-15. US State Department list of terrorist organisations.
^Peters, Mike (January 2, 2009).
"Mother Goose and Grimm". Grimmy, Inc. Archived from
the original(GIF) on February 24, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
^*(Spanish) Narcotráfico: un pretexto para la discriminación de los migrantes colombianos y de otras nacionalidades
Colombia, Documentos De La Red
ISSN1900-639X, 2007 vol:2 fasc: 1 págs: 74 - 92
Autores: WILLIAM MEJIA OCHOA,