COLOMBIA: 24 April UPDATE: Rainy Season Kills 93, Injures 52; 5 Missing With 69,000 Homeless.

C.REPORTS/

   The Red Cross now reports 93 dead and 5 are missing from flooding and landslides.
  Another 52 have been injured and the rains have damaged homes or lands of more than 130,000 with more than $5 Bn usd in damages. Almost 69,000 are homeless.
    Parts of Cali and Bogota have especially suffered from  flooding...and areas in the north...where the Magdalena river meets the Cauca river are especially threatened.

COLOMBIA: Many Tourists Robbed And Assaulted In Their Bogota Hostels.

C.REPORTS/

   Tourists staying in several hostels in Bogota's La Candelaria district have been robbed by armed men at least seven times in the past eight months.
    An American tourist was even sexually assaulted with a gun.
    Last week armed men seized a hostel and robbed eight guests. A female hostel guest was sexually assaulted by the robbers.
   Some victims claim that police drove them to the airport without filing official reports about the robbery and the alleged sexual assault.

COLOMBIA: Corrupt Police Aided Bogota's Fake Torture Brothel.

C. REPORTS/

   Prostitution is legal in Colombia.
  But torturing and kidnapping unsuspecting clients is not.
  That appears to have been the modus for a band of 15 kidnappers, including four minors, arrested for operating in Bogota's Santa Fe neighborhood.
   They allegedly lured victims to the brothel where they were beaten and forced to give up their belongings and their credit card pins allowing the criminals to withdraw their money from ATMs.
  And, worst of all, they may have been aided...by corrupt police.

COLOMBIA: Police Find More Than $22 Million USD In Bogota Auto.

C.REPORTS/      A Bogota radio station reports that police have discovered more than $22 million usd in an auto parked in a lot on the corner of Avenida Boyaca and Carrera 53 in the upscale north of the city. Police confirmed the $22 million, but were reportedly still counting.

COLOMBIA: Emergency Declared After Heavy Rains Near Bogota; Barranquilla Flooding Video.

C.REPORTS/       Unusually heavy rains drenching Soacha, near Bogota, have forced authorities to declare a state of emergency. Rains have soaked the nation since January leaving 48 people dead and affecting more than 47,000 in 27 of the 32 departments. Barranquilla has also been hit hard. The rainy season usually lasts only until mid-June but after an exceptionally dry 2009 El Niño season meteorologists believe 2010 will unusually wet because of the La Niña phenonmenon.
Here is :31 of  YOUTUBE video from a TV Report (ES) about Barranquilla flooding :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0_ctbptGM

Insecurity Increases In Bogota.

COLOMBIA REPORTS.COM.
59 percent of the residents of Bogota felt unsafe in their own city in June, while 39percent did so in the same month last year...a 20% increase.
Seven of every ten inhabitants of the capital say they feel unsafe on buses.

Colombia's New Scenic And Now Rebel Free Zone.

From GlobalPost.com