Violence threatens Colombia's top tourist destination

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park, with its snow-capped peaks cascading into the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, is one of Colombia's jewels. But behind the picture-postcard beauty lies a much darker reality.

Armed groups are extorting local businesses and terrorizing indigenous communities. The 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended more than half a century of war and helped put a country long associated with drug lords and rebels on the global tourism stage.

Since then, thousands of tourists have flocked to the Sierra Nevada each day, hiking through primary forests to white-sand beaches or climbing to the Ciudad Perdida, or Lost City, which predates Peru's Machu Picchu. Few notice the men in camouflage watching from a distance.

They are members of the Sierra Nevada Self-Defense Forces (ACSN), a group of former paramilitaries that controls cocaine trafficking routes in the area and also engages in illegal gold mining. Extortion has become another lucrative business for the group. ACSN members, often called “Conquistadores,” demand a share of income from hotels, tour bus companies and indigenous communities who sell hammocks and handwoven bags to visitors.

“We are afraid and worried about the future,” said Atanasio Moscote, governor of the Kogui people, an indigenous community living high in the Sierra Nevada, which they consider the “heart of the world.”

In February, the government closed Tayrona National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site overlooking the Caribbean, for more than two weeks after threats against park rangers, allegedly by the ACSN. Authorities accused the group of pressuring the indigenous Wayuu residents within the park to oppose crackdowns on illegal activities such as logging.

Both Tayrona and Sierra Nevada national parks welcomed over 873,000 visitors last year. The surge in tourists marks a major shift from the 1980s and 1990s, when the region was a battlefield for fierce clashes between paramilitary groups and FARC rebels.

A decade after FARC laid down its arms, the ACSN — founded by a paramilitary leader later extradited to the United States — still controls much of the area. In recent months, Colombia's largest drug gang, the Gulf Clan, has tried to muscle in, vying for control and sparking clashes with the ACSN.

Caught in the middle are indigenous communities who “do not speak Spanish, live off their crops and their traditional knowledge,” said Luis Salcedo, governor of the Arhuaco people, also living in the Sierra Nevada.

President Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist leader in modern history, included the ACSN in his bid to negotiate the disarmament of all armed groups in the country. But four years after he launched his “Paz Total” (Total Peace) campaign, the ACSN still dominates the Santa Marta region, researcher Norma Vera said.

Extortion has now emerged as a key issue in the election campaign to choose Petro's successor, starting May 31. The Defense Ministry says it has received more than 46,000 extortion complaints since 2022. Omar Garcia, president of the hotel association in the coastal city of Santa Marta — the gateway to the Sierra Nevada — said he worries for Colombia's fragile tourism boom. “Any news that affects the image [of a destination] and the safety of tourists makes travelers reconsider,” he said.