The rising taxi crimes have become the biggest issue in Colombia now. Even though it is not a new affair, it has turned into a nightmare for the government these days and serious measures are being taken to curb it immediately.
It has Become the “Millionaire’s Ride”
Taxi ride in Colombia has become the ‘millionaire’s ride’ at this time and it cannot be considered as an overstatement. There are a number of dishonest taxi drivers who are cheating passengers or directly involved in crimes.
When a person gets into a taxi, the deceitful driver does not take him or her to the destination. Rather, he halts on the way to pick up his co-conspirators. After that, the taxi driver and his partners in crime force the passenger to give out his or her credit / debit cards at the point of knife or revolver. Once they get those cards, they set the passenger free and take out millions of pesos (Colombian currency) from nearby ATMs.
It has been a decade long practice in the ‘Gateway to South America’. But the death of an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) during such a taxi ride in the last month has triggered the issue of express kidnapping once again. The official became the victim of a grave robbery attempt and died from wounds while defying his subjugators.
The Country Needs to Fight Hard against the Crimes
This incident has proved how much the condition has deteriorated in Colombia. It is basically an upshot of the increasing drug addiction and guerrilla war, which have been affecting the progress and development of the country to a large extent.
Escalating crimes and violence throughout Colombia is also taking a toll on its international relationship. Lots of foreign tourists are considering the most recent robbery attempt as a threat towards their visit to the country inspite of the enhanced security measures.
The administration in Colombia is highly concerned about the problem.
In a recent interview, Francisco Lloreda – the National Security Adviser of Colombia has said that the Government has already come up with a number of preventive measures. These include establishing exclusive taxi stands only for registered vehicles, launching unique smartphone applications to facilitate the verification of taxi drivers, and so on, but all in vein.
According to Juan Manuel Santos, the President of the country, they are trying hard to fight against the taxi crimes. But such terrible attacks on foreigners are erasing all their efforts in just one swipe.
