As the year draws to a close, we look back at Colombia’s most important numbers of 2019.
591
… attacks on human rights defenders in the first half of this year. According to Indepaz, this is the highest number of acts of aggression since the peace institute started its monitoring 10 years ago. Counts vary as to how many social leaders have been killed, but Indepaz’s latest report documented a total of 746 activist murders in this time, 59 of which took place between January and June in Colombia this 2019.
82:57:00
82 hours and 57 minutes it took professional cyclist Egan Bernal to cross the finish line in Paris after 3,366 kilometres, he became the first all-time Colombian Tour de France-winner. He finished ahead of a strong field to win the first Grand Tour of what could well be a glittering career.
Related: Egan Bernal’s incredible Tour de France 2019.
3,219,343
… people participated in the 2019 Bogotá mayoral elections – 55% of the total eligible to vote. Claudia López won the battle for the city’s highest office receiving a total of 1,108,541 votes (35.21%). The Alianza Verde candidate will be the first openly LGBT mayor of any capital city in Latin America.
Related: How was Colombia’s national strike?
1,464,800
The official number of Venezuelan migrants who have arrived in Colombia since 2014. According to the Financial Times, there are still up to 2,000 people crossing the border every day. The crisis has driven about 4.5 million Venezuelans from their homes – and that figure is expected to rise. In fact, next year the exodus from Venezuela is set to become the biggest of any country in recent history, with an expected 6.5 million refugees.
Related: Our coverage on the Venezuelan crisis
85,000
… people went to see Colombian movie of the year Monos within the first twelve days after its release here. The film, which has already won 23 awards and been nominated for 19 more, will represent the country at the 2020 Oscars in Los Angeles and the Goya Awards in Madrid.
Bogotá Post Film review: Monos
21,330
… daily trips were made on the new TransMiCable in August – totalling more than 600,000 trips in the whole month. The opening of the new TransMiCable on December 27 last year came with the promise to connect more than 700,000 people from the southern Bogotá districts with the city centre.
Related: Going to paradise on Bogotá’s TransMiCable
16,000
… hectares of Tinigua National Park were destroyed in Colombia between 2017 and July 2019 according to Mongabay – almost all of its primary forest. Tinigua, along with Sierra de la Macarena, Chiribiquete and Nukak, has been strongly affected by deforestation. Colombia lost nearly 200,000 hectares of forest in 2018.
Related: Can Colombia save its forests?
9%
… growth in year-on-year coffee exports. According to the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, coffee exports reached 11.1 million bags between January and October, compared with 10.2 million for the same period last year. Production is up 5% for the same period.
250,000
Thursday, November 21, brought a conservative estimate of 250,000 people from all backgrounds out onto the streets across the country to join the paro nacional or national strike.
Related: All our coverage on Colombia’s national strike
32
… bogotano bands performed at the 25th anniversary of Rock al Parque, with Under Threat the highest on the bill. Over 50 bands performed at the three-day festival which averaged an attendance of more than 100,000 rock and metal fans daily. Having first taken place in 1994, it has become Latin America’s largest free rock festival over the years. Happy Birthday!
Related: This was Rock al Parque 2019
