Events of 1997 in Colombia.
Incumbents
President: Ernesto Samper Pizano (1994–1998). Vice President: Carlos Lemos Simmonds (1996–1998).
Events January
20 January – Emberá leader Joaquín Domicó, Emberá is killed.
February
11 February – 800,000 workers, many in the public sector, participate in a walk out over President Ernesto Samper's economic policies of austerity and privatization.
March
16 March – Three car bombs, two in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander and one in Saravena, Arauca, are detonated by the National Liberation Army (ELN). The bomb in Cúcuta kills an 18-month-old and injures four others. The bomb in Saravena kills four and wounds five others.
April
21 April – The 47th Vuelta a Colombia begins in Bucaramanga, Santander.
May
14 May – Doris Adriana Niño dies after meeting with vallenato singer Diomedes Díaz. Her body is found on the side of the rode in Boyacá and it is determined she died of a cocaine overdose. Díaz later went on trial and was, controversially, deemed innocent of her death. 20 May – The 27th President of Colombia Virgilio Barco Vargas dies in Bogotá, after suffering from Cancer and Alzheimer's.
June
June 14 – 60 soldiers kidnapped by the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia People's Army (FARC-EP) in the 1996 attack on Las Delicias military nine months earlier are released through the Colombian Red Cross and the Catholic Church Cartagena del Chairá, Caquetá.
July
15–20 July – Mapiripán massacre: Around 30 to 49 people are killed with chainsaws and machetes by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) in collaboration with units of the Colombian National Army.
August
7 August – The Ministry of Culture is established. 21 August – The 23rd President of Colombia Misael Pastrana dies at the age of 73 in Bogotá. He served as president from 1970 to 1974.
September
10 September – The Colombia national football team defeats Venezuela's 1–0 at the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla. This solidifies their qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
October
22 October – El Aro Massacre. 26 October – 1997 Colombian referendum. 1997 regional and municipal elections.
November
5 November – Carlos Arturo Marulanda, Colombia's ambassador to the United Nations, resigns after questions arise around his relationship to right-wing paramilitaries. 11-12 November – San José del Guaviare massacre: Members of the Centauros Bloc of the AUC murder 11 people in San José del Guaviare.
December
30 December – The Antonio Escobar Camargo bridge between Zambrano, Bolívar and Plato, Magdalena, the longest viaduct in the country, opens.
Uncertain
The Mosque of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, the third-largest mosque in Latin America, completes construction in Maicao, La Guajira.
Births
13 January – Luis Díaz, footballer. 28 January – Alvaro Meléndez, footballer. 2 December – Luis Suárez, footballer.
Deaths
20 January – Joaquín Domicó, Emberá leader. 20 March– Gerardo Bedoya, journalist. 17 April – Hena Rodríguez, painter, educator, and first female Colombian sculptor (b. 1915). 21 August – Misael Pastrana, lawyer and former Colombian president (b. 1923).
References
External links
Human Rights Watch World Report 1998: Colombia U.S. Department of State: Colombia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997