Tourists have been robbed and sexually assaulted in hostels in tourist district of Bogota (La Candelaria)

According to Colombiareports.com, there have been at least seven robberies of tourists residing at hostels in La Candelaria district in Bogota over the last eight months. These robberies have been violent with the use of weapons and included sexual assault offenses. The website reported that at least one American tourist has been sexually assaulted. Furthermore, last week a hostal was raided by gunmen in which 8 guests were robbed and at least a sexual assault took place.

Colombiareports.com interviewed several hostel owners who refused to be named in the article but, submitted there is a problem, and efforts are being made to increase security. However, some hostals according to one of the individuals have failed to take measures and have been repeatedly robbed.

Two of the victims indicated the police did not seem interested in pursuing the assailants and took them to the airport right away.Read Article – Colombiareports.com
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La Candelaria is a very popular destination for tourists in Bogota with about 1500 people a day visiting the area.
LATINAMERICATRAVEL.COM recommends that at the mininum do the following when using a hostal in the area.
1. Inquire as to what security precuations they have taken.
2. Do they have a camera security system?
3. Is there a security guard on premises?
4. Do they have security safes for documents and valuables?
5. If you are on a tight budget consider using couchsurfing.com as an alternative to staying in hostels.
6. Make sure you have copies of your documents separated from your belongings in case of a theft.

One element to keep in mind when using a hostal: Latinamericacurrentevents.com believes that there could be some chance that employees of hostels could be working together with criminal gangs. They could alert the criminals when there are a large number of guests on the premises, what rooms they are in, and where valuables may be stored. Again there is no indication from press reports that this was thie case in the robberies. However, it has happened in the past in other areas of Latin America.