21st Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The stock markets of Cali, Medellín and Bogotá are fused into a single entity: Bolsa de Valores de Colombia | |
| Singer Shakira Mebarak wins a Grammy Award for her MTV unplugged | ||
| 24 April | the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations published the findings of its investigation into IRA activities in Colombia | |
| 4 May | A car bomb kills four and injures 32 in a luxury hotel in Cali. No group claims the attack. | |
| 17 May | A car bomb kills 20 and injures at least 50 in a park in Medellín. | |
| 11 July | Soccer tournament Copa America 2001 was held in Colombia (to 29 July) | |
| 11 August | Arrest of the Irish Colombia Three charged with training FARC rebels in bomb-making | |
| 23 August | In a series of attacks near Medellín, 10 bombs kill one and injure 39 others. At least 15 members of terrorist group ELN die when the explosives they were carrying detonate. | |
| 29 September | Politician Consuelo Araújo is murdered while being kidnapped by FARC guerrilla | |
| 2002 | 25 January | A bomb kills a child and four police officers and injures 28 people in Bogotá. Rebel group FARC is blamed |
| 30 January | A car bomb kills five and injures 40 in the city of Florencia in the department of Caquetá | |
| 21 February | President Pastrana ended the peace talks and ordered the armed forces to start retaking the FARC-EP controlled zone of San Vicente del Caguan | |
| 24 February | Oxygen Green Party Politician Ingrid Betancourt is kiddnapped by FARC guerrilla | |
| March | President Uribe decided to appoint Marta Lucía Ramírez as Minister of Defense becoming the second woman in Latin America to ever hold this title, after Michelle Bachelet | |
| 7 April | Two bombs explode in the restaurant district of Villavicencio, killing twelve and injuring 70. FARC is the prime suspect for the attack. | |
| 11 April | Two police officers and a girl are killed by a bomb concealed in the corpse of a peasant (Pedro Nel Camacho) apparently executed by the FARC guerrilla with such purpose | |
| 12 April | 12 politicians in Valle del Cauca are kidnapped using a hoax antibomb operative, starting the Valle del Cauca Deputies hostage crisis | |
| A rocket explodes near the studios of RCN TV in Bogotá. | ||
| 14 April | During an assassination attempt of then-presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe Vélez a bomb kills two and injures 20 in Barranquilla. Rebel group FARC is blamed. | |
| 2 May | Bojaya massacre in Chocó Department. A bomb destroys the local church. 117 dead, 114 injured. | |
| 26 May | Cali bishop Isaias Duarte is murdered by hitmen | |
| 7 August | Álvaro Uribe is elected president of Colombia | |
| Four rounds of mortars are fired against the Presidential Palace in Bogotá during the inauguration ceremony of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. 13 people, mostly homeless, die and 50 are wounded. FARC is blamed. | ||
| 24 November | Guerrilla leader alias Simon Trinidad is extradited to USA | |
| 13 December | A bomb destroys 30th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Bogotá. 37 people injured. | |
| 2003 | 16 January | A car bomb kills four and injures 27 at a shopping mall in Medellín. The attack is believed to be a retaliation of FARC for the arrest of 53 of its members in the preceding days |
| 7 February | 2003 El Nogal Club bombing. Car bomb kills 36 and injures more than 200 at the El Nogal social club in Bogotá; FARC rebels are blamed | |
| 14 February | A bomb kills 18 and wounds 37 in Neiva, destroying 70 homes. Amongst the dead are the chief prosecutor in Neiva and the chief of police. FARC is blamed for the attack. | |
| 5 March | A car bomb kills six and injures 68 in a covered parking lot in Cúcuta. Rebel group ELN is blamed for the attack. | |
| May | A group of Colombian Army soldiers, part of a Counter-terrorism unit, while cleaning up after an ambush by guerillas makes the surprising discovery of several tubs buried in the jungle which hold $16.75 million US dollars in cash. They decide to keep the money for themselves, leading to their capture and trial. These events are depicted in the 2006 movie A Ton of Luck | |
| 8 May | A bomb kills three in an attack against a water treatment plant in Cali. | |
| 24 August | Six die and 28 are wounded when a bomb explodes in a riverboat in the town of Puerto Rico. Rebel group FARC is blamed. | |
| 11 September | A bomb strapped to a horse kills eight and injures 15 in the village of Chita, Boyacá. The attack is blamed on FARC, as the same technique had been used in the past. | |
| 29 September | A motorcycle packed with explosives kills ten and injures 54 in downtown Florencia, Caquetá. Rebel group FARC is blamed. | |
| 8 October | A car bomb kills six and injures eleven in downtown Bogotá. | |
| 15 November | A grenade attack from a motorcycle kills two and injures seventy in the Bogotá Beer Company, a popular pub in Bogotá. Two FARC members were captured. | |
| December | Biologist Raul Cuero wins NASA Technology Award for his research in removal of radionuclides such as uranium, using Martian simulated soil | |
| 2004 | 15 March | Date of death of popular salsa dancer Amparo Arrebato |
| 1 May | Ecuadorian government placed further stringent visa restrictions on Colombians seeking to enter Ecuador | |
| 22 May | A bomb exploded in a crowded tavern/discothèque at 11:00 pm Saturday night killing six (some reports indicate seven) and wounding eighty-two. The bomb was packed in a small suitcase and left in the bathroom by suspected Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels. It is believed the bombing was part of a FARC campaign marking the organizations 40th anniversary. | |
| 4 August | A bomb exploded at a bridge in Medellín moments before a parade of antique cars was scheduled to cross it, as the closing event at the annual Festival of the Flowers. 35 people injured. | |
| 29 October | A bomb exploded near a bus stop along Bogotá's Transmilenio bus system route. A taxi passing by was caught in the blast resulting in the death of the driver and a passenger. 30 surrounded houses destroyed | |
| 22 November | USA president George W. Bush visits Cartagena de Indias | |
| 28 November | A bomb exploded beside the mayor's office in the Rafael Uribe district of Bogotá | |
| 30 November | Three people were killed and eight wounded when a fragment grenade was left at a supermarket checkout counter | |
| 13 December | Rodrigo Granda affair. FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda, was captured by individual Venezuelan officials in Caracas, Venezuela, and transferred to Cúcuta, Colombia (a departmental capital on the two nations' common border), where he was arrested by the Colombian authorities on 14 December, generating a diplomatic crisis with Venezuelan government. | |
| 30 December | Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC) replaced the liquidated Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión (Inravisión) as the government-run radio and television broadcasting service | |
| 2005 | January | Colombian justice adopts the adversarial system |
| 1 February | FARC attacks the Iscuande marine base in Narino Department with homemade rockets, killing 15 soldiers and injuring 25. | |
| 3 February | A bridge was blown up in Putumayo Department, killing eight soldiers and a civilian. | |
| 6 April | An ambush in Arauca state, near Venezuela, kills 17 soldiers. | |
| 24 June | FARC attacks military positions in the location of Puerto Asís in the Putumayo department, killing 25 and wounding 20 in a single operation. | |
| 27 October | The islands of San Andrés and Providencia are evacuated due to Hurricane Beta (2005). Hours later, a hurricane watch was issued. | |
| 27 December | FARC launches a massive attack in the remote village of San Marino in the Chocó Department, killing at least six police officers along with the temporary abduction of some thirty, before they were released by the guerrillas on 20 December due to military pressure. | |
| 28 December | F ARC rebels ambush troops near Vista Hermosa, Meta, killing 28. | |
| 2006 | 28 May | Álvaro Uribe is re-elected for a second presidential term |
| 31 July | 16 soldiers die in an ambush in Tibú and a car bomb kills one and injures 22 in Bogotá. Both attacks are blamed on FARC. | |
| 4 August | A car bomb kills five outside a police station in Cali. FARC suspected responsible. | |
| 19 October | A car bomb explodes in a military college in northern Bogotá. | |
| 9 November | The Supreme Court ordered the detention of three congressmen implicated in the signature of an illegal agreement with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia at Santa Fe de Ralito starting the Colombian parapolitics scandal | |
| December | First Narco submarines of Colombian origin seized by the U.S. Coast Guard, authorities dubbed it Bigfoot because they had heard rumors that such things existed, but nobody had actually seen one. | |
| 10 December | Paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso surrenders to the Colombian authorities | |
| 2007 | 5 January | kidnapped politician Fernando Araújo Perdomo escaped from his captors after a Colombian National Army military operation in the Montes de María mountains. Araújo spent several days in hiding without food or water until eventually finding help. |
| 1 March | Ten injured in a car bomb blast in Neiva, capital of Huila; rebel group FARC is believed responsible. The action is suspected to be an assassination attempt on Neiva's mayor. | |
| 3 March | A bomb kills four police officers and one civilian in the city of Neiva, as they attempt to deactivate it | |
| 16 March | A bomb kills 16 and injures 16 in Buenaventura. Authorities blame FARC. | |
| 7 April | The first Colombian satellite, Libertad I is launched in orbit from Baikonur cosmodrome | |
| 28 April | Kidnapped police officer Jhon Frank Pinchao escapes from the FARC guerrilla spending near a month lost in the jungle | |
| May | Virginia Vallejo, media personality and former lover of Pablo Escobar, published her memoir Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), where she accused several Colombian presidents of involvement with drug traffickers | |
| 28 June | Murder of the politicians kidnapped in the Valle del Cauca Deputies hostage crisis causes national outrage | |
| 7 September | Colombian coffee achieves Protected designation of origin status granted by the European Union | |
| 13 December | International Court of Justice of The Hague concluded the long-time dispute with the Republic of Nicaragua over the San Andrés y Providencia Islands in favor of Colombian sovereignty over the San Andres Archipelago, ratifying the Esguerra-Bárcenas treaty. signed between 1928 and 1930 | |
| 2008 | 10 January | Former vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas and former congresswoman Consuelo González are freed after nearly six years in captivity |
| 1 March | The Colombian military attacks a FARC camp inside Ecuador's territory. Several guerrilla casualties including guerrilla leader Raul Reyes starting the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis | |
| 3 March | Iván Ríos, a member of the FARC Central High Command was killed by his security chief "Rojas". | |
| 26 March | Guerrilla commander Manuel Marulanda Vélez dies | |
| 18 May | Guerrilla leader Elda Neyis Mosquera alias "Karina" surrenders herself to the military forces | |
| 2 July | Under a Colombian military operation called Operation Jaque, the FARC was tricked by the Colombian Government into releasing 15 hostages to Colombian Intelligence agents, including Ingrid Betancourt, U.S military contractors, and Colombian soldiers and police officers | |
| 15 August | Ituango, Antioquia. Seven people were killed and more than 50 wounded when a bomb detonated in a small town | |
| 21 August | Colombia has chosen the European DVB-T standard for Digital terrestrial television | |
| 30 October | Accusations of Colombian army soldiers involved with criminal bands with the purpose of luring unsuspecting unemployed or homeless people into isolated areas where they were murdered and the scenes were staged as combats against guerrilla in order to enhance their achievements and get performance-related payments, were investigated. The events, known as the 'false positives' scandal, led to the resignation of Commander-in-chief, general Mario Montoya. As of 2012, 3,350 such cases had been investigated in all parts of the country and verdicts had been reached in 170 cases. | |
| 12 November | Riots broke out in the municipalities of Pasto, Tumaco, Popayán and later spread all over the country after the collapse of several pyramid schemes. Thousands of victims had invested their money in pyramids that promised them extraordinary interest rates. The lack of regulation laws allowed those pyramids to grow excessively during several years. Finally, after the riots the Colombian government was forced to declare the country in economical emergency in order to seize and stop those schemes. Several of the pyramid's managers were arrested and are being prosecuted for the crime of "illegal massive money reception". | |
| 22 November | Colombia and Canada signed a new $1.14 billion dollar bilateral trade agreement (the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement) at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. | |
| 2009 | 8 January | Colombian drug lord and head of the Caqueta cartel Leonidas Vargas is murdered inside a hospital. his brother(Héctor Fabio Vargas) and his girlfriend (Colombian actress Liliana Andrea Lozano) were tortured and murdered in Pradera, Colombia. |
| Recognition of same-sex unions in Colombia is achieved by rule of the Constitutional Court | ||
| 11 January | Reports of mass murders of Awá (kwaiker) indigenous people by FARC guerrilla | |
| February | Colombia has extended its existing tobacco control regulations by a smoking ban requiring all indoor work places and public places be immediately smoke-free, prohibiting tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorship | |
| February | the fossils of 28 individual Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered, were announced to have been found in the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia. | |
| March | The Alvarez case was uncovered when 59-year-old Arcedio Alvarez was arrested in Mariquita, Colombia, accused of sexually abusing his now 30-year-old daughter Alba Nidia Alvarez since the age of 9. The daughter also gave birth to 11 children, three of whom died. | |
| March | the Colombian government enacted a mandate to introduce E85 flexible-fuel vehicles | |
| 15 March | Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo gets ranked in the Forbes list of world billionaires. | |
| April | The Colombian armed forces launched Strategic Leap, an offensive in borders areas where the FARC's forces has still a strong military presence, especially in Arauca, near the Venezuelan border. | |
| April | Colombian drug lord Daniel Rendón Herrera alias Don "Mario" is captured while hiding in a jungle. | |
| 13 May | Vallenato composer and troubadour Rafael Escalona dies due to heart failure. | |
| 14 May | During his visit in Colombia, the Czech Republic Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek negotiated a possible sale of the combat aircrafts Aero L-159 Alca with Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. | |
| June | Clara Guerrero wins Women's World Championship World Ranking Masters | |
| July 2009 | The Colombian government claimed that AT4 anti-tank rockets manufactured by Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden, which were later purchased by Venezuela were being used by the FARC. In response, President Chavez ordered most staff members of the embassy in Colombia to return to Venezuela, including the ambassador. Only the "lowest functionaries" were left to staff the embassy. | |
| 18 July | Ricardo Londoño, Colombia's first Formula One driver is murdered in the north Colombian Córdoba Department. | |
| 8 August | Cuban artist Tania Bruguera sets a controversial performance in the National University of Colombia (Bogotá branch), included consumption of cocaine provided by the artist to the attendants. | |
| 30 August | President Álvaro Uribe had contracted the AH1N1 flu virus, becoming the second head of state to do so (the first being Óscar Arias). | |
| 11 September | A group of eradicators of Coca crops near the village of La Gabarra, Municipality of Tibú, Norte de Santander is attacked by guerrilla forces with a donkey with bombs attached to it. 2 people deceased |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Colombian History