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Americans Looking for Love Are Getting Killed by Gangs in Colombia
Wall Street Journal via MSN ^ | January 19, 2024 | Kejal Vyas

Posted on 01/20/2024 7:14:10 AM PST by DoodleBob

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Minnesota comedian Tou Ger Xiong had fallen in love with the expat lifestyle in the vibrant Colombian city of Medellín: stock trading by day, fine dining and dance clubs by night.

He was one of a rising number of Americans and foreign nationals who began flocking to the country after the Covid-19 pandemic, some on new digital nomad visas introduced to help spur a growing startup scene.

But hours after prosecutors say he went out on a date on Dec. 10, he was calling family and friends back home to wire him $2,000, telling them he had been kidnapped and held for ransom. The next day, police found Xiong’s lifeless body with multiple stab wounds and bruises after being tossed off a 260-foot cliff along the side of a stream in a lush, wooded area of a city renowned for its eternal spring climate and rolling green hills.

Xiong is one of at least eight Americans who died in Colombia’s second-largest city in November and December amid dozens of cases involving male tourists who were held captive and robbed, often after meeting women on dating apps, Medellín officials said. The deaths, some after the victims were drugged, and a spike in attacks against foreigners led the U.S. Embassy in Colombia to issue an alert this month urging caution for U.S. citizens meeting people through online dating platforms.

In some of the deaths, which the U.S. Embassy deemed suspicious, American men were found dead in their hotel rooms or rented apartments after outings with local women. In other attacks, thugs robbed and killed them on the street while they were on dates…. Others are believed to have died from mixing heavy drinking and the kind of mind-altering drugs gangs slip into drinks to incapacitate a victim before robbery.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: colombia; crime; kidnapping; loneliness; onlinedating
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1 posted on 01/20/2024 7:14:10 AM PST by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

Note to self. Stay out of Columbia.


2 posted on 01/20/2024 7:16:16 AM PST by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: DoodleBob

Bruh wasn’t even here for one generation and he was ready to be an expat! 😂

We need at least a decade reprieve from ALL immigration. All illegals deported by whatever means necessary.


3 posted on 01/20/2024 7:18:58 AM PST by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
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To: DoodleBob

Fools. Everyone knows you go to Burma for love. 100% safe…


4 posted on 01/20/2024 7:19:32 AM PST by EEGator
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To: DoodleBob

Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places...


5 posted on 01/20/2024 7:21:03 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: EEGator

Well sure when it was called Burma. Myanmar on the other hand....


6 posted on 01/20/2024 7:24:53 AM PST by xp38
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To: DoodleBob
Luckily I've never been desperate enough for “companionship” to look for it in Columbia. Never been *nearly* desperate enough in fact.
7 posted on 01/20/2024 7:26:13 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: xp38

In my world it’s still Burma, and Pluto is still a planet.


8 posted on 01/20/2024 7:26:59 AM PST by EEGator
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To: dfwgator

It’s wookin Pa nub…


9 posted on 01/20/2024 7:27:38 AM PST by EEGator
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To: DoodleBob

There are some youtube videos where some dude explains how bad it is there, and gives advice on how to more efrecrively stay safe when dating there. He explains what to,watch out for- lots of scams there as the people in the poorer areas there are desperate and turn to crime .

Brazil can be pretty bad in Terms of scam crime too I guess- anyplace can be really, but some are pretty notorious for it I guess


10 posted on 01/20/2024 7:32:54 AM PST by Bob434
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To: EEGator
Burma
11 posted on 01/20/2024 7:33:13 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: Mark17

Columbia is a fine place to visit. Just do not visit Colombia.


12 posted on 01/20/2024 7:33:19 AM PST by The_Media_never_lie ( )
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To: EEGator

Lol- was that sung by wierd al?


13 posted on 01/20/2024 7:33:57 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Bob434

Not Weird Al, it was Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat on SNL


14 posted on 01/20/2024 7:37:21 AM PST by pburiak (You really think we can vote our way out of this? That’s so cute...)
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To: DoodleBob

I thought Columbia was supposed to be safe now and one of the top expat destinations for retiring like a king.

The Latin American paradises are always on the edge of dystopia, no matter how great they look in the brochures.


15 posted on 01/20/2024 7:39:20 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism.)
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To: DoodleBob

When hopping about the islands, Mon. Don’t forget Arrrubbba!


16 posted on 01/20/2024 7:39:29 AM PST by ArtDodger
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To: Gay State Conservative

Those guys are crazy. I wound up watching the Spam skit as well.


17 posted on 01/20/2024 7:42:42 AM PST by EEGator
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To: EEGator

I don’t remember seeing any Myanmar Shave billboards along the roadside.


18 posted on 01/20/2024 7:43:43 AM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (What is left around which to circle the wagons?)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave

https://www.usip.org/blog/2018/06/whats-name-burma-or-myanmar#:~:text=Changed%20by%20the%20military%20government,to%20use%20the%20name%20Burma.

I’ve decided that history stopped in 1997 for me.
I will only read books from before then, and watch movies before then as well.


19 posted on 01/20/2024 7:52:53 AM PST by EEGator
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To: EEGator; Bob434; dfwgator

20 posted on 01/20/2024 7:53:13 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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