1997 in Colombia

Incumbents

• President: Ernesto Samper Pizano.
• Vice President: Carlos Lemos Simmonds.

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. 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 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 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.
• 21 August – Misael Pastrana, lawyer and former Colombian president.