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, Santander Department|Norte de Santander] and one in Saravena, Arauca, are detonated by the National [Liberation Army (Colombia)|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.