Some 25,000 people disappear in Colombia over 20 years

I traveled round Colombia earlier this year, and to be honest I thought it was a fantastic country my favourite out of all the South American countries I visited, there was no sign of violence where I went, I felt perfectly safe. I would encourage people to go and see for themselves, I am not denying there aren't problems such as kidnapping and drug trafficking but the media really paints a bad picture of the place. There's too many people with an opinion of the place who have never even been.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XQJhixfaMI&feature=related

And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtvGsYS0UM

For the sake of accuracy, could you please be aware that:

1. Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. On the other hand, Colombia is the 26th largest nation in the world and the fourth largest in South America.
2. Independence from Colonial Spain was won in 1819 by Venezuelan Simon Bolivar who founded  "Gran Colombia". This great country suffered a secession by 1830; Few nations emerged after that tragic partition: Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. By 1903, Panama separated from Colombia and became an independent country.
3. The Colombian Conservative and Liberal parties were founded in 1843 and 1848 respectively and long after the Independence from Spain and the secession of Gran Colombia. Both organisations remain to this day the oldest surviving political parties in the Americas. Sadly, they have resorted to violence to settle disputes on many occasions.
4. Despite the old rift of both Conservative and Liberal parties in Colombia, current violence and civil war dates back to the death of dissident political leader Jorge Gaitan (a former member of the Liberal Party) during his second presidential campaign in 1948. His death caused major civil confrontation and unrest in Colombia called the Bogotazo and La Violencia ( 1948 to 1958).

   His assassination directly lead to a period of great violence between conservatives and liberals and also facilitated the rise of the currently existing Communist guerrillas.(United Fruit Historical Society)[8] Over the next fifteen years as many as 200,000 people died due to the disorders that followed his assassination. (Bernsein 1965:138). Dr. Gaitán's alleged murderer, Juan Roa Sierra, was killed by an enraged mob and his motivations were never known.(Weyl 1960:18) Many different entities and individuals have been held responsible as the alleged plotters, including his different critics, but so far no definite information has come forward and a number of theories persist. Among them, there are versions which, sometimes conflictingly, implicate the government of Mariano Ospina Pérez, sectors of the Liberal party, the USSR(Weyl 1960:24) the Colombian Communist Party, the CIA and others in the crime.[1]

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

    
5. During the 60´s, Marxist guerrilla groups were formally created such as the FARC, ELN and M-19 to overcome the government and fight political elite. In reaction, Conservative righ wing created theri paramilitary groups.
6. Colombian drug cartels only sprang in the late 1970s. They became rather powerful and violent during the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, dug related crime and activities are rather new in Colombia and cannot be account as the only source of the disappearances quoted in this story.  

In conclusion the current political violence in Colombia is rather complex and dates back to the emergence of the drug cartels.