Ninety percent of reported disappearances in Colombia’s capital has proven to be a false alarm, the local police said Thursday.
According to the Bogota Police Department, of the last 1,007 reported disappearances some 900 proved to be false and in some cases staged for the reported victim to avoid debt payments or emotional issues.
“Economic problems — known or unknown to family, bad academic results — for which students prefer to run from home instead of telling their parents … the desire of adolescents to face the world alone, the use of drugs, and even to escape their partner” are reasons for Bogotanos to disappear, Police Major Marcela Casas told newspaper El Tiempo.
According to Colombia’s Coroner’s Office, in charge of monitoring disappearances and cases of forced disappearance, some 55,000 Colombians have been reported missing over the past decades.