In Colombia, chaotic capital gets lesson in ‘coexistence’
BOGOTA — Colombians are getting a lesson in manners in the form of a strict 120-page civil code, and nowhere is it causing more angst than in the country’s frenetic capital where jugglers and soda vendors snake through traffic, party buses throb into the night and street chaos reigns.
Playing loud music late at night is now punishable with a $125 fine. Not picking up dog poop: $30. Turnstile jumpers on public buses are being sent to a “coexistence course.”
“The code is a confirmation of the failure of family and school in the correct education of Colombians,” writer Alonso Sanchez opined in Semana, the country’s most prominent newsweekly.
The new rules, which are being applied across Colombia, are stringent enough that the mayor of Barranquilla recently filed a decree seeking temporary relief after realizing the coastal city’s annual carnival would be violating several codes prohibiting noisy parties.