title: Werewolf

text: The phenomenon of repercussion, the power of animal metamorphosis, or of sending out a familiar, real or spiritual, as a messenger, and the supernormal powers conferred by association with such a familiar, are also attributed to the magician, male and female, all the world over; and witch superstitions are closely parallel to, if not identical with, lycanthropic beliefs, the occasional involuntary character of lycanthropy being almost the sole distinguishing feature. In another direction the phenomenon of repercussion is asserted to manifest itself in connection with the bush-soul of the West African and the "nagual" of Central America; but though there is no line of demarcation to be drawn on logical grounds, the assumed power of the magician and the intimate association of the bush-soul or the "nagual" with a human being are not termed lycanthropy.


title: Werewolf

text: The curse of lycanthropy was also considered by some scholars as being a divine punishment. Werewolf literature shows many examples of God or saints allegedly cursing those who invoked their wrath with lycanthropy. Such is the case of Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf by Zeus as punishment for slaughtering one of his own sons and serving his remains to the gods as a dinner. Those who were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church were also said to become werewolves.


title: Werewolf

text: The power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but to Christian saints as well. "Omnes angeli, boni et Mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra" ("All angels, good and bad, have the power of transmutating our bodies") was the dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh King Vereticus into a wolf; Natalis supposedly cursed an illustrious Irish family whose members were each doomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is even more direct, while in Russia, again, men supposedly became werewolves when incurring the wrath of the Devil.


title: Werewolf

text: A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of an 80-year-old man named Thiess. In 1692, in Jürgensburg, Livonia, Thiess testified under oath that he and other werewolves were the Hounds of God.


title: Werewolf

text: He claimed they were warriors who descended into hell to battle witches and demons. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was steadfast in his assertions, claiming that werewolves in Germany and Russia also did battle with the devil's minions in their own versions of hell, and insisted that when werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for idolatry and superstitious belief.


title: Werewolf

text: Various methods have existed for removing the werewolf form. In antiquity, the Ancient Greeks and Romans believed in the power of exhaustion in curing people of lycanthropy. The victim would be subjected to long periods of physical activity in the hope of being purged of the malady. This practice stemmed from the fact that many alleged werewolves would be left feeling weak and debilitated after committing depredations.


title: Werewolf

text: In medieval Europe, traditionally, there are three methods one can use to cure a victim of lycanthropy; medicinally (usually via the use of wolfsbane), surgically, or by exorcism. However, many of the cures advocated by medieval medical practitioners proved fatal to the patients. A Sicilian belief of Arabic origin holds that a werewolf can be cured of its ailment by striking it on the forehead or scalp with a knife. Another belief from the same culture involves the piercing of the werewolf's hands with nails. Sometimes, less extreme methods were used. In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name, while one Danish belief holds that merely scolding a werewolf will cure it. Conversion to Christianity is also a common method of removing lycanthropy in the medieval period; a devotion to St. Hubert has also been cited as both cure for and protection from lycanthropes.


title: Werewolf

text: Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers. In the same vein, in some rural areas of Germany, Poland and Northern France, it was once believed that people who died in mortal sin came back to life as blood-drinking wolves.


title: Werewolf

text: These "undead" werewolves would return to their human corpse form at daylight. They were dealt with by decapitation with a spade and exorcism by the parish priest. The head would then be thrown into a stream, where the weight of its sins was thought to weigh it down. Sometimes, the same methods used to dispose of ordinary vampires would be used. The vampire was also linked to the werewolf in East European countries, particularly Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia. In Serbia, the werewolf and vampire are known collectively as "vulkodlak".


title: Werewolf

text: In Hungarian folklore, the werewolves used to live specially in the region of Transdanubia, and it was thought that the ability to change into a wolf was obtained in the infant age, after the suffering of abuse by the parents or by a curse. At the age of seven the boy or the girl leaves the house, goes hunting by night and can change to a person or wolf whenever he wants. The curse can also be obtained when in the adulthood the person passed three times through an arch made of a Birch with the help of a wild rose's spine.


title: Werewolf

text: The werewolves were known to exterminate all kind of farm animals, especially sheep. The transformation usually occurred during the winter solstice, Easter and a full moon. Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary not only were conducted against witches, but against werewolves too, and many records exist creating connections between both kinds. Also the vampires and werewolves are closely related in Hungary, being both feared in the antiquity.


title: Werewolf

text: Among the South Slavs, and also among the ethnic Kashubian people in present-day northern Poland, there was the belief that if a child was born with hair, a birthmark or a caul on their head, they were supposed to possess shapeshifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf.


title: Werewolf

text: Serbian "vukodlak"s traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolf skins and hang them from trees. They would then get a hold of another "vulkodlak"s skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the "vukodlak" from whom the skin came.


title: Werewolf

text: According to Armenian lore, there are women who, in consequence of deadly sins, are condemned to spend seven years in wolf form. In a typical account, a condemned woman is visited by a wolfskin-toting spirit, who orders her to wear the skin, which causes her to acquire frightful cravings for human flesh soon after. With her better nature overcome, the she-wolf devours each of her own children, then her relatives' children in order of relationship, and finally the children of strangers. She wanders only at night, with doors and locks springing open at her approach. When morning arrives, she reverts to human form and removes her wolfskin. The transformation is generally said to be involuntary, but there are alternate versions involving voluntary metamorphosis, where the women can transform at will.


title: Werewolf

text: The Naskapis believed that the caribou afterlife is guarded by giant wolves which kill careless hunters venturing too near. The Navajo people feared witches in wolf's clothing called "Mai-cob".


title: Werewolf

text: When the European colonization of the Americas occurred, the pioneers brought their own werewolf folklore with them and were later influenced by the lore of their neighbouring colonies and those of the Natives. Belief in the "loup-garou" present in Canada (thence Acadiana), the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan and upstate New York, originates from French folklore influenced by Native American stories on the Wendigo. In Mexico, there is a belief in a creature called the "nagual". In Haiti, there is a superstition that werewolf spirits known locally as "Jé-rouge" (red eyes) can possess the bodies of unwitting persons and nightly transform them into cannibalistic lupine creatures. The Haitian "jé-rouges" typically try to trick mothers into giving away their children voluntarily by waking them at night and asking their permission to take their child, to which the disoriented mother may either reply yes or no. The Haitian "jé-rouges" differ from traditional European werewolves by their habit of actively trying to spread their lycanthropic condition to others, much like vampires.


title: Werewolf

text: Most modern fiction describes werewolves as vulnerable to silver weapons and highly resistant to other injuries. This feature appears in German folklore of the 19th century. The claim that the Beast of Gévaudan, an 18th-century wolf or wolflike creature, was shot by a silver bullet appears to have been introduced by novelists retelling the story from 1935 onwards and not in earlier versions. English folklore, prior to 1865, showed shapeshifters to be vulnerable to silver. "...till the publican shot a silver button over their heads when they were instantly transformed into two ill-favoured old ladies..." c. 1640 the city of Greifswald, Germany was infested by werewolves. "A clever lad suggested that they gather all their silver buttons, goblets, belt buckles, and so forth, and melt them down into bullets for their muskets and pistols. ... this time they slaughtered the creatures and rid Greifswald of the lycanthropes."


title: Werewolf

text: The 1897 novel "Dracula" and the short story "Dracula's Guest", both written by Bram Stoker, drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy". In "Dracula's Guest," a band of military horsemen coming to the aid of the protagonist chase off Dracula, depicted as a great wolf stating the only way to kill it is by a "Sacred Bullet". This is also mentioned in the main novel Dracula as well. Count Dracula stated in the novel that legends of werewolves originated from his Szekely racial bloodline, who himself is also depicted with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf at will during the night but is unable to do so during the day except at noon.


title: Werewolf

text: The 1928 novel "The Wolf's Bride: A Tale from Estonia", written by the Finnish author Aino Kallas, tells story of the forester Priidik's wife Aalo living in Hiiumaa in the 17th century, who became a werewolf under the influence of a malevolent forest spirit, also known as "Diabolus Sylvarum".


title: Werewolf

text: The first feature film to use an anthropomorphic werewolf was "Werewolf of London" in 1935. The main werewolf of this film is a dapper London scientist who retains some of his style and most of his human features after his transformation, as lead actor Henry Hull was unwilling to spend long hours being made up by makeup artist Jack Pierce. Universal Studios drew on a Balkan tale of a plant associated with lycanthropy as there was no literary work to draw upon, unlike the case with vampires. There is no reference to silver nor other aspects of werewolf lore such as cannibalism.


title: Werewolf

text: A more tragic character is Lawrence Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941's "The Wolf Man". With Pierce's makeup more elaborate this time, the movie catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness. Sympathetic portrayals are few but notable, such as the comedic but tortured protagonist David Naughton in "An American Werewolf in London", and a less anguished and more confident and charismatic Jack Nicholson in the 1994 film "Wolf". Over time, the depiction of werewolves has gone from fully malevolent to even heroic creatures, such as in the "Underworld" and "Twilight" series, as well as "Blood Lad", "Dance in the Vampire Bund", "Rosario + Vampire", and various other movies, anime, manga, and comic books.


title: Werewolf

text: Other werewolves are decidedly more willful and malevolent, such as those in the novel "The Howling" and its subsequent sequels and film adaptations. The form a werewolf assumes was generally anthropomorphic in early films such as "The Wolf Man" and "Werewolf of London", but a larger and powerful wolf in many later films.


title: Werewolf

text: Werewolves are often depicted as immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver objects, such as a silver-tipped cane, bullet or blade; this attribute was first adopted cinematically in "The Wolf Man". This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involves lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like an infectious disease by the bite of another werewolf. In some fiction, the power of the werewolf extends to human form, such as invulnerability to conventional injury due to their healing factor, superhuman speed and strength and falling on their feet from high falls. Also aggressiveness and animalistic urges may be intensified and more difficult to control (hunger, sexual arousal). Usually in these cases the abilities are diminished in human form. In other fiction it can be cured by medicine men or antidotes.


title: Werewolf

text: Along with the vulnerability to the silver bullet, the full moon being the cause of the transformation only became part of the depiction of werewolves on a widespread basis in the twentieth century. The first movie to feature the transformative effect of the full moon was "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" in 1943.


title: Werewolf

text: The video game The Quarry greatly altered the transformation process of the werewolf. In the game, a character infected by a werewolf will eventually transform instantly into a werewolf as their body seems to explode. At the end of the full moon night, they will revert to their human form in a similar manner.


title: Werewolf

text: Werewolves are typically envisioned as "working-class" monsters, often being low in socio-economic status, although they can represent a variety of social classes and at times were seen as a way of representing "aristocratic decadence" during 19th century horror literature.


title: Werewolf

text: Nazi Germany used "Werwolf", as the mythical creature's name is spelled in German, in 1942–43 as the codename for one of Hitler's headquarters. In the war's final days, the Nazi "Operation Werwolf" aimed at creating a commando force that would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself.


title: Werewolf

text: Two fictional depictions of "Operation Werwolf"—the US television series "True Blood" and the 2012 novel "Wolf Hunter" by J. L. Benét—mix the two meanings of "Werwolf" by depicting the 1945 diehard Nazi commandos as being actual werewolves.


title: Verne Troyer

text: Verne Jay Troyer (January 1, 1969 – April 21, 2018) was an American actor, comedian, YouTuber, and stunt performer. He was best known for his role of Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" film series. He had cartilage–hair hypoplasia and was tall.


title: Verne Troyer

text: Verne Jay Troyer was born in Sturgis, Michigan, on January 1, 1969, the son of Susan, a factory worker, and Reuben Troyer, a repair technician. He had two siblings, Davon and Deborah. He stated that his parents "never treated me any different than my other average-sized siblings. I used to have to carry wood, feed the cows and pigs and farm animals." Troyer was initially raised Amish, but his parents left the faith when he was a child. During his childhood, Troyer spent much time visiting Amish relatives in Centreville, Michigan. He graduated in 1987 from Centreville High School, where a plaque was dedicated to him in 2003.


title: Verne Troyer

text: Troyer's film career began when a former president of Little People of America contacted him, looking for someone to serve as a stunt double for the infant character "Baby Bink" in John Hughes' film "Baby's Day Out" (1994). He gained further work as a stunt double with some minor comedic roles in several films of the 1990s, including "Dunston Checks In", "Jingle All the Way" (both 1996), "Men in Black" (1997), and "My Giant" (1998).


title: Verne Troyer

text: He first met with Jay Roach to discuss portraying Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" series, directed by Roach and starring co-creator Mike Myers, before filming for the series' second film began. Myers was impressed with Troyer's performance, rewriting the script for "" (1999) to give Mini-Me more screen time and remove the character's death. Troyer reprised the role three years later in "Austin Powers in Goldmember" (2002), and collaborated again with Myers on "The Love Guru" (2008).


title: Verne Troyer

text: After reaching a large audience as Mini-Me, Troyer portrayed Griphook in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001), and played the role of Percy in Terry Gilliam's fantasy film "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009). He also made several appearances as himself in reality television series, including "The Surreal Life" (2005), "Welcome to Sweden" (2007), and the sixth season of the British "Celebrity Big Brother" (2009).


title: Verne Troyer

text: On June 25, 2008, a private home video was leaked of Troyer and his former live-in girlfriend Ranae Shrider having sex. The video, recorded in 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, and Shrider's hometown of Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, was leaked to the public by Shrider and TMZ. Kevin Blatt, the man responsible for brokering the deal for Paris Hilton's sex tape in 2003, tried to sell the video. Troyer, through his long-time attorney, Ed McPherson, sued TMZ, Blatt, and online rental company SugarDVD, for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.


title: Verne Troyer

text: In May 2015, Troyer, his girlfriend Brittney Powell, and her son Tyson appeared on "Celebrity Wife Swap", where she switched places with Hines Ward's wife.


title: Verne Troyer

text: In early April 2018, Troyer was admitted to a hospital after an incident in his home. He had previously been admitted to rehab to undergo treatment for alcoholism.


title: Verne Troyer

text: Troyer died at a hospital in Los Angeles on April 21, 2018, aged 49. His death was later ruled a suicide by alcohol poisoning. He was interred in Leonidas Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: Jill Casey DeSantis ("née" Black, born June 26, 1980) is an American former news and television show host who is the first lady of Florida. She is the wife of the 46th governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: Jill Casey Black was born on June 26, 1980, in Troy, Ohio. She graduated from the College of Charleston, where she received a Bachelor of Science in economics, with a minor in French.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: Early in her career DeSantis hosted the Golf Channel programs "On The Tee" and "PGA Tour Today". She was also a local newscaster and anchor for WJXT, an independent station in Jacksonville, Florida. She held several positions there, including general assignment reporter, morning anchor, and police reporter. She also did special reports, including for CNN.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: In 2014, DeSantis was a creator-moderator for "The Chat", an hour-long round table panel discussion talk show that aired on Tegna's Jacksonville stations WTLV (NBC) and WJXX (ABC). She hosted the daily local talk show "First Coast Living" as well as the weekly "The American Dream" program about entrepreneurs. DeSantis wrote and produced the television documentary "Champion, The JT Townsend Story" about high school football player J.T. Townsend. She also won a regional Suncoast Emmy Award.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: In 2018 Florida Politics called Casey "one of the most recognizable faces on Jacksonville television, with long runs at two local news operations."


title: Casey DeSantis

text: In February 2019, DeSantis established the First Lady's Medal for Courage, Commitment, and Service. Soon after, she announced Florida's 2019 Black History Month theme as "Celebrating Public Service" where she and the governor honored the winners of Florida's Black History Month student contests and Excellence in Education Award recipients at the Governor's Mansion. DeSantis recognized Mary Ann Carroll, the only female member of The Highwaymen, as Florida's featured artist for the month.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: DeSantis participated in a Recovery Redfish Release to address the impacts of red tide. "I've heard from those throughout Florida who understand that our water must be safe for our families, visitors and economy." DeSantis has hosted listening sessions on Venezuela, hurricane relief, and mental health.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: In August 2019, DeSantis presided over the first meeting of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet as its chair.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: She met Ron DeSantis, then a naval officer at Naval Station Mayport, on a golf course. They married in September 2010. They have three children together; two daughters and a son.


title: Casey DeSantis

text: On October 4, 2021, her husband announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. On March 3, 2022, he announced that she was cancer free.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American entrepreneur, businessman and author. Kiyosaki is the founder of Rich Global LLC and the Rich Dad Company, a private financial education company that provides personal finance and business education to people through books and videos. The company's main revenues come from franchisees of the Rich Dad seminars that are conducted by independent individuals using Kiyosaki's brand name for a fee. He is also the creator of the Cashflow board and software games to educate adults and children about business and financial concepts.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki is the author of more than 26 books, including the international self-published personal finance "Rich Dad Poor Dad" series of books which has been translated into 51 languages and sold over 41 million copies worldwide. He has been criticized for advocating practices of debatable legality perceived as "get rich quick" philosophy. Kiyosaki is the subject of a class action suit filed by people who attended his seminars and has been the subject of two investigative documentaries by CBC Canada and WTAE USA. Kiyosaki's company, Rich Global LLC, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: In 1993, Kiyosaki published his first book, "If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go To School". In his book, he encouraged parents not to send their children to college and instead to enter the real estate business.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: In 1997, Kiyosaki launched Cashflow Technologies, Inc., a business and financial education company that owns and operates the "Rich Dad" and "Cashflow" brands.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki's earlier two businesses (for surfing bags with Velcro fasteners and T-shirts) went bankrupt. In an interview with CBC, Kiyosaki described his books as an advertisement for his higher-priced seminars. In 2012, Kiyosaki's company "Rich Global LLC" filed for bankruptcy and was ordered to pay nearly $24 million to the Learning Annex and its founder.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki operates through a number of companies that he owns fully or in part, and through franchisee arrangements with other companies authorized to use his name for a fee. This includes Rich Dad LLC, Whitney Information Network, Rich Dad Education and Rich Dad Academy.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki's financial and business teachings focus on what he calls "financial education": generating passive income by focusing on business and investment opportunities, such as real estate investments, businesses, stocks and commodities, with the goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone and thus achieving true financial independence.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki uses the term "assets" for things that put money in one's pocket. He stresses the importance of building up an asset first to fund one's liabilities instead of saving cash or relying on a salary from a traditional job.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki endorsed and supported Republican candidate Donald Trump for the 2016 presidential elections. Kiyosaki also co-authored two books with Trump.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: In 2010, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did an exposé on scams that were being perpetuated by Kiyosaki's company in Canada in the guise of seminars. Upon tracking the success claims of "Rich Dad" seminar organizers, they discovered that these claims were not true. Investments in trailers and trailer parks, which were being propagated as "successful" by seminar teachers, were found to actually be barren pieces of land that no one was using.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: Kiyosaki's advice has been criticized for emphasizing anecdotes and containing nothing in the way of concrete advice on how readers should proceed or work.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: In 2006 and 2007, Kiyosaki's Rich Dad seminars continued to promote real estate as a sound investment, just before their prices came crashing down.


title: Robert Kiyosaki

text: In 2010, Allan Roth of CBS News documented what occurred when he attended one of Rich Dad's free seminars and dissected some of the tactics employed. The Marketplace exposé on his seminars in Canada showed what occurred in $450 seminars through a hidden camera including Kiyosaki's response to them.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Deborah Jeanne Rowe (born December 6, 1958) is an American dermatology assistant best known for her marriage to pop musician Michael Jackson, with whom she had two children. She lives in Palmdale, California.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Debbie Rowe was born on December 6th, 1958 in Spokane, Washington, the daughter of Barbara Chilcutt and Gordon Rowe. Her father divorced her mother a few weeks before her second birthday. She was raised by her mother, a few aunts, and her maternal grandmother.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Rowe first married Richard Edelman in 1982 and converted to Judaism. The couple divorced six years later in 1988.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Rowe met Michael Jackson while working as an assistant in Arnold Klein's dermatology office, where Jackson was being treated for vitiligo. She recalled that after Jackson's divorce from Lisa Marie Presley in 1996, he was upset that he might not become a father. Rowe, a longtime Jackson fan, proposed to bear his children. In an interview with "Playboy", Lisa Marie stated that she knew at the time that she and Jackson were married that Rowe wanted to have his children and that Rowe had "a crush on him".


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Rowe had suffered a miscarriage in 1996 which devasted her. Jackson consoled her the whole way through and it was announced Rowe was pregnant again in 1996; the two were married on November 14, 1996, in Sydney, Australia.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Rowe had a son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (born February 13, 1997, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles), who was subsequently nicknamed Prince. The next year she gave birth to a daughter, Paris Jackson (born April 3, 1998, at Spaulding Pain Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles). Rowe later stated that she had been artificially inseminated and never had sex with Jackson. Jackson took full responsibility for raising the children.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Rowe, who described herself as a private person and almost never gave interviews, was overwhelmed by the publicity that came with being married to Jackson. The couple divorced in April 2000, and Rowe gave full custody rights of the children to Jackson. Rowe received a US$8 million settlement and a house in Beverly Hills, California. Court documents indicated she had signed a prenuptial agreement and therefore could not obtain an equal division of community property under California law.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: In 2001, Rowe went to a private judge to have her parental rights for the two children terminated. In 2004, after Jackson was charged with 10 counts of child abuse, she went to court to have the decision reversed. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rowe, who is Jewish, sought the reversal in part because she feared the nanny and some of Jackson's siblings were exposing the children to teachings of the Nation of Islam. Court documents from 2005 noted that "[b]ecause she is Jewish, Deborah feared the children might be mistreated if Michael continued the association." On the stand, in the 2005 People v. Jackson case, she explained that she had been granted limited visits to her children, for eight hours every 45 days.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: In 2005, Rowe sold her Beverly Hills house for $1.3 million and bought a ranch in Palmdale. In 2006, she sued Jackson for one immediate payment of $195,000 and one payment of $50,000 to pursue a child custody case. Jackson was ordered to pay her $60,000 in legal fees.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: Following Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, Rowe made statements through her attorney to deny a series of gossip reports, including reports that she was not the children's biological mother and that she was attempting to bargain her parental rights for money.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: In July 2009, she filed a lawsuit for defamation and invasion of privacy against a source who handed over alleged private e-mails to the television entertainment news program "Extra", and on March 3, 2010, she was successful in the defamation lawsuit. She was awarded $27,000 in damages, although she had originally sought $500,000.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: In August 2009, Rowe reached a settlement with Katherine Jackson, the children's guardian, under which Rowe has rights to supervised visitations.


title: Debbie Rowe

text: In April 2014, Rowe announced on "Entertainment Tonight" that she was engaged to music producer and former Neverland Ranch videographer Marc Schaffel, who worked with Jackson on his 9/11 charity single "What More Can I Give". Schaffel was the sole Jackson employee who was permitted access to visit Rowe following their divorce in 1999 and he assisted Rowe with her health problems.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Antonio Rüdiger (born 3 March 1993) is a German professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Germany national team.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger began his career at VfB Stuttgart, representing their reserves in 3. Liga and the first team in the Bundesliga. In 2015 he joined Roma, initially on loan and a year later for a €9 million fee. He was signed by Chelsea in 2017 for an estimated £27 million, where he won the FA Cup in his first season, followed by the UEFA Europa League in his second season, and the UEFA Champions League in 2021. In 2022, Rüdiger signed for European champions Real Madrid.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: He made his international debut for Germany in May 2014. He was forced to miss UEFA Euro 2016 due to an injury suffered earlier in the season but he was part of the squad that won the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. He kept his spot in the squad for the 2018 World Cup, and later also took part at UEFA Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 23 July 2011, Rüdiger made his debut for VfB Stuttgart II in the 3. Liga against Arminia Bielefeld. Subsequently on 29 January 2012, Rüdiger made his Bundesliga debut for VfB Stuttgart's first team in a home professional match against Borussia Mönchengladbach, he was replaced by Raphael Holzhauser in the 79th minute of a 3–0 defeat.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: The following year in April 2013, Rüdiger extended his contract with Stuttgart until June 2017. On 1 June, he played in the final of the DFB-Pokal in a match lost 3–2 against Bayern Munich. He finished his second season in the first team with 24 appearances, plus 4 appearances and 2 goals in the reserve team.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger finished the 2013–14 season with 35 appearances and 2 goals. He finished the following season with only 20 appearances and one assist due to various injuries.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 19 August 2015, Serie A club Roma signed Rüdiger on loan from Stuttgart for €4 million. The clubs agreed on an optional €9 million transfer fee at the end of the one-year contract.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 12 September, he made his debut in a 2–0 away win over Frosinone. On 9 January 2016 he scored his first goal for Roma in the 4th minute of a 1–1 home draw against Milan. He finished his season-long loan to Roma with 37 appearances and 2 goals. On 30 May, Roma officially signed Rüdiger from for €9 million + €0.5m bonuses on a four-year contract.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 23 February 2017, as a substitute replacing Kostas Manolas in the 46th minute of a 1–0 home defeat against Villarreal in the round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League, he was sent off with a double yellow card in the 81st minute. On 30 April he was sent off with a red card in the 93rd minute in Derby della Capitale against Lazio in a 3–1 home defeat. Rüdiger finished his second season at Roma with 35 appearances and four assists.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 9 July 2017, Rüdiger joined Chelsea from Roma for a reported initial fee of £29 million on a five-year deal. He was given the number 2 shirt. He made his debut on 6 August as a substitute replacing Marcos Alonso in the 79th minute in a 4–1 loss on penalties to Arsenal in the 2017 FA Community Shield. He made his Premier League debut six days later in a 3–2 defeat against Burnley at Stamford Bridge. He scored his first goal for Chelsea in the round of 16 of the EFL Cup in a 2–1 win over Everton, and his first league goal was the only one of a home win over Swansea City on 29 November 2017. On 20 October 2018, Rüdiger scored his first goal of the season, opening the scoring in a 2–2 home draw against Manchester United.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 22 December 2019, Rüdiger made a complaint about racist abuse directed against him during the away match against Tottenham Hotspur, which received wide media coverage. It prompted a call for government action on racism in football. However, no evidence of racist abuse against Rüdiger was found after a police investigation with the police eventually dismissing the case.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On his 100th club appearance, he scored Chelsea's two goals, both headers assisted by Mason Mount in a 2–2 draw against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on 1 February 2020. On 29 May 2021, Rüdiger won his first-ever UEFA Champions League after Chelsea beat Manchester City 1–0 in the final at the Estádio do Dragão. On 12 April 2022, he scored his first Champions League goal in a 3–2 away win over Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the 2021–22 season; however, Chelsea were eliminated from the competition by losing 5–4 on aggregate. On 20 May, Rüdiger announced officially that he would leave Chelsea after five years.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: On 2 June 2022, Real Madrid announced that Rüdiger signed as a free agent for the club, penning a four-year deal starting with the 2022–23 season. On 20 June 2022, Rüdiger was unveiled as a new Real Madrid player. He was given the number 22 shirt. On 10 August, he made his debut for the club, coming off the bench in a 2–0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup. His first goal came on 11 September 2022, scoring the last goal in a 4–1 win over Mallorca. On 11 October, he scored a header in the 95th minute against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League group stage, which allowed his side to draw 1–1 and qualify for the knockout phase. While jumping for the header, Rüdiger collided with Shakhtar goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin and sustained a cut to the face that required 20 stitches.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger was eligible to play for Germany and Sierra Leone, his mother's homeland and was a member of the several German national youth football teams up to the Germany U21 team.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: He made his debut for the German national senior team on 13 May 2014 in a 0–0 draw against Poland. Although he was initially included in his nation's 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016, Rüdiger was later ruled out of the tournament due to injury, after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a training session on 7 June.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger was part of the German national squad which won the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. He played four matches in the tournament, including the 1–0 win over Chile in the final. On 8 October 2017, he headed his first international goal in a 5–1 home win over Azerbaijan in World Cup qualifying.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger was included in Germany's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 4 June 2018. On 23 June, he was picked up for the second group stage match against Sweden as first choice centre-back Mats Hummels suffered an injury, the game ended 2–1 win for Germany. Four days later, he did not play the last group stage match and his side were knocked out by South Korea after a 2–0 defeat. On 19 May 2021, Rüdiger was selected to the squad for the UEFA Euro 2020. He played every minute in the tournament for Germany as they were eliminated by England in the round of 16.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Normally a centre-back, Rüdiger is a versatile defender, who is also capable of playing as a full-back on either flank. In 2015, "ESPN" described him as a "...tall, quick and athletic defender who is ... comfortable with the ball at his feet", also touting him as an "interesting prospect" who "...has all the necessary physical attributes to become a top-level centre-back." His Chelsea profile also describes him as a "tough tackler" and a "commanding presence in the air." In addition to his strong physical attributes and aggressive playing style, he is also known for his leadership qualities and passing ability.


title: Antonio Rüdiger

text: Rüdiger is a practising Muslim. He was born in Berlin to a black German father, Matthias, and a Sierra Leonean mother, Lily. He grew up in the Berlin neighbourhood of Neukölln and is the half-brother of Sahr Senesie. Rüdiger has often spoken out on racism in the sport, most notably after a match against Tottenham Hotspur on 24 February 2020. In 2021, he wrote an article for "The Players' Tribune", entitled "This Article Will Not Solve Racism in Football," on the subject, discussing his experiences with racism throughout his life and career, and potential ways to fight it. He is married with a son and daughter.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: The Ring is a 2002 American supernatural horror film directed by Gore Verbinski from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, and Daveigh Chase. It is a remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 Japanese horror film "Ring", based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel of the same name. Watts portrays a journalist who investigates a haunted videotape that seemingly murders the viewer seven days after viewing it.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: "The Ring" was released theatrically on October 18, 2002, and received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the atmosphere, visuals, and Watts's performance. The film grossed over $249 million worldwide on a $48 million production budget, making it one of the highest-grossing horror remakes. It is the first installment of the English-language "Ring" series, and is followed by "The Ring Two" (2005) and "Rings" (2017).


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: "The Ring" paved the way for English-language remakes of Asian horror films, such as "The Grudge" and "Dark Water".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Teenage girls Katie and Becca discuss an urban myth about a haunted videotape that causes whoever watches it to perish in seven days. Katie confesses that she viewed just such a tape with her friends the previous week. That night, Katie is murdered by an unseen force.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: At Katie's funeral, Katie's mom Ruth asks her sister Rachel, a Seattle journalist, to investigate the death. Rachel discovers that Katie's friends were killed in bizarre accidents on the night of her death. She also learns that Becca has been institutionalized after witnessing Katie's death. Rachel goes to Shelter Mountain Inn, the mountain retreat where Katie and her friends watched the tape. She rents the same cabin and watches the tape; it contains strange and frightening imagery. After the tape ends, she receives a phone call from an unknown caller who whispers, "seven days".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Rachel recruits the help of her video analyst ex-boyfriend Noah. He watches the tape and Rachel makes him a copy so they can both investigate where it came from. Rachel begins to see images from the tape appear in the real world. She discovers hidden imagery of a lighthouse and identifies a woman on the tape: a horse breeder, Anna Morgan, who killed herself after some of her horses drowned themselves off Moesko Island. Rachel finds their son, Aidan, watching the tape.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Leaving Aidan in Ruth's care, Rachel heads for Moesko Island to speak to Anna's widower, Richard, while Noah travels to Eola Psychiatric Hospital to view Anna's medical files. On the ferry to the island, a horse is spooked by Rachel and leaps to its death. On the island, she discovers Anna had an adopted girl, Samara, but Richard claims it is not true. Rachel speaks to the island physician, who explains that Anna adopted Samara due to her infertility. Samara possessed the ability to psychically etch images onto objects and into peoples minds, tormenting her parents and their horses. Noah finds a psychiatric file on Samara which mentions a missing video record last seen by Richard.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Returning to the Morgan home, Rachel finds the missing video, watching it to discover Samara explaining her powers during a therapy session. Discovering Rachel, Richard strikes her and then electrocutes himself in the bath, insisting that Samara is malevolent, and that Rachel's actions have put them all in danger. Noah arrives and he and Rachel enter the barn. In a loft converted to a bedroom to isolate Samara from her mom, they find an image of a tree behind the wallpaper; Rachel recognizes it as a tree at the Shelter Mountain Inn.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Rachel returns with Noah to the cabin at Shelter Mountain Inn, where they are led to a well beneath the floorboards. They remove the lid and Rachel is pushed inside. A hand grabs her, and Rachel experiences a vision of Anna choking and dumping Samara into the well, where she survived for seven days. Samara's body surfaces from the water. After Rachel is rescued from the well, they arrange a proper burial for Samara. Noah tells Rachel that they are now safe as more than seven days have passed since she watched the tape.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Aidan warns Rachel that it was a mistake to try to help Samara. Rachel realizes that Noah's seven days are up and rushes to save him, but the vengeful ghost of Samara materializes on his TV screen, crawls out of it and murders him. Rachel finds his disfigured body and returns home to destroy the videotape. Unable to deduce why she was spared; she realizes that the videotape seen by Noah and Aidan was a copy she'd created. Rachel has Aidan make a copy of the copy to show to someone else, saving him from Samara.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: "The Ring" went into production without a completed script. Ehren Kruger wrote three drafts of the screenplay before Scott Frank came on to do an uncredited rewrite. Verbinski was initially inspired to do a remake of "Ring" after Walter F. Parkes sent him a VHS copy of the original Japanese film, which he described as "intriguing", "pulp" and "avant-garde".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: The original WGA-approved credits listed Hiroshi Takahashi (writer of the original 1998 screenplay for "Ring") but his name is absent from the final print.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Several actresses were offered the role of Rachel Keller, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Connelly and Kate Beckinsale. Verbinski admitted to not wanting to cast "big stars" as he wanted his film to be "discovered" and describes the wave of harsh criticism from hardcore fans of the original Japanese film as "inevitable", although he expressed desire for them to find the remake equally compelling. He also sought to retain the minimalism prevalent throughout "Ring" and set it in Seattle, due to its "wet and isolated" atmosphere.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: "The Ring" was shot in 2001, primarily in Washington state in numerous locations, including Seattle, Port Townsend, Whidbey Island, Bellingham, Monroe, and Stanwood. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon was also used as a filming location, as well as Oregon's Columbia River Gorge.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: As with the original Japanese film "Ring", the title of "The Ring" can be interpreted as referring to the phone call which warns those who watch the cursed video tape that they will die in seven days, as well as to the view of the ring of light seen from the bottom of the well where Samara was left to die.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: The film features an original score composed by Hans Zimmer (who would later collaborate on Gore Verbinski's other works). The soundtrack release did not coincide with the film's theatrical run. It was released in 2005, accompanying "The Ring Two" in an album that combined music from both "The Ring" and "The Ring Two". The soundtrack contains a few themes associated with the characters, moods, and locations, including multiple uses of the Dies Irae theme. The score makes use of string instruments, pianos, and synthesizers.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: To advertise "The Ring", many promotional websites were formed featuring characters and places in the film. The video from the cursed videotape was played in late-night programming over the summer of 2002 without any reference to the film. Physical VHS copies were also randomly distributed outside of movie theaters by placing the tapes on the windshields of people's cars.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: "The Ring" opened theatrically in the United States on October 18, 2002, on 1,981 screens, and grossed $15,015,393 during its opening weekend. The film went on to become a sleeper hit, leading DreamWorks to expand its release to 700 additional theaters. It ultimately grossed $129,128,133 in the United States. In Japan, the film earned $8.3 million in the first two weeks of its release. Worldwide, the film grossed a total of $249,348,933.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 207 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "With little gore and a lot of creepy visuals, "The Ring" gets under your skin, thanks to director Gore Verbinski's haunting sense of atmosphere and an impassioned performance from Naomi Watts". Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: On "Ebert & Roeper", Richard Roeper gave the film "Thumbs Up" and said it was very gripping and scary despite some minor unanswered questions. Roger Ebert gave the film "Thumbs Down" and felt it was boring and "borderline ridiculous"; he also disliked the extended, detailed ending. "IGN"s Jeremy Conrad praised the movie for its atmospheric set up and cinematography, and said that "there are disturbing images ... but the film doesn't really rely on gore to deliver the scares". "Film Threat"s Jim Agnew called it dark, disturbing and original.


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: Despite the praise given to the direction, some criticized the characters. The "Chicago Reader"s Jonathan Rosenbaum said that the film was "an utter waste of Watts… perhaps because the script didn't bother to give her a character", whereas William Arnold from "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" disagreed, claiming that she projects intelligence, determination and resourcefulness in the film. Several critics, like "Miami Herald"s Rene Rodriguez and "USA Today"s Claudia Puig, found themselves confused and thought "for all the time [the film] spends explaining, it still doesn't make much sense".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: The success of "The Ring" opened the way for American remakes of several other J-horror and Asian horror films, including "The Grudge", "Dark Water", "Shutter", and "The Eye".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: The film ranked number 20 on the cable channel Bravo's list of "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". Bloody Disgusting ranked the film sixth in their list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", with the article saying that ""The Ring" was not only the first American 'J-Horror' remake out of the gate; it also still stands as the best".


title: The Ring (2002 film)

text: A sequel, "The Ring Two", was released in 2005. A short film titled "Rings" was also released in 2005, and is set between "The Ring" and "The Ring Two". A third installment, also titled "Rings", was released in 2017.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá (, , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest cities in the world. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not part of, the surrounding department of Cundinamarca. Bogotá is a territorial entity of the first order, with the same administrative status as the departments of Colombia. It is the political, economic, administrative, and industrial center of the country.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá was founded as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada on 6 August 1538 by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada after a harsh expedition into the Andes conquering the Muisca, the indigenous inhabitants of the Altiplano. Santafé (its name after 1540) became the seat of the government of the Spanish Royal Audiencia of the New Kingdom of Granada (created in 1550), and then after 1717 it was the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. After the Battle of Boyacá on 7 August 1819, Bogotá became the capital of the independent nation of Gran Colombia. It was Simón Bolívar who rebaptized the city with the name of Bogotá, as a way of honoring the Muisca people and as an emancipation act towards the Spanish crown. Hence, since the Viceroyalty of New Granada's independence from the Spanish Empire and during the formation of present-day Colombia, Bogotá has remained the capital of this territory.


title: Bogotá

text: The city is located in the center of Colombia, on a high plateau known as the Bogotá savanna, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes. Bogotá is the third-highest capital in South America and in the world after Quito and La Paz, at an average of above sea level. Subdivided into 20 localities, Bogotá has an area of and a relatively cool climate that is constant through the year.


title: Bogotá

text: The city is home to central offices of the executive branch (Office of the President), the legislative branch (Congress of Colombia) and the judicial branch (Supreme Court of Justice, Constitutional Court, Council of State and the Superior Council of Judicature) of the Colombian government. Bogotá stands out for its economic strength and associated financial maturity, its attractiveness to global companies and the quality of human capital. It is the financial and commercial heart of Colombia, with the most business activity of any city in the country. The capital hosts the main financial market in Colombia and the Andean natural region, and is the leading destination for new foreign direct investment projects coming into Latin America and Colombia. It has the highest nominal GDP in the country, responsible for almost a quarter of the nation's total (24.7%).


title: Bogotá

text: The city's airport, El Dorado International Airport, named after the mythical "El Dorado", handles the largest cargo volume in Latin America, and is third in number of people. Bogotá is home to the largest number of universities and research centers in the country, and is an important cultural center, with many theaters, libraries and museums. Bogotá ranks 52nd on the Global Cities Index 2014, and is considered a global city type "Beta +" by GaWC.


title: Bogotá

text: The name of Bogotá corresponds to the Spanish pronunciation of the Chibcha "Bacatá" (or Muyquytá) which was the name of a neighboring settlement located between the modern towns of Funza and Cota. There are different opinions about the meaning of the word Muyquytá, the most accepted being that it means "walling of the farmland" in the Chibcha language. Another popular translation argues that it means "The Lady of the Andes". Further, the word 'Andes' in the Aymara language means "shining mountain", thus rendering the full lexical signification of Bogotá as "The Lady of the shining mountain" (notice, however, that the language of the Muisca people was not Aymara but Chibcha). Others suggest that Bacatá was the name of the Muisca cacique who governed the land before the Spaniards arrived. Jiménez de Quesada gave the settlement the name of "Our Lady of Hope" but the Spanish crown gave it the name of Santafé (Holy Faith) in 1540 when it was appointed as a city. The Muisca, the indigenous inhabitants of the region, called the place on which the city was founded "Thybzaca" or "Old Town".


title: Bogotá

text: The area of modern Bogotá was first populated by groups of indigenous people who migrated south based on the relation with the other Chibcha languages; the Bogotá savanna was the southernmost Chibcha-speaking group that exists from Nicaragua to the Andes in Colombia. The civilization built by the Muisca, who settled in the valleys and fertile highlands of and surrounding the Altiplano Cundiboyacense (modern-day departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá and small parts of Santander), was one of the great civilizations in the Americas. The name Muisca Confederation has been given to a loose egalitarian society of various chiefs ("caciques") who lived in small settlements of maximum 100 "bohíos". The agriculture and salt-based society of the people was rich in goldworking, trade and mummification. The religion of the Muisca consisted of various gods, mostly related to natural phenomena as the Sun (Sué) and his wife, the Moon; Chía, rain Chibchacum, rainbow Cuchavira and with building and feasting (Nencatacoa) and wisdom (Bochica). Their complex luni-solar calendar, deciphered by Manuel Izquierdo based on work by Duquesne, followed three different sets of years, where the sidereal and synodic months were represented. Their astronomical knowledge is represented in one of the few extant landmarks of the architecture of the Muisca in "El Infiernito" outside Villa de Leyva to the north of Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: The first populations inhabiting the present-day Metropolitan Area of Bogotá were hunter-gatherers in the late Pleistocene. The oldest dated evidence thus far has been discovered in "El Abra" (12,500 BP), north of Zipaquirá. Slightly later dated excavations in a rock shelter southwest of the city in Soacha provided ages of ~11,000 BP; Tequendama. Since around 0 AD, the Muisca domesticated guinea pigs, part of their meat diet. The people inhabiting the Bogotá savanna in the late 15th century were the Muisca, speaking "Muysccubun", a member of the Chibcha language family. Muisca means "people" or "person", making "Muisca people", how they are called, a tautology. At the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, the Muisca population was estimated to be half a million indigenous people on the Bogotá savanna, and up to two million in the Muisca Confederation. They occupied the highland and mild climate flanks between the Sumapaz Mountains to the southwest and Cocuy's snowy peak to the northeast, covering an approximate area of , comprising Bogotá's high plain, a large portion of the modern-day department of Boyacá department portion and a small area in the Santander region.


title: Bogotá

text: Trade was the most important activity of the Muisca with other Chibcha-speaking neighbours, such as the Guane, Lache and U'wa and with Cariban-speaking groups such as the Muzo or "Emerald People". Their knowledge of salt production from brines, a task devoted exclusively to Muisca women, gave them the name of "Salt People". Tropical fruits that didn't grow on the cool highlands, as well as coca, cotton and gold were all traded at markets that took place every Muisca week; every four days. At these frequent markets, the Muisca obtained various luxury goods that appear worthless in a modern sense, as well as precious metals and gemstones that seem valuable to us and which became abundant and were used for various purposes. The Muisca warrior elite were allowed to wear feathered crowns, from parrots and macaws whose habitat was to the east of the Andes; the Arawkan-speaking Guayupe, Tegua and Achagua.


title: Bogotá

text: The Muisca cuisine consisted of a stable and varied diet of tubers, potatoes and fruits. Maize was the main ingredient of the Muisca, cultivated on elevated and irrigated terraces. Many words exist in Muysccubun for "maize", "corn" and the various types and forms of it. The product was also the base for chicha; the alcoholic beverage of the people, still sold in central Bogotá today. It was the beverage used to celebrate the construction of houses, harvests and sowing, ritual practices around the various sacred sites of the Altiplano, music and dances, trade at special fairs with farther away trading indigenous groups of Colombia and to inaugurate the new highest regarded member of the community; "zipas", "zaques", "caciques" and the religious ruler "iraca" from Sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi.


title: Bogotá

text: From 1533, a belief persisted that the Río Grande de la Magdalena was the trail to the South Sea, to Perú, legendary "El Dorado". Such was the target of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Granadanian conquistador who left Santa Marta on 6 April 1536 with 800 soldiers, heading towards the interior of current Colombia. The expedition divided into two groups, one under Quesada's command to move on land, and the other commanded by Diego de Urbino would go up river in four brigantine ships to, later on, meet Quesada troops at the site named Tora de las Barrancas Bermejas. When they arrived, they heard news about Indians inhabiting the south and making large salt cakes used to trade for wild cotton and fish. Jiménez de Quesada decided to abandon the route to Peru and cross the mountain in search of salt villages. They saw crops, trails, white salt cakes and then huts where they found corn, yucca and beans. From Tora, the expedition went up the Opón River and found indigenous people wearing very finely painted cotton mantles. When they arrived in Muisca territories in the Andean Plateau, on 9 March 1537, of the expedition leaving Santa Marta, only 162 men were left.


title: Bogotá

text: The "zipa" at the moment of Spanish conquest was Tisquesusa. His main "bohío" was in a small village called "Bacatá" with others in Funza and Cajicá, giving name to the present day capital of Colombia. "Bacatá" was actually located near to the modern location of the city of Funza. A prophecy in his life came true; "he would be dying, bathing in his own blood". Defending Funza with a reduced army of guecha warriors against the heavily exhausted but heavily armed strangers, his reign fell in the hands of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his younger brother Hernán Pérez on 20 April 1537. Upon his death, his brother Sagipa became the last "zipa", against the inheritance tradition of the Muisca. Sagipa used to be a main captain for Tisquesusa but quickly submitted to the Spanish rulers. The first encomenderos asked high prices in valuable products and agricultural production from the indigenous people. On top of that epidemics of European viruses razed through the population, of which in current Boyacá 65–85 % of the Muisca were killed within 100 years.


title: Bogotá

text: Jiménez de Quesada decided to establish a military campament in the area in 1538, in the site today known as the Chorro de Quevedo square. The foundation was performed by the construction of 12 houses of reed, referring to the Twelve Apostles, and the construction of a preliminary church, also of reed. With the celebration of the first mass in the campament, celebrated by Dominican friar Domingo de las Casas the city was founded with the name of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope) on 6 August 1538. Quesada placed his right foot on the bare earth and said simply, "I take possession of this land in the name of the most sovereign emperor, Charles V."


title: Bogotá

text: This founding, however, was irregular as no town council was formed nor were town officials appointed, as well as lacking some other juridical requirements for an official founding. As a consequence, the official founding only occurred about eight months later, on 27 April 1539, in a site close to one of the recreational lands of the "zipa", called Theusa or Theusaquillo. This official founding involved an official ceremony appointing a council and officials, and the demarcation of streets and lands, and in it fellow conquistadores Sebastián de Belalcázar and Nikolaus Federmann were present. While this was the official date of founding, traditionally it is the 6 August 1538 that is considered the date of the actual foundation.


title: Bogotá

text: The village obtained the title of City by way of a decree from Charles V on 27 July 1540, which changed the name of the city from Our Lady of Hope to Santa Fe (Holy Faith), after the name of a town nearby Granada where Jiménez de Quesada grew up. Jiménez de Quesada and conquerors De Belalcázar and Federmann left for Spain in April 1539, founding Guataquí together on 6 April 1539. The rule over the newly created New Kingdom of Granada was left to Jiménez de Quesada's brother, Hernán Pérez de Quesada. The first mayors of the city were captains Pedro de Arevalo y Jeronimo de Inzar. The city obtained the Title of Muy Noble y Muy Leal (Very Noble and Loyal) on 17 August 1575 by a decree from Phillip II. Bogotá, then called Santa Fe, later became the capital of the later Viceroyalty of New Granada. Following the independence from Spain, Bogotá became capital of Gran Colombia and later the capital of the Republic of Colombia.


title: Bogotá

text: The city mayor and the chapter formed by two councilmen, assisted by the constable and the police chief, governed the city. For better administration of these domains, in April 1550, the Audiencia of Santafé was organized. Santa Fe (or Santafé) became the seat of the government of the New Kingdom of Granada . Fourteen years later in 1564, the Spanish Crown designated the first Royal Audiencia chairman, Andrés Díaz Venero de Leyva. The Chapter and the Royal Audience were located on the other side of what is today the Plaza de Bolívar (then called, Plaza Mayor or Major Square). The street connecting the Major Square and the Square of Herbs— now Santander Park— was named "Calle Real" (Royal Street), now "Carrera Séptima" (or "Seventh Street"; counted from the mountains to the east of the city). After 1717 Santafé became the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada.


title: Bogotá

text: Formed by Europeans, mestizos, indigenous people, and slaves, from the second half of the 16th century, the population began to grow rapidly. The 1789 census recorded 18,161 inhabitants, and by 1819 the city population reached 30,000 inhabitants distributed in 195 blocks. Importance grew when the diocese was established.


title: Bogotá

text: Political unease over the Spanish monarchy and the rights of citizens born in the Americas had been felt throughout the Spanish colonies in America, and it was expressed in New Granada in many different ways, accelerating the movement to independence. One of the most transcendent was the , a riot by the locals that started in Villa del Socorro —current Department of Santander—in March 1781. Spanish authorities suppressed the riot, and José Antonio Galán, the leader, was executed. He left an imprint, though. One of the soldiers witnessing his execution was an intellectually curious, noble teenager named Antonio Nariño, who was deeply impressed by both the insurrection and the execution. Nariño went on to become a politician in Santafé, and he became acquainted with the liberal ideas in vogue in Europe. He started organizing clandestine meetings with other intellectuals and politicians to discuss and promote the independence of the American colonies from the Spanish crown. In 1794, Nariño clandestinely translated and published in Santa Fe the Declaration of the Rights of Men and of the Citizen, and copies of his translation were distributed all over the continent and started creating a stirring in the political mentalities of the time. The Spanish government had banned the distribution of the pamphlet and soon discovered the material and burned any copy that they could find. Nariño was arrested on 29 August 1794, and sentenced to ten years of imprisonment and to have all of his properties confiscated, and was sent to exile the year after. Those suspected of being part of Nariño's intellectual circle were also persecuted, but his ideas had become widespread.


title: Bogotá

text: In 1807, following the French invasion of Spain and the subsequent abdication of the House of Bourbon in Spain, pressed by Napoleon to give the crown to his brother Joseph, resulting in the destruction of the Spanish administration, many in Spain and in the American colonies created local resistance governments called Juntas. The dissolution of the Supreme Central Junta, following a series of military defeats in the Spanish troops promoted the creation of local juntas all throughout Latin America, which very soon consolidated the independentist ideas already in vogue. After the establishment of a junta in Cartagena de Indias on 22 May 1810, and in many other cities throughout the Viceroyalty, the Junta de Santa Fe was established on 20 July 1810, in what is often called the Colombian Declaration of Independence. The Junta adopted the name of "Supreme Junta of the New Kingdom of Granada", and first swore allegiance to Viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón, and appointed him as president, but then he was deposed and arrested five days later. After declaring independence from Spain the different juntas attempted to establish a congress of provinces, but they were unable to do so and military conflicts soon emerged.


title: Bogotá

text: The period between 1810 and 1816 was marked by intense conflict between federalist and centralist factions over the nature of the new government of the recently emancipated juntas, a period that has become known as "la Patria Boba". The Province of Santafé became the Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca, which soon became embroiled in a civil war against other of the local juntas which banded together to form the United Provinces of New Granada and advocated for a federalist government system. Following a failed military campaign against Quito, General Simón Bolívar of the United Provinces led a campaign that led to the surrender of the Cundinamarca province in December 1814.


title: Bogotá

text: In Spain, the war had ended and the Spanish monarchy was restored on 11 December 1813. King Ferdinand VII of Spain declared the uprisings in the colonies illegal and sent a large army to quell the rebellions and reconquer the lost colonies, for which he appointed General Pablo Morillo. Morillo led a successful military campaign that culminated in the capture of Santafé on 6 May 1816.


title: Bogotá

text: In 1819, Bolívar initiated his campaign to liberate New Granada. Following a series of battles, the last of which was the Battle of Boyacá, the republican army led by Bolívar cleared its way to Santafé, where he arrived victorious on 10 August 1819. It was Simón Bolívar who rebaptized the city with the name of Bogotá, to honor the Muisca people and to emphasize the emancipation from Spain. Bogotá then became the capital of the Gran Colombia.


title: Bogotá

text: Between 1819 and 1849, there were no fundamental structural changes from the colonial period. By the mid-19th century, a series of fundamental reforms were enacted, some of the most important being slavery abolition and religious, teaching, print and speech industry and trade freedom, among others. During the decade of the 70s, radicalism accelerated reforms and state and social institutions were substantially modified. However, during the second half of the century, the country faced permanent pronouncements, declarations of rebellions between states, and factions which resulted in civil wars: the last and bloodiest was the Thousand Days' War from 1899 to 1902.


title: Bogotá

text: In 1823, a few years after the formation of Gran Colombia, the Public Library, now the National Library, was enlarged and modernized with new volumes and better facilities. The National Museum was founded. Those institutions were of great importance to the new republic's cultural development. The Central University was the first State school, precursor of the current National University, founded in 1867 and domiciled in Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: President Rafael Núñez declared the end of Federalism, and in 1886 the country became a centralist republic ruled by the constitution in force – save some amendments – up to 1981. In the middle of political and administration avatars, Bogotá continued as the capital and principal political center of the country.


title: Bogotá

text: From a base of only 20,000 people in 1793, the city grew to approximately 117,000 people in 1912. Population growth was rapid after 1870, largely because of emigration from the eastern highlands.


title: Bogotá

text: Early in the 20th century, Colombia had to face devastating consequences from the One Thousand Days War, which lasted from 1899 to 1902, and the loss of Panama. Between 1904 and 1909, the lawfulness of the liberal party was re-established and President Rafael Reyes endeavored to implement a national government. Peace and state reorganization generated the increase of economic activities. Bogotá started deep architectural and urban transformation with significant industrial and artisan production increases. In 1910, the Industrial Exposition of the Century took place at Park of Independence. Stands built evidenced industrial, artisan work, beaux arts, electricity and machinery progress achieved. The period from 1910 to 1930 is designated conservative hegemony. Between 1924 and 1928, hard union struggles began, with oil fields and banana zone workers' strikes, leaving numerous people dead.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá had practically no industry. Production was basically artisan work grouped in specific places, similar to commercial sectors. Plaza de Bolívar and surroundings lodged hat stores, at Calle del Comercio –current Carrera Seventh– and Calle Florián –now Carrera Eight– luxurious stores selling imported products opened their doors; at Pasaje Hernández, tailor's shops provided their services, and between 1870 and 1883, four main banks opened their doors: Bogotá, Colombia, Popular and Mortgage Credit banks.


title: Bogotá

text: Following the banana zone killings and conservative party division, Enrique Olaya Herrera took office in 1930. The liberal party reformed during 16 years of the so-called Liberal Republic, agricultural, social, political, labor, educational, economic and administrative sectors. Unionism strengthened and education coverage expanded.


title: Bogotá

text: The celebration produced a large number of infrastructure works, new construction and work sources. Following the 1946 liberal party division, a conservative candidate took presidential office again in 1948, after the killing of liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Bogotá's downtown was virtually destroyed as violence reigned. From then, Bogotá's urban, architectural and population sectors were substantially reorganized.


title: Bogotá

text: The city begins the 21st century with important changes in its urban space and public transport, looking to plan a demographic and economic growth that would position it as a strategic hub for international business in Latin America. Some of the main interventions initiated in this century looked to develop projects contained in the Plan of Territorial Ordering (POT), which will guide the development of the city for the next two centuries.


title: Bogotá

text: One of the most important interventions in the city for this time was its transportation system. In 1967, there were 2,679 urban buses in Bogotá that transported, on average, 1,629,254 passengers per day. The city had a little more than a million inhabitants and 8,000 hectares in length, the service was relatively reasonable and comfortable. But as the city grew and reached more than five million inhabitants and an area greater than 30,000 hectares, not only did the car fleet increase substantially to reach more than 20,000 vehicles, but chaos multiplied, as well as pollution and the inefficiency of the only existing transportation system.


title: Bogotá

text: By the end of the 20th century, the situation was critical. There was no real urban public transport system that would serve as an alternative to the private vehicle – which further incentivized its use – and the city had low levels of competitiveness in Latin America, as well as an unsatisfactory quality of life for the vast majority of its inhabitants.


title: Bogotá

text: The administrations of mayors Andrés Pastrana (1988–1990) and Jaime Castro (1992–1994), in addition to the first one of Antanas Mockus (1995–1997), formulated proposals to solve the problem of public transport, with limited results. It was during the mayoralty of the latter when there was an insistent talk about the possibility of establishing a mass transportation system that would help remedy the problem of mobility in Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: Under the second administration of Antanas Mockus, Bogotá opened a 'zone of tolerancia' which legalized prostitution in a large swath of the center of the city in the Santa Fe neighborhood.


title: Bogotá

text: Mayor Enrique Peñalosa (whose first term was 1998–2000) included in his government program as a priority project a solution to the problem of public transport. Consequently, in the execution of the development plan "For the Bogotá we Want" in terms of mobility and in a concrete way to the massive transportation system project, the construction of a special infrastructure exclusively for its operation was determined. This system would include specialized bus corridors, equipped with single-use lanes, stations, bridges, bike paths and special pedestrian access platforms, designed to facilitate the user's experience in the system. However, Peñalosa became infamous for his campaign against the poor, saying he would rather see robbers on the streets rather than people selling candies. Peñalosa also served a second term (2016–2019).


title: Bogotá

text: After getting elected in 2011, Gustavo Petro, clashed with conservative political establishment after remunicipalization of the city's garbage collection system. The inspector general, Alejandro Ordoñez deposed Petro for alleged constitutional overreach and when he tried to replace the city's private trash collectors. Petro was reinstated weeks later after a Bogotá court ruled that Ordoñez had overstepped his authority.


title: Bogotá

text: Although the proposal for biarticulated diesel buses called "Transmilenio" was in its early stages a success, due in part to the small numbers of passengers that it transported, in the long term it became an inefficient and contaminating system, saturated for a metro population of almost ten million inhabitants, guilty of environmental deterioration and air pollution.


title: Bogotá

text: For its part, the cultural equipment plan of Bogotá has given as one of its most significant results the construction of three large public libraries in different sectors of the city, in addition to the provision of existing ones. The new libraries were located in sectors that allow a wide coverage, have easy access by public transport and bike paths; and their projects were commissioned to distinguished architects of the city. They are those of El Tunal, in the south, projected by the architect Suely Vargas of El Tintal, in the west, the work of the architect Daniel Bermúdez, and the Virgilio Barco Vargas library, located in the Simón Bolívar park in the central area, work of the architect Rogelio Salmona. The three libraries, in addition to their excellent architecture, offer spaces for the educational and cultural development of the citizens of Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: As for 2019, the city's distribution is composed of nine main business centers (Av. El Dorado Business Corridor, Centro Internacional, Parque de la 93, El Lago, North Point, Calle 100, Santa Barbara Business Center, Zona Industrial Montevideo & Parque Industrial Zona Franca). Grittier sides sit south and southwest, where working-class barrios continue to battle their reputations for drugs and crime. In the ritzier north you'll find boutique hotels, corporate offices and well-heeled locals piling into chic entertainment districts such as the Zona Rosa and Zona G.


title: Bogotá

text: Protests against police brutality started in Bogotá following the death of Javier Ordóñez while in police custody on 9 September 2020. , 13 people have died and over 400 have been injured as part of the protests.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá is located in the southeastern part of the Bogotá savanna ("Sabana de Bogotá") at an average altitude of above sea level. The Bogotá savanna is popularly called "savannah" ("sabana"), but constitutes actually a high plateau in the Andes mountains, part of an extended region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, which literally means "high plateau of Cundinamarca and Boyacá". Bogotá is the largest city in the world at its elevation; there is no urban area that is both higher and more populous than Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: In the extreme south of Bogotá's District, the world's largest continuous paramo ecosystem can be found; Sumapaz Páramo in the locality Sumapaz.


title: Bogotá

text: The Bogotá River running NE-SW crosses the "sabana", forming Tequendama Falls ("Salto del Tequendama") to the south. Tributary rivers form valleys with flourishing villages, whose economy is based on agriculture, livestock raising and artisanal production.


title: Bogotá

text: The "sabana" is bordered to the east by the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes mountain range. The Eastern Hills, which limit city growth, run from south to north, and form east of the center the Guadalupe and Monserrate mountains. The western city limit is the Bogotá River. The Sumapaz Paramo (moorland) borders the south and to the north Bogotá extends over the plateau up to the towns of Chía and Sopó.


title: Bogotá

text: Most of the wetlands in the Bogotá region have disappeared. They covered nearly 50,000 hectares in the 1960s, compared to only 727 in 2019, for a disappearance rate of 98%.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá has an oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb") bordering on a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csb"). The average temperature is , varying from on sunny days to on rainy days. Dry and rainy seasons alternate throughout the year. The driest months are December, January, July and August. The warmest month is March, bringing a maximum of . The coolest nights occur in January, with an average of in the city; fog is very usual in early morning, 220 days per year, whilst clear sky sunny full days are quite unusual.


title: Bogotá

text: The official highest temperature recorded within the city limits is , and the lowest temperature recorded is , both at the Guaymaral Airport.


title: Bogotá

text: The rainiest months are April, May, September, October, and November, in which typical days are mostly overcast, with low clouds and some winds, bringing maximum temperatures of and lows of .


title: Bogotá

text: Because of its low latitude and high altitude, Bogotá has an average of 12 daylight hours and 11+ ultraviolet radiation year-round.


title: Bogotá

text: The colonial city, from 1539 to 1810, barely changed its urban layout and culture. Santafe was slowly leaving behind the colonialism after the independence revolution from 1810 to 1819. Entering the 19th century, the city of Bogotá was still the political and demographic core of Nueva Granada but remained a small city as compared with similar cities, such as Lima and Buenos Aires. At the year of 1801, the city had 173 blocks and 21,394 inhabitants marking a slow population growth during the 18th century. In the beginning of the 19th century, city life was marked by the lack of cultural activity and public services as well as by the excessive Catholic religiosity in its inhabitants, which almost controlled the whole life of people, as a journalist traveler wrote in 1822 (Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, 1990,2 ).


title: Bogotá

text: The city's urban shape remained the same in the 19th century as the 1557 urban landscape as a checkerboard with the Plaza as its core. In other words, the city grew in area adding new square blocks but kept the same urban fabric. Buildings were low rise, as a traveler wrote in 1830 (Bibliotheca Luis Angel Arango, 1990,2), where most city buildings had one floor, and a few had no more than two. One special characteristic of those houses with two floors, which were the houses of the wealthiest families of Bogotá, were their balconies. The building facades of Bogotá were very simplistic without ornaments, meaning no more than a wall with windows and the entry door. However, due to the poor street conditions because of the potholes and waste, in addition to the lack of cultural and social activity at night, the ornaments were reserved to indoors where Bogotanos spent most of their time. One of the few outdoor activities of the people of Bogotá during the first half of the 19th century was going to the Plaza or the "altozano" as the locals called it. The Plaza was the social core of the city, where fresh fruits were sold and where inhabitants from all socioeconomic backgrounds converged (Bibliotheca Luis Angel Arango, 1990,2).


title: Bogotá

text: The landscape of Bogotá was very similar from the 16th century to 19th century. Nonetheless, after the milestone fact of the independence from the Spanish, which was a process that lasted at least ten years from 1810 to 1819, some changes started to happen. Those changes were happening slowly while the new republican order was getting power. Trying to make a difference from the colonial ages, the new Republic began changing the name of the plazas, streets and even the name of the city, from Santafe to Bogotá. The names of colonial streets were changed to numbers and the name of plazas were changed to the founding fathers of Colombia. Thereafter, the empty plazas of the colonial ages turned into ornamented plazas with plenty of trees and civic statues. For instance, the first civil statue placed in a plaza in Colombia was the figure of Bolivar, the main founding father of Colombia. The statue of Bolivar was unveiled on July 20, 1846, which is the Independence Day of Colombia, trying to strengthen the patriotism of the new republic in people of Bogotá and Colombia.


title: Bogotá

text: The last quarter of the 19th century, from 1870 to 1900, more clearly marked a new urban landscape of Bogotá. The constant rural migration to Bogotá had been one of the most important factors that allowed the city to maintain its influential power in the region both during the colonial ages and during the republic. In 1847, the city governor and the council tried to expand the urban area of Bogotá beyond the colonial limits, whereas, only until the 1860s was that expansion encouraged by the president of Colombia Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera. The Mosquera plan included lotting the western part of Bogotá, building bridges and wider roads and plazas, but that plan was only partially implemented. In the following decade, other urban initiatives emerged but this time from the private sector. A group of businessmen, tired of the city's slow growth and development, proposed the construction of sewars, theaters, electric systems and new roads in order to hasten the development of Bogotá. Because of the 1876 civil war, the plan could not be implemented, but from that initiative, the council adopted the first urban code of Bogotá in 1875. These initiatives tried to update the undeveloped city to the new technologies of the 1800s; however, the pace remained slow, and only after 1882, when the train and the trolley came to Bogotá, some urban development projects progressed more quickly.


title: Bogotá

text: Today Bogotá has 20 localities, or districts, forming an extensive network of neighborhoods. Areas of higher economic status tend to be located in the north, close to the Eastern Hills in the districts of Chapinero, Usaquén and the east of Suba. The lower middle class inhabit the central, western and northwestern parts of the city.. The working-class neighborhoods are located in the south, some of them squatter areas.


title: Bogotá

text: The urban layout in the center of the city is based on the focal point of a square or plaza, typical of Spanish-founded settlements, but the layout gradually becomes more modern in outlying neighborhoods. The types of roads are classified as "Calles" (streets), which run from west to east horizontally, with street numbers increasing towards the north, and also towards the south (with the suffix "Sur") from Calle 0 down south. "Carreras" (roads) run from north to south vertically, with numbering increasing from east to west. (with the suffix "Este" for roads east of Carrera 0). At the southeast of the city, the addresses are logically "sur-este". Other types of roads more common in newer parts of the city may be termed "Eje" (Axis), "Diagonal" or "Transversal".


title: Bogotá

text: The numbering system for street addresses recently changed, and numbers are assigned according to street rank from main avenues to smaller avenues and local streets. Some of Bogotá's main roads, which also go by a proper name in addition to a number, are:


title: Bogotá

text: The largest and most populous city in Colombia, Bogotá had 7,412,566 inhabitants within the city's limits (2018 census), with a population density of approximately 4,310 inhabitants per square kilometer. Only 25,166 people are located in rural areas of Capital District. 47.8% of the population are male and 52.2% women.


title: Bogotá

text: In Bogotá, as in the rest of the country, urbanization has accelerated due to industrialization as well as complex political and social reasons such as poverty and violence, which led to migration from rural to urban areas throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A dramatic example of this is the number of displaced people who have arrived in Bogotá due to the internal armed conflict.


title: Bogotá

text: Some estimates show that Bogotá's floating population may be as high as 4 million people, most of them being migrant workers from other departments and displaced people. The majority of the displaced population lives in the Ciudad Bolívar, Kennedy, Usme, and Bosa sections.


title: Bogotá

text: The ethnic composition of the city's population includes minorities of Afro-Colombian people (0.9%), and Indigenous Amerindians (0.3%); 98.8% of the population has no ethnic affiliation, but are Whites and Mestizos.


title: Bogotá

text: In Bogotá, the accelerated urbanization process is not exclusively due to industrialization, since there are complex political and social reasons such as poverty and violence, which have motivated migration from the countryside to the city throughout the 20th century, determining an exponential growth of the population in Bogotá and the establishment of misery belts in its surroundings. According to the Consultancy for Human Rights, Codhes, in the period 1999–2005 more than 260,000 displaced people arrived in Bogotá, approximately 3.8% of the total population of Bogotá. The locations where the majority of the displaced population is concentrated are Ciudad Bolivar, Kennedy, Bosa and Usme.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá has gone to great lengths to change its formerly notorious crime rate and its image with increasing success after being considered in the 1990s to be one of the most violent cities in the world. In 1993 there were 4,352 murders at a rate of 81 per 100,000 people; in 2007 Bogotá suffered 1,401 murders at a rate of 20 per 100,000 inhabitants, and had a further reduction to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017 (the lowest since 1979). This success was mainly the result of a participatory and integrated security policy; "Comunidad Segura", that was first adopted in 1995 and continues to be enforced. 1.2 percent of street addresses account for 99 percent of homicides.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá is the capital of the Republic of Colombia, and houses the Congress, Supreme Court of Justice and the center of the executive administration as well as the residence of the President (Casa de Nariño). These buildings, along with the Office of the Mayor, the Lievano Palace (Palacio Liévano), are located within a few meters from each other on the Bolívar Square (Plaza de Bolívar). The square is located in the city's historical center, La Candelaria, which features architecture in Spanish Colonial and Spanish Baroque styles.


title: Bogotá

text: The Mayor of Bogotá and the City Council – both elected by popular vote – are responsible for city administration. In 2019 Claudia López was elected Mayor; her term runs from 2020 to 2023.


title: Bogotá

text: The city is divided into 20 localities: Usaquén, Chapinero, Santa Fe, San Cristóbal, Usme, Tunjuelito, Bosa, Kennedy, Fontibón, Engativá, Suba, Barrios Unidos, Teusaquillo, Los Mártires, Antonio Nariño, Puente Aranda, La Candelaria, Rafael Uribe Uribe, Ciudad Bolívar and Sumapaz.


title: Bogotá

text: Each of the 20 localities is governed by an administrative board elected by popular vote, made up of no fewer than seven members. The Mayor designates local mayors from candidates nominated by the respective administrative board.


title: Bogotá

text: The Colombian government fosters the import of capital goods, Bogotá being one of the main destinations of these imports.


title: Bogotá

text: Travel and tourism's share of the city's overall GDP stands at 2.5%. Bogotá is responsible for 56% of the tourism that arrives to Colombia and is home to 1,423 multinational companies. Bogotá also ranked highly as a global city where business is done and meetings are held. Bogotá is a growing international meetings destination.


title: Bogotá

text: In 2016, Bogotá has won 50 major international events, with 12 more world-class events in progress. The 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates took place from 2 to 5 February 2017 in Bogotá, Colombia. One Young World is the preeminent global forum for young leaders, aged 18–30. Bogotá, Colombia is the host city for Summit 2017.


title: Bogotá

text: The hotels in the historical center of La Candelaria and its surrounding areas cater to lovers of culture and the arts. This area also has the bulk of hostels in the city as well. In La Candelaria, there are many museums, including the Botero Museum and the Gold Museum. Close to La Candelaria is the Cerro Monserrate, which you can reach by cable car or funicular. The hotels located near Ciudad Salitre are intended for visitors who make short stops in Bogotá and near El Dorado International Airport.


title: Bogotá

text: Important landmarks and tourist stops in Bogotá include the botanical garden José Celestino Mutis, the Quinta de Bolívar, the national observatory, the planetarium, Maloka, the Colpatria observation point, the observation point of La Calera, the monument of the American flags, and La Candelaria (the historical district of the city). There is also Usaquen, a colonial landmark where brunch and a flea market on Sundays is a traditional activity. The city has numerous green parks and amusement parks like Salitre Magico or Mundo Aventura.


title: Bogotá

text: Green areas surrounding Bogotá are perfect locations for eco-tourism and hiking activities. In the eastern mountains of the city, just a few minutes walking from main roads, there are Quebrada La vieja and Chapinero Waterfalls, two of many green spots for sightseeing and tourism with clean air.


title: Bogotá

text: There are also several areas of the city where fine restaurants can be found. The G Zone, the T Zone, and La Macarena are well known for their gastronomic offerings.


title: Bogotá

text: Since the 2000s, major hotel chains have established themselves in the city. Bogotá has a great cultural diversity, coming from different regions of the country, which allows tourists to know the multiculturalism of the country without the need to travel to other cities, this includes gastronomy and different festivals.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá's economy has been significantly boosted due to new shopping malls built within the last few years. , over 160 new malls are planned in addition to the existing 100 malls. Notable malls include:


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá is home to like Canal Capital and Citytv which are local stations, Canal 13 is a regional station, and is home to the national channels Caracol TV, RCN TV, Canal Uno, Canal Institucional, and Señal Colombia. It has multiple satellite television services like Telefónica, Claro and DirecTV and several satellite dishes which offer hundreds of international channels, plus several exclusive channels for Bogotá.


title: Bogotá

text: In Bogotá, all the major radio networks in the country are available, in both AM and FM; 70% of the FM stations offer RDS service.


title: Bogotá

text: There are several newspapers, including "El Tiempo", "El Espectador" and "El Nuevo Siglo", plus economical dailies "La República" and "Portafolio", tabloids "El Espacio", "Q'Hubo", and "Extra". Bogotá also offers three free newspapers, two Spanish, ADN and Publimetro, and one English, The Bogotá Post.


title: Bogotá

text: Energy and sewer bills are stratified based on the location of owner's residence, The system is the classification of the residential properties that should receive public services. Although the system does not consider the income per person and the rules say that the residential real estate should stratify and not households. All mayors should do the stratification of residential properties of their municipality or district.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá's social strata have been divided as follows and have been extensively used by the government as a reference to develop social welfare programs, statistical information and to some degree for the assignment of lands.


title: Bogotá

text: Bogotá's growth has placed a strain on its roads and highways, but since 1998 significant efforts to upgrade the infrastructure have been undertaken. Private car ownership forms a major part of the congestion, in addition to taxis, buses, and commercial vehicles. Buses remain the main means of mass transit. There are two bus systems: the traditional system and the TransMilenio BRT system. The city's administration is currently in the process of replacing and updating the entire fleet for the TransMilenio BRT system, adopting Euro VI-standard CNG-powered buses as well as electric buses. Once completed, Bogotá will have the largest electric bus fleet in the world outside China.


title: Bogotá

text: The traditional system runs a variety of bus types, operated by several companies on normal streets and avenues: "Bus" (large buses), "Buseta" (medium size buses) and "Colectivo" (vans or minivans). The bigger buses were divided into two categories: "Ejecutivo", which was originally to be a deluxe service and was not to carry standing passengers, and "corriente" or normal service. Since May 2008, all buses run as "corriente" services. Bogotá is a hub for domestic and international bus routes. The Bogotá terminal serves routes to most cities and towns in Colombia and is the largest in the country. There is international service to Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela.


title: Bogotá

text: The TransMilenio system was created during Enrique Peñalosa's mayoral term, and is a form of bus rapid transit that has been deployed as a measure to compensate for the lack of a subway or rail system. TransMilenio combines articulated buses that operate on dedicated bus roads (busways) and smaller buses (feeders) that operate in residential areas, bringing passengers to the main grid. TransMilenio's main routes are: Caracas Avenue, Northern Highway ("Autopista Norte"), 80th Street, Americas Avenue, Jiménez Avenue, and 30th Avenue (also referred to as "Norte Quito Sur" or "N.Q.S." for short). Routes for Suba Avenue and Southern Highway ("Autopista Sur"), the southern leg of the 30th Avenue, were opened in April 2006. The third phase of the system will cover 7th Avenue, 10th Avenue, and 26th Street (or "Avenida El Dorado"). The system is planned to cover the entire city by 2030. Although the Transmilenio carries commuters to numerous corners of the city, it is more expensive (US$0.80 or 2300 COP) than any public transport, except taxis.