World3 min(s) read
A perhaps too brave content creator has traveled to a city widely known as one of the most dangerous places to visit in the world and captured a terrifying murder on camera.
La Rinconada in Peru is home to around 30,000 people and an alarming rate of organized crime, informal and illegal mining, and environmental contamination.
The city's threat to national security is alarming, as it consistently plays host to ‘gold trafficking, smuggling, and transnational crime, consolidating criminal structures with access to weapons and illicit financing', according to the study.
The remote town, which becomes a lawless land at night, is situated 5,100m above sea level, making the journey there an even more treacherous one.
At an altitude of over 5,100 meters (16,700 ft), there is only about 50% of the oxygen compared to sea level, making it extremely difficult to breathe and putting serious stress on the body. Many people here suffer from altitude sickness, and even simple tasks can feel exhausting.
Frank Van Dam, a 22-year-old Dutch filmmaking traveler, spent 72 hours in the dangerous city tucked away deep in the Peruvian Andes. After doing his research, Van Dam hired four police officers to protect him while filming.
In the footage posted to his YouTube channel, a local guide explains to the young content creator that there has been a shooting outside the hotel Van Dam and his crew were staying in.
When the visitors asked what was going on outside where they were staying, one of the tour guides/bodyguards bluntly replied: There's one person dead and one another in hospital.
Seemingly undisturbed by the murders, the local guide also warned the group: “If you see somebody shooting somebody, it's better to say I can see and say silence.”
Later in the video, titled ‘3 Days in the World's Highest City Without Laws!’, Van Dam explained: “We are bringing the police with us because in that area, almost every minor carries a gun.
“But after all, this is where the money and the gold are. There are countless signs warning that you are allowed to shoot people if they enter your territory because people rob a lot here.”
However, it is not just weapons that pose a serious threat to life in La Rinconada, the geographical position of the city can also be life threatening as the oxygen levels are so low, making it feel almost impossible to breathe.
Van Dam told the camera: “We had extremely low blood oxygen saturation, 70 to 75 percent during the night, and if you have this for a long period of time, you can get serious consequences to your organs.
"But to be honest, we are filmmakers. We wanted to push this documentary out there. And therefore, we actually risked our own health for this video for you guys.”
