On a recent trip to Colombia, I was surprised when I was asked multiple times “Is it safe there?” about the United States. Is it safe in the United States? Really?!

Not long ago, I was asked this question exclusively by people in the U.S. concerned about living and working in Colombia. Americans unfortunately have outdated views on life in Colombia—mostly from Hollywood movies and news stories about what used to be, namely drug cartels and rebel guerillas. The reality is the age of drug cartels ended in the early 1990’s, and FARC rebels laid down their arms years ago under a peace agreement.

So, what prompted Colombians to ask whether the United States was a “safe” place? Colombians, like many others in Latin American countries, see skewed, negative news stories about the U.S. like the kinds of stories Americans see about them. Today, Colombian headlines consistently cover U.S. mass shootings and protests—peaceful or otherwise. Viewed from the lens of Colombian news and social media, it isn’t safe to walk the streets in the U.S. Of course, here in the States, we know this isn’t true.

Well, it isn’t true of Colombia as well. Colombia is a mix of first world urban conveniences and third world rural poverty. Most of the “dangerous areas” are in the Amazon region, which is over 1,000 miles from Barranquilla, Velozient’s Latin America headquarters. There are some remote areas closer to urban centers that have pockets of extreme poverty and discontent, but for the most part, the major urban areas are no different than those in the United States.

I’m born and raised in the United States. My wife is Colombian. My youngest daughter has citizenship of both the United States and Colombia. I actively live in Houston and Barranquilla. The United States and Colombia are no different from one another in terms of working in a job or raising a family. Of course, there are places in both countries that I wouldn’t visit or live because it’s too dangerous. But for most of both countries, it is extremely safe and secure.

We need to take care not to let the news media and social media warp reality based on a few headlines; we need to examine what’s really happening on the ground. Unfortunately, the news media repeatedly find a few bad pockets of malcontent and then sensationalize them. Those images should not define how we see the whole country—either country. Is it safe in Colombia? Is it safe in the United States? The answer to both questions is simply “Yes.”