Background: Accurate suicide risk assessment has proven elusive for clinical and research purposes. High false positive rates have pushed the discipline to reckon with inaccurate risk screening instruments. Mounting suicide rates and strained resources in the Global South require accurate, brief, free tools to ease and expedite screening. A good candidate is the Creative Commons licensed 8-item Suicidality Scale (SS) derived from the Suicidal Affect-Behavior-Cognition Scale (SABCS), a valid, theory-grounded scale with high predictive ability.Methods & Findings: Spanish translation, validation and evaluation of the scale’s psychometric properties was carried out in Colombia in a prospective transversal study, with a mixed sample of psychiatric patients and healthy community members (N = 313, 132 female, aged 18-65). Multiple models (e.g., bifactor analysis, IRT) examined unidimensionality, internal consistency, and validity. Instrument bias was tested by sex, age, and psychiatric diagnosis. All models showed strong fit and low error for the SS, but did not support additional items on suicide attempt history and the wish to live. Internal consistency was high (ω = .96). Clinical suicide risk decisions correlated strongly with SS scores (r = .84), however, there was significant variance in suicidality at each clinical risk level.Conclusions: These results provide strong validation for the Creative Commons licensed Colombian-Spanish Suicidality Scale. The SS functioned well in both self-report and clinician-administered modes, however, further longitudinal study is required to improve clinical guidance on suicide risk.