I | INTRODUCTION |
Colombia, country in South America, situated in the
northwestern part of the continent. Colombia is blessed with natural resources,
including beautiful beaches, dramatic mountains, and lush rain forests, but it
is notorious for political unrest and the violent influence of powerful drug
cartels. And despite a long history of democratic government, Colombia has one
of the most rigidly stratified class systems in Latin America.
Colombia is the only country in South America
with coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Its neighbors on
the east are Venezuela and Brazil; on the south, Ecuador and Peru; and to the
northwest, Panama. The capital and largest city is Bogotá.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the
Americas, a number of indigenous groups, including the Chibcha (Muisca),
occupied the land that makes up present-day Colombia. From the 16th century to
the 19th century, Colombia was a colony of Spain. The country achieved
independence in 1819. Following independence, Colombia became a republic with an
elected government.
Colombian society is divided between the upper
and lower classes, with a large and growing gap between them. A substantial
middle class developed during the 20th century, a product in part of fairly
widespread land ownership associated with the country’s coffee economy. Many of
the attitudes that led to Colombia’s sharp class divisions originated in
16th-century Spain and became ingrained in Colombian society during the colonial
period. Family lineage, inherited wealth, and racial background continue to be
powerful determinants of status. Economic progress during the last 100 years has
been substantial, but political, social, and economic power continues to be
concentrated in the hands of the small upper class.
Since the mid-20th century, Colombia has been
torn by violence. Struggles between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing
paramilitary groups, and the Colombian armed forces have convulsed much of the
countryside. Colombia has also been plagued by an illegal drug trade that
flourished in the country as a consequence of the growing demand for narcotics,
particularly cocaine, in the United States and other rich, industrialized
countries. The Colombian government has attempted to limit drug production and
negotiate a peaceful settlement with the rebel forces. At the beginning of the
21st century, however, Colombia still experienced upheaval, and violence had
become a daily experience for many Colombians.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
The total land area of Colombia is 1,141,748
sq km (440,831 sq mi). The Andes mountains dominate the central and western
parts of the country, extending north-south almost the entire length of
Colombia. The western two-fifths of the country lies in the highlands of the
Andes. Here, towering mountain ranges are separated by high plateaus and fertile
valleys that are traversed by the principal rivers of the country. Almost all of
Colombia’s population lives in the narrow valleys and basins nestled among the
mountains. East of the Andes, three-fifths of the country consists of portions
of the llanos, or grasslands, and selva, or rain forest.
The llanos lie on the plain that drains northeast into the Orinoco River, and
the selva drains southeast into the Amazon River basin. Along the shore of the
Caribbean Sea lies a strip of lowland.
A | Natural Regions |
The Andes comprise three principal and
parallel ranges: the Cordillera Occidental in the west, the Cordillera Central,
and the Cordillera Oriental in the east. An isolated mountain mass known as the
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta rises on the Caribbean coast; this mass includes
Colombia’s highest point at Pico Cristóbal Colón (5,776 m/18,950 ft).
The westernmost of the three high Andean
cordilleras, the Cordillera Occidental, rises upward through successive
vegetation zones, culminating in barren volcanic peaks some 3,700 m (12,000 ft)
above sea level. This range extends as an almost unbroken wall throughout its
length; generally it is not high enough to reach into the zone of permanent
snow.
The Cordillera Central contains the
volcanic peaks of Huila (5,750 m/18,865 ft) and Tolima (5,616 m/18,425 ft).
About 240 km (about 150 mi) south of the Caribbean Sea, the Cordillera Central
descends to marshy jungle. The cordillera peaks are perpetually covered with
snow; the timberline in these mountains lies at about 3,000 m (about 10,000
ft).
To the east, the Cordillera Oriental rises
to a height of 5,500 m (18,000 ft). Unlike the other two ranges, the Cordillera
Oriental is densely populated. Most of its inhabitants live in a series of
basins in the mountains at an elevation of 2,400 m to 2,700 m (8,000 ft to 9,000
ft). The three largest cities in this region, each occupying a different basin,
are Bogotá, Chiquinquirá, and Sogamoso.
East of the Cordillera Oriental are vast
reaches of torrid lowlands, thinly populated and only partly explored. The
southern portion of this region, composed of selvas, is thickly forested and
drained by the Caquetá River and other tributaries of the Amazon. The northern
and greater part of the region comprises vast plains, or llanos, and is
traversed by the Meta River and other tributaries of the Orinoco River.
B | Rivers and Coastline |
The principal river of Colombia, the
Magdalena, flows north between the Cordillera Oriental and the Cordillera
Central. Crossing practically the entire country, it empties into the Caribbean
Sea near Barranquilla after a course of about 1,540 km (about 957 mi). The
Cauca, also an important means of passage, flows north between the Cordillera
Central and the Cordillera Occidental, merging with the Magdalena about 320 km
(about 200 mi) from the Caribbean Sea. In the west the Patía cuts its way
through the Andes, emptying into the Pacific.
The coastline of Colombia extends for
about 1,760 km (about 1,090 mi) along the Caribbean and for about 1,450 km
(about 900 mi) along the Pacific. River mouths along the coasts are numerous,
but no good natural harbors exist.
C | Climate |
Colombia lies almost entirely in what is
known as the Torrid Zone, the area of the earth’s surface between the Tropic of
Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The climate, however, varies with elevation.
The low regions along the coast and the deep Patía and Magdalena river valleys
are extremely hot, with average annual temperatures of 24° to 27°C (75° to
81°F). From about 500 to 2,300 m (about 1,500 to 7,500 ft) the climate is
subtropical, and from about 2,300 to 3,000 m (about 7,500 to 10,000 ft) it is
temperate. Above about 3,000 m (about 10,000 ft) is the cold-climate zone, where
temperatures range from -18° to 13°C (0° to 55°F). Seasonal variations are
slight.
In Bogotá the average high temperature in
January is 20°C (68°F), and in July the average high is 19°C (65°F). The highs
for the same months in Barranquilla are 32°C (89°F) and 33°C (91°F).
Throughout the year, three-month periods of
rain and dry weather alternate. Along the Pacific coast precipitation is heavy.
At Bogotá the annual rainfall averages about 1,060 mm (about 42 in), and in
Barranquilla it averages about 800 mm (about 32 in). Dry weather prevails on the
slopes of the Cordillera Oriental.
D | Natural Resources |
About half of Colombia’s land is
forested. To the north and west of the Andes, tropical forests line the major
rivers and fringe the coastal areas. East of the Andes, the forests become
denser as they approach the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. Pastureland occupies
about 40 percent of the country and is mostly located in the basins between the
Andean highlands. Cropland accounts for a mere 3.3 percent of the land, with no
more than 1.5 percent supporting permanent crops. Most of the arable land is
found in patches on the Andean mountainsides.
The mineral resources of the country are
varied and extensive. Colombia ranks as the world’s major source of emeralds,
most of which are mined in the western department of Boyacá. Other significant
reserves include petroleum and natural gas, located mostly in the northeast.
Most coal deposits are located on the Guajira peninsula on the country’s
northeast coast. Gold and silver are found dispersed in veins throughout the
central highlands. Iron ore, salt, platinum, and uranium are other important
natural resources of Colombia.
E | Plants and Animals |
Among the nations of the world, only
Brazil exhibits greater biological diversity than Colombia. The country is home
to one of the world’s greatest varieties of birds, as well as hundreds of
different kinds of mammals and thousands of types of insects and plants. Yet the
varied ecosystems of Colombia’s Andean ridges and valleys are becoming
increasingly endangered, due mainly to deforestation.
The indigenous flora of Colombia is as
varied as the topography. Mangroves and coconut palms grow along the Caribbean
coast, and the forest regions, which cover about one-half of the country,
include commercially useful trees such as mahogany, lignum vitae, oak, walnut,
cedar, pine, and several varieties of balsam. Tropical plants that grow in
Colombia also yield rubber, chicle (see Gum), cinchona, vanilla,
sarsaparilla, ginger, gum copal (see Resins), ipecac, tonka beans, and
castor beans.
The wildlife of Colombia includes the
larger South American mammals, such as jaguars, pumas, tapirs, peccaries,
anteaters, sloths, armadillos, and several species of monkeys. Caimans, once
numerous along the principal rivers, have become scarce due to intensive
hunting. Many varieties of snakes inhabit the tropical regions of Colombia.
Birds include condors, vultures, toucans, parrots, cockatoos, cranes, storks,
and hummingbirds.
Increasing deforestation during the
latter 20th century had negative impacts on many bird species that thrived in
the rain forests of the northern Andes a century ago. For example, the
yellow-eared parrot now ranks among the world’s most critically endangered
species. Other endangered animals include the giant armadillo, the cotton-top
marmoset, the white-footed tamarin, the tapir, the condor, and the caiman.
Another threat to Colombia’s plants and
animals is the smuggling of endangered species out of the country. Birds such as
parrots, toucans, and macaws, and mammals including the golden lion tamarin,
marmosets, ocelots, and margay cats fall victim to such illegal international
trafficking. Animals are often flown out of Colombia on the same clandestine
flights used for smuggling drugs.
F | Soils |
Colombia contains several fertile low-lying
valleys, but only 3.3 percent of the country’s land area, chiefly at higher
elevations, is cultivated. The country’s agricultural regions suffer from soil
exhaustion and erosion. These problems stem largely from slash-and-burn farming
methods, in which forestland is cleared by cutting down and burning the existing
plants.
III | PEOPLE |
The population of Colombia (2008 estimate)
is 45,013,674, giving the country an overall population density of 43 persons
per sq km (112 per sq mi). Some 77 percent of the population is classified as
urban. The principal centers of population lie in the Magdalena and Cauca river
valleys and along the Caribbean coastal region.
A | Principal Cities |
Colombia is divided into 32 departments
and one capital district. Colombia’s capital and largest city is Bogotá, an
industrial center with a population (2005) of 6,778,691. Located on a mountain
plateau in the Cordillera Oriental, it is the heart of cultural and political
life in Colombia. Cali (2,075,380) lies in the Cauca Valley. The city began as a
center for coffee production, but it later developed as the commercial heart of
the entire region. Medellín (2,223,660), situated in a highland valley of the
Cordillera Central, ranks as the most important economic area. Originally
settled by migrants from Cartagena, Medellín grew into a gold-mining town, a
general commercial settlement, and finally an important manufacturing center.
Other important commercial cities include Barranquilla (1,113,016), which boasts
a seaport and a major international airport, and Cartagena (895,400), a seaport
and oil pipeline terminal.
B | Ethnic Groups and Languages |
The Colombian population has a diverse
racial makeup. About 58 percent of the people are mestizo (of mixed
European and Native American ancestry), about 20 percent are of unmixed European
ancestry, and about 14 percent are mulatto (of mixed black and European
ancestry). Blacks account for 4 percent of the population, mixed black and
Native Americans for 3 percent, and unmixed Native Americans for 1 percent.
Scholars estimate that the Native
American population at the time of the Spanish conquest numbered between 1.5
million and 2 million. Many of the indigenous people were nomadic. The Chibchas,
who lived on the Cordillera Oriental in the east, practiced agriculture.
Intermarriage between the Spanish and the indigenous people began soon after the
conquest, leading to the development of the mestizo population.
Early in the colonial period the Spanish brought black slaves from the west
coast of Africa. African ancestry is most evident today among the population of
the Caribbean shores and inland among the people living along the Magdalena and
Cauca rivers.
The official language of Colombia is
Spanish, which is spoken throughout the country. However, some Indian tribes in
remote areas still speak their own languages. The current constitution, adopted
in 1991, recognizes the languages of ethnic groups and provides for bilingual
education.
C | Religion |
The main religion in Colombia is Roman
Catholicism; about 96 percent of the people are Roman Catholics. Although it is
not the official state religion, Roman Catholicism is taught in all public
schools. Small Protestant and Jewish minorities exist.
D | Education |
Elementary education is free and
compulsory for five years. Much effort has been devoted to eliminating
illiteracy, and 93 percent of all Colombians over age 15 could read and write by
2005. Instruction in Roman Catholicism is required in all public schools, most
of which are controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant churches
maintain a number of schools, chiefly in Bogotá. The national government
finances secondary- and university-level schools and maintains primary schools
in municipalities and departments that cannot afford to do so.
In 2000 some 5.2 million pupils annually
attended primary schools; 3.6 million students attended secondary schools,
including vocational and teacher-training institutions. In the early 2000s
Colombia had about 280 institutions of higher education; total enrollment in
2002–2003 was 989,700. Among the largest universities are the National
University of Colombia in Bogotá (parts of which date from the 16th century),
the University of Cartagena in Cartagena, the University of Antioquia in
Medellín, and the University of Nariño in Pasto.
E | Social Structure |
Colombian society exhibits strong class
divisions. The Colombian upper class largely consists of a wealthy white elite,
some of whom trace their lineage to the aristocracy of the colonial era. The
wealth of this privileged group is based mainly on the ownership of land and
property. The upper class also includes some people who accumulated wealth more
recently, through commercial and entrepreneurial activities.
The middle class grew as a result of
industrialization and economic diversification in the 20th century.
Historically, the middle class was small and politically passive, made up
largely of those who had fallen from the aristocracy through loss of wealth and
property. During the 20th century, however, the middle class grew to include
people who rose from the lower class by bettering themselves economically,
including small-business owners, merchants, professionals, bureaucrats and
government workers, professors and teachers, and white-collar workers.
The greatest portion of the population
consists of the politically powerless lower class. Its members are poorly
educated and do not have adequate housing, health care, or sanitation. Those who
have jobs are low-paid manual laborers. Few of the benefits of economic growth
have reached the poor. Rural areas have an agricultural system in which the
wealthy elite owns estates. This system keeps members of the lower class in a
kind of bondage as field workers. In the cities the creation and expansion of a
labor movement has resulted in some improvements for workers, but working
conditions remain substandard, and wages and living standards are low.
F | Way of Life |
Family roles in Colombia are sharply
delineated, and women generally play a subordinate role in society. Although
women are active in the lives and care of their children, men essentially
dominate all levels of society. During the last half-century, however, women
have increasingly taken on leadership roles in local communities, professional
associations, and grassroots movements.
Festivals are popular in Colombia.
Independence Day is on July 20. Barranquilla’s annual masked fiesta, which is
similar to Carnival, is famous throughout Latin America. Colorful Holy Week
processions and religious ceremonies attract many visitors to the old colonial
city of Popayán.
One of the most popular spectator sports
in Colombia is bullfighting. Tejo, a game in which flat stones are tossed
at explosive caps, is played mostly in the highlands. Along the coast, baseball
is popular. Horse racing attracts great crowds, but soccer draws the largest
following.
IV | CULTURE |
Colombia’s Native Americans had developed
rich and varied cultures prior to the arrival of Spanish settlers in the 16th
century. Several groups practiced agriculture and crafts, producing fine works
in stone and precious metals such as gold. Their temples, statues, and pottery
attest to the richness of their cultures, and Native American designs continue
to influence folk arts such as sculpture, textiles, music, and dance. During the
colonial period, Spanish settlers rapidly incorporated Native American
civilization into the dominant Spanish culture.
The Spanish colonial government devoted
less energy to developing New Granada, as Colombia was called, than it did to
other parts of Latin America. Noble families generally did not settle in the
area, so great palaces were not built. Since the Roman Catholic Church was the
main source of wealth, churches, cathedrals, and religious paintings and
statuary make up most of the colonial artistic legacy.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
romanticism took root in Latin American art and literature and became linked to
the struggle for independence. Romanticism is characterized by a highly
imaginative and subjective approach, emotional intensity, and a dreamlike or
visionary quality. As the 19th century progressed, a national style of art began
to flourish. Colombian literature flowered, and Bogotá became known as the
Athens of America. In the early 21st century, the majority of Colombians had
neither the means nor the time to cultivate fine arts, but Colombians still
exhibit national pride in the country’s artistic and literary achievements.
A | Literature |
Distinguished Colombian writers include
19th-century novelist Jorge Isaacs, who is best known for his romantic novel
María (1867). José Asunción Silva, known for his fluid use of traditional
and new verse forms as well as his melancholy and spirituality, was one of Latin
America’s most important modernist poets. Colombia’s most distinguished
contemporary author is novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who won the Nobel Prize
in literature in 1982. In his most famous novel, Cien años de soledad
(1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1970), García Márquez popularized
magic realism, combining meticulous descriptions of Colombia’s social and
political realities with elements of fantasy.
B | Art and Architecture |
Late medieval and Renaissance forms
characterized the art and architecture of the colonial period. The styles that
dominated during the 16th and 17th centuries were the plateresque, with its
elaborate decoration suggestive of silver plate; mannerism, with its elongated
spaces; and the baroque, with its curved lines, extravagant forms, and intricate
ornamentation. The Cathedral of Tunja provides excellent examples of the
plateresque style, while the church of San Ignacío in Bogotá exemplifies
mannerism and the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena epitomizes the
baroque.
A national style of painting developed in
Colombia in the 19th century. In 1886 the National School of Fine Arts opened
and trained future generations of artists. In the mid- to late 19th century,
Alberto Urdaneta captured the romantic spirit, and Epifanio Garay was a skillful
portraitist and history painter. During the 1930s and 1940s painting in Colombia
reflected the influence of revolutionary political movements that exalted the
masses and native peoples. Abstract art became important in Colombia around the
mid-20th century. At the same time, two of Colombia’s best-known artists,
Enrique Grau and Fernando Botero, created a new kind of figurative
image—grotesque, funny, and rotund. The internationally famous Botero made
political statements with his paintings of inflated priests and politicians.
During the 1960s violence and social upheaval became themes of Colombian art, as
illustrated by the works of Norman Mejía, Luciano Jaramillo, and Leonel Góngora.
C | Music and Dance |
Colombia has a rich tradition of folk
music and dance, most of which reveals African or Native American influences.
The bambuco is the national dance, although salsa music and dance became
immensely popular within Colombia beginning in the 1960s. In the area around
Popayán, a city in southwestern Colombia along the Cauca River, a type of music
called murga is played by groups of wandering street musicians using stringed
instruments. The word chirimía refers to a kind of flute and to musical
groups that use this instrument to perform pieces with a strong Native American
influence. Colombia has a National Symphony Orchestra and a National
Conservatory in Bogotá.
D | Libraries and Museums |
The National Library in Bogotá (1777)
contains about 800,000 volumes; it also administers town and village libraries
throughout the country. The leading museums are located in Bogotá. The National
Museum contains collections relating to the Spanish conquest and the colonial
period. The National Archaeological Museum exhibits utensils, stone carvings,
textiles, gold works, and other materials found at sites throughout the country.
The famous Gold Museum features a noted collection of pre-Columbian gold
objects.
See also
Latin American Architecture; Latin American Literature; Latin American
Music; Latin American Painting; Latin American Sculpture; Pre-Columbian Art and
Architecture.
V | ECONOMY |
Colombia is primarily an agrarian nation, and
its agricultural sector once was dependent on coffee as its principal cash crop.
However, the country successfully diversified its economy beginning in the late
1980s when international coffee prices declined. In 1991 the government
implemented sweeping economic reform measures, which opened the economy to
international trade and investment and helped the economy expand. It continued
to grow until the late 1990s with the rapid development of oil and coal and
increased prices for coffee.
By the end of the 20th century, however,
Colombia had fallen into a recession due to a combination of low world oil
prices, reduced export demand, and diminished investment flow. Moreover,
domestic growth and foreign investment were hindered by an inadequate energy and
transportation infrastructure and by the widespread violence stemming from drug
trafficking and guerrilla insurgencies. The Bank of the Republic raised interest
rates and tightened its monetary policy to defend the Colombian peso against
worsening trade and fiscal deficits. In addition the country’s unemployment rate
rose to almost 20 percent by the end of the 1990s. The economy began to recover
in the early 2000s as the government cut spending. A wealth tax of 1 percent was
introduced in 2002 to reduce the deficit and secure loans from the International
Monetary Fund. The unemployment rate began to fall.
The central government budget included
revenues of $35.4 billion (2006) and expenditures of $39.1 billion (2006). The
gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 was $153.4 billion, or about $3,367.20 per
capita. Not included in these official statistics is the economic impact of coca
cultivation and the illegal drug trade, including cocaine, marijuana, and opium.
A | Agriculture |
Coffee is still Colombia’s principal crop,
although Colombia was recently surpassed by Vietnam as the second largest coffee
producer in the world after Brazil. Colombia remains the world’s leading
producer of mild coffee, but in the mid-1990s petroleum became the country’s
largest source of foreign income. In the mid-1970s coffee accounted for 80
percent of Colombia’s export earnings; by the early 2000s coffee brought in less
than 10 percent of export earnings. High production costs and low international
prices combined to reduce the earnings of Colombian coffee growers.
Coffee is cultivated chiefly on mountain
slopes from about 900 to 1,800 m (about 3,000 to 6,000 ft) above sea level,
principally in the departments of Caldas, Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Norte de
Santander, Tolima, and Santander. More than 150,000 mainly small coffee
plantations extend over approximately 1 million hectares (approximately 2.5
million acres). Coffee output totaled 696,000 metric tons in 2006, with most of
the exported coffee going to the United States.
While coffee is Colombia’s leading
agricultural product, the country’s diverse climate and topography permit
cultivation of a wide variety of other crops. Annual production of principal
cash crops in addition to coffee includes cacao beans (37,099 metric tons),
sugarcane (39.8 million), tobacco (34,940), cotton (55,382), bananas, and cut
flowers. Chief food crops are rice (2.3 million), cassava (2 million), potatoes
(1.8 million), and plantains. Plants producing pita, sisal, and hemp fibers,
used in the manufacture of cordage and coarse sacking material, are also
cultivated. The livestock included cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses.
The production of drug-related crops took
on significant proportions starting in the 1970s with the cultivation of
marijuana. Although Colombia has become notorious for its cocaine supply, the
processing of coca leaves was more significant than actual coca plant
cultivation in the country until the mid-1990s. As the supply of coca, primarily
from Peru and Bolivia, was disrupted, coca growing in Colombia increased
significantly. Opium poppies, used to make heroin, also became a significant
source of revenue despite government efforts to stop their cultivation. It was
estimated that from 1980 to 1995 the value of illegal drug exports amounted to
almost half the value of Colombia’s legal exports.
B | Forestry and Fishing |
Much of the forestland of Colombia is
inaccessible because of poor transportation facilities; however, the tropical
forest contains many commercially valuable species including mahogany and cedar.
Trees harvested in Colombia in 2006 provided 12 million cubic meters (423
million cubic feet) of timber. Much of the wood is used as fuel.
The coastal waters and many rivers and
lakes of Colombia provide a variety of fish, notably trout, tarpon, sailfish,
and tuna. The total catch in 2005 was 181,074 metric tons. About one-quarter of
the annual catch consists of freshwater species of fish.
C | Mining |
Petroleum and coal are Colombia’s chief
mining products. Other minerals extracted include gold, silver, emeralds,
platinum, copper, nickel, and natural gas. The national petroleum company,
Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos (ECOPETROL, Colombian Petroleum Company),
controls petroleum operations along with several foreign-owned concessions.
Production of crude petroleum is centered in the Magdalena River valley, about
650 km (about 400 mi) from the Caribbean, and in the region between the
Cordillera Oriental and Venezuela. New oil reserves discovered 200 km (120 mi)
east of Bogotá were expected to provide Colombia with energy self-sufficiency,
as well as the means for significant exports, well into the 21st century. Much
of Colombia’s oil is shipped to Curaçao for refining. Oil production rose from
only 100,000 barrels per day in the early 1980s to 540,733 barrels per day in
2004.
Colombia is also one of the world’s
leading exporters of coal. Two-thirds of an annual production of 47.6 million
metric tons comes from a single open-pit mine, the world’s largest, on the
Guajira Peninsula. Some 6.1 billion cu m (215 billion cu ft) of natural gas was
produced in 2003.
Gold, mined in Colombia since pre-Columbian
times, is found principally in the department of Antioquia and to a lesser
extent in the departments of Cauca, Caldas, Nariño, Tolima, and Chocó. Platinum
was discovered in Colombia in 1735, and the country has some of the most
extensive deposits in the world. Platinum is found in the gold-bearing sands of
the San Juan and Atrato river basins. The chief emerald-mining centers are the
Muzo and Chivor mines. Other significant mineral products include lead,
manganese, zinc, mercury, mica, phosphates, and sulfur.
D | Manufacturing |
The manufacturing industries in Colombia,
stimulated in the 1950s by the establishment of high protective tariffs on
imports, are generally small-scale enterprises. They primarily produce for the
domestic market, and they account for 17 percent of Colombia’s annual gross
domestic product (GDP). GDP is a measure of the value of all goods and services
that a country produces. Cotton-spinning mills, principally in the cities of
Barranquilla, Manizales, Medellín, and Samacá, rank as important manufacturing
establishments. Other industries include the manufacture of foodstuffs and
beverages, clothing and footwear, ceramics, tobacco products, iron and steel,
and transportation equipment. Chemical products have become increasingly
important.
E | Energy |
Colombia has many hydroelectric
installations, which produced 76 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2003. A
drought in 1992 brought about electricity rationing in much of the country.
Consequently the government initiated the construction of new thermoelectric
power plants and improved natural gas distribution to urban residences. In 2003
the country’s annual output of electricity was 47 billion kilowatt-hours.
F | Currency and Banking |
The basic unit of currency is the Colombian
peso (2,361 pesos equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). The Bank of the Republic issues
all of the nation’s money and shares responsibility for monetary policy with the
government monetary board. More than 25 commercial banking institutions, as well
as government development banks and several other official and semiofficial
financial institutions, operate in Colombia. Stock exchanges serve Bogotá,
Medellín, and Cali.
G | Commerce and Trade |
Petroleum ranks as the principal export of
Colombia. Other leading exports include coffee, vegetables, chemicals, coal,
textiles, fresh-cut flowers, bananas, sugar, gold, emeralds, and cattle. Illegal
drugs also rank high among the country’s exports.
The most important imports are mechanical
and electrical equipment, chemicals, food, and metals. Colombia’s annual exports
earned $13.1 billion and its imports cost some $13.9 billion in 2003. The United
States is Colombia’s main trading partner, and Venezuela, Germany, Japan, The
Netherlands, Brazil, and Peru also have significant trade with the country.
Colombia is an original member of the
Andean Community (1969), an organization that established free trade among its
members and works toward regional economic and social cooperation; its members
also include Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Colombia entered into two
other trade associations in 1995: the Group of Three and the Association of
Caribbean States (ACS). The Group of Three, composed of Mexico, Venezuela, and
Colombia, aims to phase out trade barriers between these countries. The ACS
includes all 25 nations in or along the Caribbean and focuses on regional
cooperation and economic integration.
H | Tourism |
Colombia offers natural beauty, including
beaches along the Caribbean coast, tropical rain forests, the Andes mountains,
and a huge variety of wildlife. The walled port city of Cartagena has many
buildings from the Spanish colonial period, including its fortifications. It was
declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. Bogotá, the center of
Colombia’s cultural life, also has many buildings from Colombia’s colonial past.
The Gold Museum in Bogotá features objects made by the indigenous inhabitants of
Colombia before the arrival of Europeans. Art in the National Museum ranges from
the pre-Columbian period to the present.
Colombia draws more than half a million
tourists annually, primarily from the United States and countries in South
America. However, reports of violence in rural areas related to guerrilla
activity and illegal drug-trafficking have put a damper on the country’s tourism
industry.
I | Transportation and Communications |
The irregular terrain of Colombia makes the
construction of roads and railroads costly. Colombia has 2,137 km (1,328 mi) of
operated railroad track. Most of the national railroads are feeder lines to the
Magdalena River, the main transport artery of the country, which with the Cauca
River is navigable for about 1,500 km (about 900 mi). Colombia has no regular
passenger rail service. Roads total 112,988 km (70,207 mi), including a part of
the Simón Bolívar Highway, which links Caracas, Venezuela, through Bogotá and
other Colombian towns, with Quito, Ecuador. The national airline, Aerovías
Nacionales de Colombia (National Airline of Colombia), known as Avianca, was
established as the first Latin American airline in 1919. The main seaports are
Buenaventura, Tumaco, Santa Marta, Barranquilla, and Cartagena.
J | Labor |
The labor force of Colombia numbers about
23 million. Some 22 percent is engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; 19
percent in industry and mining; and most of the remainder in service industries.
In 2004 Colombia had an unemployment rate of 13.7 percent. The main trade unions
in Colombia are the Confederación Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT, Unitary
Federation of Workers) and the Confederación de Trabajadores Colombianos
(CTC, Confederation of Colombian Workers). The right to strike is
constitutionally guaranteed to all employees who are not working for public
utilities.
VI | GOVERNMENT |
Colombia’s government has undergone several
changes since the mid-20th century. One of the most significant was the adoption
of a new constitution in 1991. The new constitution replaced the 1886
constitution and provided for a more decentralized, pluralistic, and democratic
government.
A | Executive |
National executive power in Colombia is
vested in a president who is elected by direct popular vote. Under the 1991
constitution the president is limited to a single four-year term. However, in
2005 Colombia’s Constitutional Court approved a new law that allows presidents
to serve more than one term. Suffrage (the right to vote) is universal
for all citizens 18 years of age or older. The president appoints a cabinet,
subject to congressional approval. Under the 1991 constitution, the departmental
governors are directly elected.
B | Legislature |
Legislative power in Colombia is vested in
a bicameral congress composed of a House of Representatives (161 members) and a
Senate (102 members). Members are elected to four-year terms. The 1991
constitution imposes penalties for absenteeism and bars members of Congress from
simultaneously holding any other public office.
C | Judiciary |
Colombia has four high courts: the Supreme
Court, the Constitutional Court, the State Council, and the Superior Council of
the Judiciary. Supreme Court justices are elected for life, half by the Senate
and half by the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court is the highest court
on all matters of criminal law. The Constitutional Court, whose justices are
elected by the Senate to eight-year terms, rules on the constitutionality of
legislation and also hears all cases concerning the constitution. The State
Council is the highest court for cases concerning the administration of the
government.
The judicial system also includes
superior and lower district courts and provincial and municipal judges. Although
the 1991 constitution banned extradition on the basis that Colombians committing
crimes in Colombia had to face Colombian justice, the government repealed this
section of the constitution in 1997 under heavy pressure from the United States.
The 1991 constitution also established an independent system of prosecution,
ensuring that neither the executive nor legislative branches can intervene in
judicial proceedings. Capital punishment is outlawed.
D | Political Parties |
For many decades the two principal
political parties were the Partido Conservador Colombiano (PCC,
Conservative Party) and the Partido Liberal Colombiano (PL, Liberal
Party). The PCC traditionally favored strong central government and close
relations with the Roman Catholic Church, while the PL favored stronger local
governments and separation of church and state. From 1958 to 1974 the Liberals
and Conservatives were the only legal political parties in Colombia, owing to a
1957 constitutional amendment intended to defuse the explosive antagonisms
between them. Under this arrangement, called the National Front, each party held
exactly half the number of seats in each legislative house and in the cabinet
and other agencies, and the presidency alternated between leaders of the
parties.
Although the parity system established by
the National Front was terminated in 1978, the 1886 Colombian constitution then
in effect required that the losing political party be given adequate and
equitable participation in the government. The 1991 constitution omitted this
requirement, although subsequent administrations have included opposition
parties in the government. Besides the two principal parties that have dominated
Colombian politics since the 19th century, new ones have become active since
1985, including the Marxist Unión Patriótica (UP, Patriotic Union) and
the Movimiento 19 de Abril (M-19, 19th of April Movement), a group
originally formed to contest the results of the 1970 presidential election held
on April 19. For a time the M-19 became a guerrilla movement but the group
negotiated an agreement with the government in 1989 that allowed it to disarm
and reenter electoral politics. The M-19 then helped write Colombia’s 1991
constitution. The UP also entered the electoral arena, winning many mayoralties
and other local posts, but because of its association with the guerrilla
movement known as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas (FARC,
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the UP faced severe repression. More
than 3,000 UP members, including two of its presidential candidates, were killed
by paramilitaries during the period when it was politically active.
The traditional Liberal-Conservative
dominance of Colombian politics came to an end at the beginning of the 21st
century. In the 2002 presidential elections a former Liberal leader, Álvaro
Uribe Vélez, bolted from the party and won election as an independent. He
subsequently received the support of the Conservative Party. In the 2006
election, Uribe again ran as an independent with the backing of the
Conservatives, who did not field a candidate. The Liberals placed third in the
voting, and a new left-wing coalition, known as the Polo Democrático
Alternativo (Alternative Democratic Pole), emerged as the principal
opposition group.
E | Health and Welfare |
Although public health standards were
improving by the early 21st century, physicians were still in short supply. Most
of the country’s physicians work in the larger cities. In 2003 Colombia had one
hospital bed for every 909 people. Malaria and yellow fever remain endemic in
some parts of the country. A social insurance system provides maternity and
dental benefits, accident insurance, workers’ compensation and disability, and
retirement and survivors’ insurance to most of the industrial labor force.
Contributions from employers, workers, and the government finance the
system.
F | Defense |
Male citizens 18 and older must complete
one to two years of military service. Some 207,000 people served in the
Colombian armed forces in 2004.
VII | HISTORY |
From prehistoric times, geography has
greatly influenced patterns of human settlement and cultural evolution in what
is now Colombia. Bordering on two oceans and occupying the point where the
American continents meet, this region was a channel for the movement of peoples
and ideas within the hemisphere long before the arrival of Europeans. Running
north-south, Colombia’s two major river valleys, the Magdalena and the Cauca,
provided a corridor between Central America and the Caribbean, on the one hand,
and the interior of South America, on the other.
Relics from Colombia’s most famous
archaeological site, San Agustín, near the headwaters of the Magdalena River,
attest to early mixing of peoples and cultures. The relics from this site
include large stone statues of human figures, many with grotesque expressions.
Different scholars have linked these figures to cultural influences emanating
from the Andes Mountains to the south, the Amazon basin to the east, and even
Mesoamerica to the north. Archaeological understanding of San Agustín, like that
of much of Colombia’s pre-European past, is limited. But it appears that the
site was occupied by a succession of different peoples and served as a cultural
center as early as 2,300 years ago.
A | Precolonial Peoples and Cultures |
A variety of linguistically and
culturally diverse peoples occupied Colombia at the time of European contact.
Their many languages were related to three linguistic families: Arawak, from
eastern South America; Carib, from the Caribbean; and Chibcha, from Central
America. Peoples who spoke languages from each family lived throughout the
region.
Hunter-gatherer societies prevailed in
the vast, sparsely populated lowlands of eastern Colombia, as well as on the
Caribbean and Pacific coasts and in the tropical river valleys of the
mountainous west. Some of these societies also engaged in agriculture. These
were relatively egalitarian societies, and they fiercely resisted Spanish
colonization.
In the densely populated temperate
highlands of western Colombia, intensive cultivation of corn and potatoes gave
rise to complex agricultural societies. Highly stratified and hierarchical,
these societies were composed of agricultural workers, skilled artisans,
merchants, priests, and warriors. Many of these societies appear to have engaged
in frequent warfare with their neighbors, and most seem to have practiced human
sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. Their funerary practices, including
mummification, reveal great differences in the wealth and power of social
groups. Many of these peoples produced exquisite gold artifacts.
The most numerous of Colombia’s
indigenous peoples were the Chibcha (Muisca), who occupied the high intermontane
basins of the easternmost branch of the Andes. Numbering perhaps 1 million
people at the time of the Spanish conquest (estimates vary widely), the Chibcha
had not evolved a full-fledged state on the order of the Aztec Empire of Mexico
or the Inca Empire of Peru. But they were organized in large-scale political
confederations, practiced a diverse and highly productive agriculture, and
traded pottery, cotton cloth, coca, salt, gold, and emeralds over a wide area. A
separate but highly sophisticated branch of Chibcha-speaking people, the
Tairona, occupied the lands around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a large
volcano near the Caribbean coast.
B | The Spanish Conquest |
In 1502, on his last voyage to the
Americas, explorer Christopher Columbus made contact with Chibcha-speaking
people near present-day Santa Marta. Soon Spaniards were raiding Indian villages
along the Caribbean coast as far west as present-day Panama in their search for
gold and slaves. Rumors of gold in the interior—the famous legends of El
Dorado—prompted three separate Spanish expeditions to converge on the eastern
highlands in 1538. There the Spaniards founded the settlement of Santa Fe de
Bogotá, commonly called Bogotá today. Spain used the settlement as a base from
which to expand its control over the region.
Although few in number, the Spanish
terrified the Indians with their weapons, horses, and attack dogs. They quickly
subdued the highlands societies and soon controlled much of the best land. The
Spanish baptized captured Indians as Christians and required them to labor for
Spanish landlords and pay tribute to the Spanish crown.
Contact with Europeans led to a
precipitous decline in the population of native peoples. Indians had no immunity
to common European diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza. In
tropical areas, native peoples also succumbed to mosquito-borne diseases like
malaria and yellow fever, introduced by Europeans and their African slaves.
The Spanish also undermined the
indigenous way of life by changing the way Indians lived and worked. The Spanish
turned land that Indians had cultivated for food over to Spanish crops such as
wheat or to the raising of livestock. They also forced Indians to labor on
Spanish estates or in distant mines, disrupting family life and leaving Indian
laborers less time to cultivate their own food.
The catastrophic decline of the Indian
population led to the virtual disappearance of native peoples in the lowlands of
the north and west. To replace them, the Spanish soon began to bring in African
slaves to work their estates and to labor in the mines of the gold-rich
Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central of the Andes.
In most highland areas, however,
especially in the eastern chain of the Andes, the dense Indian populations
declined more slowly. Intermarriage between Indians and Europeans resulted in a
large and growing population of mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Indian
descent. Indian communities did not completely disappear, but by the 17th
century mestizos provided the bulk of agricultural labor. They worked either as
tenants or sharecroppers on large estates owned by people of European descent,
or as cultivators of small parcels of land they owned themselves. Many mestizos
were also laborers and artisans in the towns and cities. Only on the Amazon
lowlands of the east did Indian cultures survive the conquest largely
untouched.
C | The Colonial Order |
The Spanish crown first administered
present-day Colombia through the Audiencia of New Granada, a governing
body based in Bogotá that served as a judicial court and an administrative
council. As part of an effort to improve administrative efficiency, in 1717
Spain created the Viceroyalty of New Granada, which included present-day
Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. A viceroy, or royal governor, who was
usually a member of a high-ranking Spanish noble family, oversaw the
viceroyalty.
Throughout the colonial period, the
Viceroyalty of New Granada remained a relatively poor, unimportant part of the
Spanish Empire. The core areas of the empire were the populous, silver-producing
viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) and Peru. Although New Granada was the main
producer of gold in the Americas, the value of the colony’s gold exports, even
at their peak during the 18th century, amounted to much less than the value of
Mexico’s silver exports. People of means imported luxury goods and some
manufactures from Europe, but for the most part New Granada’s modest economy was
self-contained and self-sufficient.
When Spain raised taxes to finance wars
with its European rivals, a major rebellion, the comunero revolt of 1781,
broke out in New Granada. Spanish officials brutally repressed the revolt, but
many people, rich and poor, were becoming increasingly discontented with Spanish
rule. Toward the end of the 18th century, the inhabitants of Spanish America
grew receptive to the ideas from Europe’s Age of Enlightenment—ideas that
questioned traditional beliefs and authority and introduced concepts such as
limiting the power of monarchs. Members of the Creole elite (Spaniards born in
the Americas) especially desired political independence and wanted to break the
Spanish monopoly on foreign trade. They led the independence struggles that
enveloped Spain’s American colonies in the early 19th century.
D | Independence from Spain |
Troops from the Colombian heartland of
New Granada, led by Venezuelan Creole general Simón Bolívar, played a major role
in the long struggle from 1808 to 1824 for independence from Spain. A slave
owner himself, Bolívar initially found it difficult to rally slaves and Indians
to the revolutionary cause, and mestizos always formed the bulk of his armies.
After suffering a series of early defeats and witnessing a brutal Spanish
reconquest of New Granada, Bolívar’s armies finally defeated Spanish forces in
Colombia at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819. See also Latin American
Independence.
In 1821 Bolívar was elected president of
the newly independent Gran Colombia, which included present-day Colombia,
Panama, and, after their liberation, Venezuela and Ecuador. Bolívar and other
leaders strove mightily to make the new nation prosper. However, the burden of
the war, the weakness of the economy, and the sheer difficulty of administering
such a vast and poorly integrated territory led to the breakup of the new
republic in 1831, when Venezuela and Ecuador each declared their
independence.
E | The Struggle for Liberal Reform |
Even in what was left of Gran Colombia
(present-day Colombia and Panama), organization remained problematic. Many
political leaders withdrew their support from the increasingly authoritarian
leadership of Bolívar and supported Francisco de Paula Santander, the Colombian
who had served as Bolívar’s vice president during the war for independence.
Regional, class, and ethnic tensions also undermined national unity, while a
stagnant economy limited the government’s ability to promote education, improve
transport, and maintain public order.
A major division within the new nation
centered on policy toward the Roman Catholic Church. During the colonial period,
the church had grown rich and powerful, controlling much rural and urban
property and running most schools. After independence, the church continued to
enjoy power and privileges, and efforts to reduce its influence sharply divided
Colombians and led to a series of civil wars. By the mid-19th century, the
debate around the church had separated Colombians into two antagonistic
political parties: Liberals, who sought to curb the church’s influence and
divest it of much of its wealth, and Conservatives, who struggled to maintain
the church’s privileges.
The Liberals’ attacks on the privileges
of the Roman Catholic Church formed part of a broader policy of creating
unrestricted markets for land and labor. Thus Liberal reformers also passed
legislation to abolish slavery, allow Indians to sell their land, and end the
state monopoly on the cultivation of tobacco. In order to win support for their
reforms, Liberals appealed to the middle and lower classes, especially the
artisans of the cities. In the 1850s they took the radical, albeit temporary,
step of instituting universal adult male suffrage. Conservatives were backed by
much of the upper class but also appealed to the lower classes by pointing to
Conservative defense of the church.
Conflict between Liberals and
Conservatives over these issues resulted in periodic civil wars during the 19th
century. Liberals managed to consolidate their control over the national
government and push through many of their reforms following a bloody civil war
from 1861 to 1863. In 1863 they wrote a constitution that established an
extremely decentralized government.
During a civil war in 1885, however,
Liberal dissidents allied themselves with the Conservatives and captured control
of the national government. Under the leadership of dissident Liberal Rafael
Núñez and Conservative Miguel Antonio Caro, the victors wrote a new constitution
in 1886. The Constitution of 1886, which remained in force until 1991, restored
the privileges of the Catholic Church, limited suffrage to adult males who
passed the literacy requirement, restricted civil liberties, centralized
administration, and greatly strengthened the power of the executive branch.
Liberals were denied meaningful
representation in the new regime and revolted in 1899. The War of the Thousand
Days, as the conflict came to be called, dragged on until 1902 and claimed the
lives of perhaps 100,000 Colombians out of a total population of about 4
million. Government forces defeated the Liberals in the war. In the aftermath of
the conflict, Panama, with the backing of the U.S. government, seceded from
Colombia in 1903.
Colombia’s political instability during
the 19th century was closely related to economic problems. Gold production, the
mainstay of Colombian exports since colonial times, declined after 1810, and
gold exports did not regain their value until the 1890s. Exports of other
commodities, notably tobacco and cinchona bark (quinine), increased for two
decades after 1850, then declined sharply as Colombian growers lost out to more
efficient producers elsewhere.
High transport costs, a consequence of
the nation’s mountainous terrain, limited the competitiveness of Colombian
exports. Although steam navigation was established on the Magdalena River in the
1850s, until well into the 20th century mule transport continued to connect
river ports with highland areas where most Colombians lived. The few hundred
kilometers of railway in the country at the end of the 19th century were divided
among short, unconnected lines, few of which extended into the mountains. In
1900 Colombian exports per capita stood at approximately $6, one of the lowest
levels in all of Latin America.
F | Coffee and Stability |
Following the loss of Panama, the
leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties joined together to promote
exports and maintain social and political stability. Although the Conservative
Party dominated Colombian governments until 1930, Liberals participated in them.
Economic improvement, especially the
rapid growth of coffee exports, aided the bipartisan consensus in Colombia.
Coffee had been cultivated for decades in parts of Colombia, but after 1910
production expanded rapidly, especially in the Cordillera Central. Most of
Colombia’s coffee was grown by small farmers who owned their own land. Because
profits from coffee exports stayed in Colombia and were widely shared, coffee
stimulated industrial development, especially the textile industry of Medellín.
Foreign investment also increased during these years, especially in banana
production on the Caribbean coast and in the oil fields of the central Magdalena
River Valley. The country’s economic situation also improved in the 1920s when
the United States paid Colombia $25 million to compensate for the loss of
Panama.
Colombia’s economic growth fostered the
development of a fledgling labor movement, and during the 1920s large strikes
occurred in the oil and banana industries. Repression of these strikes,
especially a massacre of banana workers by the Colombian army in 1928, worked to
discredit the Conservative government. The onset of a worldwide economic
depression further undermined the Conservatives.
In 1930 Conservatives peacefully
transferred power to the Liberals, who controlled the Colombian government until
1946. Under the leadership of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who served as president
from 1934 to 1938, the Liberals enacted a series of social and economic reforms.
In 1936 constitutional amendments gave the government power to regulate
privately owned property in the national interest; established the right of
workers to strike, subject to legal regulation; removed Roman Catholicism from
its position as the official state religion; and shifted control of public
education from the Catholic Church to the government.
Many Conservatives strongly opposed the
Liberal reforms, and they withdrew from participating in the Liberal government.
By the end of the 1930s, many moderate Liberals had also withdrawn their support
for López’s reforms.
Divided over the question of social
reform, the Liberals split their votes between two candidates in the
presidential election of 1946. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a famous criminal lawyer
and a masterful orator, challenged the official candidate of the party, Gabriel
Turbay. Gaitán was of mixed racial ancestry, and he cast himself as a champion
of the dispossessed. He was highly critical of what he called the oligarchy, the
elite that dominated the two traditional parties and Colombian society
generally. Although Gaitán’s program was vague, he captured the fervent support
of many poor and middle-class urban voters.
With the Liberal vote split, the
Conservative candidate, Mariano Ospina Pérez, won the presidency in 1946.
Although Ospina named a bipartisan cabinet, Conservatives in the countryside
often sought exclusive control over local government. Tensions between the two
parties increased, and violence broke out in many rural areas. Meanwhile, Gaitán
emerged as the preeminent leader of the Liberal Party and eloquently denounced
the escalating violence.
G | An Era of Violence |
On April 9, 1948, Gaitán was
assassinated outside his law offices in downtown Bogotá. The assassination
marked the start of a decade of bloodshed, called La Violencia (the
violence), which took the lives of an estimated 180,000 Colombians before it
subsided in 1958. The violence was difficult for participants and subsequent
observers to fully comprehend. Although it reflected social and economic
tensions, it revolved around the partisan political concerns that had divided
the two traditional parties since the 19th century.
Following the murder of Gaitán, crowds
of his supporters took control of downtown Bogotá, burning churches and other
symbols of Conservative power and looting many businesses. It was three days
before the Colombian army reestablished control of the city. Meanwhile, Liberal
partisans deposed government officials in many towns and villages across the
country. Government forces quickly reestablished control of urban areas but the
Liberal opposition soon organized guerrilla bands in the countryside.
Moderate Liberals and Conservatives
sought to quell the escalating violence and form an effective bipartisan
government following the events of April 1948. However, tension between the
parties and the upheaval in the countryside undermined these efforts. Liberal
members withdrew from the government and boycotted the presidential elections.
The victorious Conservative candidate, Laureano Gómez, took office in 1950.
Gómez, the leader of the right wing of
the Conservative party, moved vigorously to defeat the Liberal insurrection. His
government declared a state of siege and suspended the 1950 session of Congress.
In many areas, government police worked closely with paramilitary groups to
defeat the Liberal guerrillas and to terrorize the guerrillas’ alleged
supporters among the civilian population.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party declared
the government illegal soon after Gómez was inaugurated and continued its
boycott of elections. In February 1953, right-wing Conservatives proposed a new
constitution that many moderates in both parties believed would lead to a
totalitarian regime. In June, with backing from these moderates, a military
junta overthrew the Conservative government.
General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was named
provisional president of the new military regime, and in 1954 a constitutional
convention elected him to a four-year term. Ruling by decree, Rojas offered
amnesty to Liberals in revolt and initially succeeded in convincing many to lay
down their arms. By 1956, however, violence in the countryside was again on the
rise, and moderates of both parties were becoming critical of the authoritarian
policies of the Rojas regime.
In 1957, following strikes and
demonstrations against the government, another military coup deposed Rojas.
Leaders of the Liberal and Conservative parties then arrived at an agreement to
share all government offices equally and alternate the presidency between them
for a period of 12 years. This arrangement, known as the National Front, was
approved in a plebiscite on December 1, 1957, and early in 1958 it was extended
to 16 years.
H | The National Front |
The National Front effectively brought
an end to the large-scale violence that had wracked the country since the late
1940s. Its power-sharing formula eliminated the partisanship between the two
traditional parties that destabilized Colombian politics after 1946. The four
presidents who served under the National Front (Liberals Alberto Lleras Camargo,
1958-1962, and Carlos Lleras Restrepo, 1966-1970; Conservatives Guillermo León
Valencia, 1962-1966, and Misael Pastrana Borrero, 1970-1974) presided over an
era of relative political peace.
During the 1960s, however, guerrilla
groups inspired by the Cuban Revolution appeared in Colombia. These groups
sought to transform Colombia’s capitalist society into a socialist one. Small
remnants of the guerrillas from the era of La Violencia joined forces
with some of these groups, one of which, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias
Colombianas (FARC, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), eventually
became a major political force. Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, however,
leftist guerrillas did not pose a significant threat to the government.
National Front governments sought to
promote national development and political stability by launching modest
agrarian reform beginning in 1962 and increasing spending on education, health,
and housing. Colombia undertook these initiatives with support from the United
States under a program known as the Alliance for Progress. This program sought
to undercut the appeal of communism and foster capitalist development and
liberal democracy in Latin America. The United States also provided increased
military aid to the Colombian government in an effort to eliminate the leftist
guerrillas.
Critics of the National Front argued
that it failed to address the magnitude of the social problems facing the
nation. They also claimed that it limited the prospects for third parties,
especially those on the left. What is certain is that fewer people voted during
the National Front years. Less than one-fifth of those eligible to vote actually
cast ballots in the 1970 presidential election, the last held under the rules of
the National Front. The low turnout of that year was all the more remarkable
because the official candidate, Misael Pastrana Borrero, was almost defeated by
Rojas Pinilla running as a dissident Conservative. Supporters of Rojas claimed
the election returns were manipulated to defeat their candidate. Some later took
up arms against the state under the banner of the Movimiento 19 de Abril
(M-19, 19th of April Movement), so named for the date of the 1970 presidential
election.
I | A New Era of Violence |
Following the end of the National Front
and the return of competitive elections in 1974, the two traditional parties
continued to dominate Colombian politics, but this domination lasted only until
the beginning of the 21st century. Six of the eight presidents elected after
1974 were Liberals. In 2002, however, Colombians rejected the official candidate
of the Liberal Party, electing Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who ran as an independent.
All of these governments had to grapple with the growing power of leftist
guerrillas and paramilitary right-wing forces. In addition these governments
tried to stop the illegal drug trade.
I1 | Leftist Guerrillas |
Originally the leftist guerrillas
sought to overthrow the government and create a socialist regime. Over time,
however, their goals have become less clear. The collapse of the Soviet Union
(see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in 1991 made socialism less
appealing throughout the world and also eliminated Soviet support for
revolutionary groups in Latin America. In addition, decades of struggle against
the government made insurgency itself a way of life. Revolutionary groups
support themselves through kidnapping, extortion, and income derived from
protecting producers, processors, and traffickers of illegal drugs. These
activities tend to undermine their commitment to revolutionary ideals and goals.
Nevertheless the main guerrilla groups continue to demand a radical
restructuring of Colombia’s liberal capitalist order. Estimates placed the
number of combatants in the FARC as high as 18,000 men and women in 2001, up
from some 4,000 in 1985. The other large guerrilla group active in the country
is the Ejercito de Liberación Nacional (ELN, Army of National
Liberation), estimated to have about 5,000 combatants. As the 21st century
began, however, the ELN engaged in disarmament talks.
Since the 1980s, Colombian governments
have simultaneously combated the guerrillas militarily while trying to negotiate
with them to bring their insurgency to an end. Conservative president Belisario
Betancur, who served from 1982 to 1986, made the first concerted effort at
negotiation and announced a truce with the guerrillas in 1984. In response, the
FARC launched a new political party, the Unión Popular (UP, Patriotic
Union), in 1985 to compete in future elections. The UP achieved some electoral
success in subsequent years, but the FARC never disarmed.
With the formation of the UP, the FARC
pursued power through both military and political means. This pursuit made the
UP especially vulnerable to clandestine right-wing repression. Many right-wing
and centrist forces simply saw the UP as a front for the FARC guerrillas. In
subsequent years, death squads killed hundreds of UP militants, including the UP
presidential candidates in 1986 and 1990.
Betancur’s peace initiatives suffered
another grave blow in November 1985 when M-19 guerrillas seized the Palace of
Justice, the seat of the country’s Supreme Court, in Bogotá. They took dozens of
hostages, and the Colombian army stormed the Palace. The military assault left
more than 100 people dead, including 11 Supreme Court justices.
Eventually the M-19 agreed to
demobilize, and its leaders played a prominent role in the constituent assembly
that wrote a new constitution for Colombia in 1991. The Constitution of 1991
provided the legal basis for a more decentralized, pluralistic, and democratic
government, including provisions to foster the development of new political
parties.
Throughout the 1990s the Colombian
government worked to negotiate an end to the guerrilla insurgency. The most
ambitious of these efforts occurred following the election of Conservative
Andrés Pastrana to the presidency in 1998. Pastrana created a safe haven for the
FARC in southeastern Colombia. The safe haven was an area where no government
troops could enter. Peace negotiations between the government and the FARC took
place between 1999 and 2001. During 2000 the two sides agreed on an ambitious
agenda, including agrarian reform, historically the FARC’s most fundamental
concern. But the two sides made little progress on substantive issues, and by
the end of 2001 negotiations had collapsed.
Meanwhile, the ELN demanded a safe
haven of its own near the petroleum complex at Barrancabermeja in the Magdalena
Valley. The ELN’s primary goal has been to nationalize Colombia’s oil industry,
and it has inflicted great damage by repeatedly blowing up the country’s most
important oil pipeline. However, a safe haven for the ELN never materialized
under the Pastrana government. The government of Álvaro Uribe, with U.S.
military support, attempted to protect the pipeline more effectively.
I2 | The Paramilitary Right |
Throughout the 1990s, the strength of
the leftist guerrillas grew, and the government was unable to defeat them or
negotiate their surrender. The situation gave rise to another armed contender in
Colombia’s civil war, the paramilitary right. The government initially
encouraged the forerunners of some of these paramilitary groups as a way to
protect rural communities from the guerrillas. Other paramilitary groups evolved
after large landowners, some of them newly rich from the drug trade, hired armed
bands to protect them from extortion and kidnapping.
The main paramilitary group was the
Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC, United Self-Defense Groups of
Colombia). Paramilitary groups were scattered throughout the country and were
especially strong in areas of the southeast, where the FARC was most powerful,
and the northwest, where much of ELN’s strength lay.
The right-wing paramilitary groups
rarely confronted the guerrillas directly. Instead, they sought through terror
to deny the guerrillas the support of the civilian population. International
human rights organizations blamed paramilitaries for the bulk of human rights
violations in Colombia. They also accused elements of the Colombian armed forces
of working with paramilitary groups against guerrillas and their alleged
sympathizers.
I3 | The Drug Trade |
Colombian governments also had to
contend with major changes in the national economy. After 1980 Colombia began
exporting large amounts of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine. The estimated value
of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the value of Colombia’s legal
exports from 1980 to 1995. Earnings from the drug trade helped Colombia avoid
the debt crisis that afflicted much of Latin America during the 1980s. But by
cheapening the dollar and thereby overvaluing the Colombian peso, the drug trade
also undermined the competitiveness of Colombia’s legal exports by making them
more expensive than similar exports from other countries.
The illegal drug trade led to the
growth of an enormously wealthy and powerful criminal establishment centered
initially in Medellín and Cali. In the late 1980s, under increasing pressure
from the United States, Colombian governments began to crack down on these drug
traffickers, threatening to extradite them to the United States, where
punishment was both more effective and more severe than in Colombia.
In response, the head of the Medellín
drug cartel, Pablo Escobar, unleashed a bombing campaign that killed hundreds of
civilians in Colombia’s major cities. Drug money was also behind the
assassinations of three presidential candidates in 1990. The Constitution of
1991 prohibited extradition, but the Colombian government reinstated it soon
thereafter. Escobar was eventually apprehended and killed in 1993.
By the late 1990s Colombia’s drug war
had shifted toward efforts to eradicate coca, plants that are used to make
cocaine, and poppies, flowers that are used to make opium. In 1999 the Colombian
government announced Plan Colombia, a program to decrease the cultivation of
coca and poppies in areas of southeastern Colombia largely controlled by the
FARC. The following year the United States announced that it would give $1.3
billion in aid, primarily for military hardware such as helicopters and planes,
to support aerial fumigation of coca and poppy fields.
Critics of the plan claimed that the
spraying was dangerous to human health and the environment, that the small
farmers who grew the coca had no viable economic alternatives, and that the
plan’s real purpose was to aid the Colombian military in its battle against the
guerrillas. Supporters of Plan Colombia denied these allegations and claimed
fumigation would significantly reduce coca cultivation. Early data indicated
that Colombian coca production continued to rise.
J | Recent Trends |
In the 1990s the Colombian government
implemented policies to liberalize trade by cutting tariffs, which had protected
domestic industry and agriculture. These policies contributed to the country’s
high levels of unemployment. By the end of the 1990s the official unemployment
figure in Colombia had reached almost 20 percent, one of the highest levels in
Latin America. Unemployment figures began to drop in the early 2000s.
The Colombian economy also suffered from
insecurity spawned by the country’s violence. With the greatest number of
kidnappings in the world and the highest homicide rate in the Americas, Colombia
held little attraction for investors. The gravity of the economic situation also
contributed to the frequency of common crime and to the pool of potential
recruits for guerrilla and paramilitary groups, both of which pay their
combatants salaries.
President Álvaro Uribe, a former Liberal
who ran as an independent, was inaugurated in 2002 after winning the first round
of the presidential elections. Uribe stepped up the military effort against the
leftist guerrillas and pledged to double the size of Colombia’s military and
police forces, winning the support of the Conservative Party in the process.
Like his predecessors, Uribe also pursued negotiations with the guerrillas, and
he emphasized the need for international mediation to end the conflict.
At Uribe’s request, the United States
took a more active role in training and supplying the Colombian military in its
war against the guerrillas. By 2003 U.S. forces were also actively involved in
protecting Colombia’s northern pipeline. The FARC responded to these initiatives
by detonating bombs in Colombia’s cities and targeting U.S. forces directly. By
mid-2003 some observers believed that Colombia was on the verge of a full-scale
civil war.
The government began formal peace talks
with the paramilitary AUC in 2004, and the AUC announced that it would disarm
several thousand of its members. However, the AUC wanted total amnesty on any
charges related to drugs or human-rights violations. The United States sought
extradition of a number of AUC leaders for drug trafficking. The outcome of the
peace talks remained far from clear. In March 2006 political supporters of Uribe
won a majority control of the Colombian congress. The same month his government
finalized a free trade agreement with the United States.
Uribe was easily reelected in the May
2006 presidential elections, claiming more than 60 percent of the vote. Uribe
again ran as an independent but with the backing of the Conservative Party,
which did not field a candidate. Colombian voters credited Uribe with ending
much of the daily violence that had plagued Colombia, while isolating and
weakening the FARC.
Charles Bergquist wrote the History
section of this article; the remainder was reviewed by David Robinson.
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