COLOMBIA

Republic of Colombia

República de Colombia

CAPITAL: Bogotá

FLAG: The national flag consists of three horizontal stripes; the yellow upper stripe is twice as wide as each of the other two, which are blue and red.

ANTHEM: Himno Nacional, beginning "O gloria inmarcesible, júbilo inmortal" ("O unwithering glory, immortal joy").

MONETARY UNIT: The Colombian peso (c$) of 100 centavos is a paper currency. There are coins of 10, 20, and 50 centavos and of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 pesos, and notes of 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 pesos. Commemorative gold coins of various denominations also have been minted. c$1 = us$0.00043 (or us$1 = c$2,324.08) as of 2005.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: The metric system is the official standard, but Spanish units such as the botella, vara, fonegada, arroba, and quintal also are used.

HOLIDAYS: New Year's Day, 1 January; Epiphany, 6 January; St. Joseph's Day, 19 March; Labor Day, 1 May; Day of St. Peter and St. Paul, 29 June; Independence Day, 20 July; Battle of Boyacá, 7 August; Assumption, 15 August; Columbus Day, 12 October; All Saints' Day, 1 November; Independence of Cartagena, 11 November; Immaculate Conception, 8 December; Christmas, 25 December. Movable religious holidays include Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Ascension, Sacred Heart, and Corpus Christi. In addition there are six official commemorative days.

TIME: 7 am = noon GMT.

LOCATION, SIZE, AND EXTENT

Colombia is the only South American country with both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines. The fourth-largest country in South America, it has a total area of 1,138,910 sq km (439,736 sq mi), including insular possessions, and extends 1,700 km (1,060 mi) nnw–sse and 1,210 km (750 mi) nne–ssw. Comparatively, the area occupied by Colombia is slightly less than three times the size of the state of Montana. Bordered on the n by the Caribbean Sea, on the ne by Venezuela, on the se by Brazil, on the sw by Peru and Ecuador, on the w by the Pacific Ocean, and on the nw by Panama, the Colombian mainland is located entirely within the tropics. Its total boundary length is 6,004 km (3,731 mi). Its coastlines extend 3,208 km (1,993 mi).

Also held by the Republic of Colombia (though claimed by Nicaragua) are the archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia in the Caribbean Sea, about 190 km (120 mi) off the coast of Nicaragua, and the islands of Malpelo, Gorgona, and Gorgonilla in the Pacific Ocean. (In 2001 Nicaragua filed a claim in the International Court of Justice regarding these islands.) Colombia also holds the uninhabited Caribbean islands of Quita Sueño Bank, Roncador Cay, and Serrana Bank, to which the United States renounced all rights under the Treaty of Quita Sueño, ratified by the US Senate in July 1981; Nicaragua also disputes this claim. Colombia has a dispute with Venezuela over maritime rights in the Gulf of Venezuela. Negotiations have been going on unsuccessfully since 1970, and in August 1987, a Colombian naval vessel entered the disputed region in an apparent attempt to make Venezuela more responsive.

Colombia's capital city, Bogotá, is located in the center of the country.

TOPOGRAPHY

The Andes Mountains divide just north of Colombia's southern border with Ecuador into three separate chains, or cordilleras, known as the Cordillera Occidental (western), the Cordillera Central, and the Cordillera Oriental (eastern). The western and central cordilleras run roughly parallel with the Pacific coast, extending northward as far as the Caribbean coastal lowlands. They are alike in geological structure, both being composed of massive crystalline rocks. The Cordillera Central is the highest range of the Colombian Andes, with several volcanic cones whose snow-covered peaks rise to about 5,500 m (18,000 ft), notably Huila (5,750 m/18,865 ft). The third chain, the Cordillera Oriental, runs northeastward, bifurcating into an eastern branch, the Sierra de los Andes, which slopes down to Venezuela, and a second branch, the Sierra de Perijá, which continues northward to terminate on the border between Venezuela and Colombia just south of the Guajira Peninsula. This range is composed of folded stratified rocks over a crystalline core.

On the margin of the Caribbean stands the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated block of mountains composed of a triangular massif of granite, whose highest elevation is Pico Cristóbal Colón (5,775 m/18,947 ft), the tallest peak in Colombia. In the town of Arboletes in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, there are a number of active mud volcanoes, one of the largest of which fills a volcanic crater and attracts many locals and tourists who swim and bathe in the mud lake. West of the Cordillera Occidental but not geologically a part of the Andean chain is the low Serranía de Baudó, which skirts the Pacific and extends into the Isthmus of Panama.

Separating the three principal Andean ranges are Colombia's two major rivers, the Cauca (1,014 km/630 mi), which flows northward between the western and central cordilleras, and the Magdalena (1,553 km/965 mi), which divides the central and eastern cordilleras. After emerging from the mountains, the two rivers become one and descend through marshy lowlands to the Caribbean. The area south and east of the Andean ranges is largely composed of river plains divided among the effluents of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. Open plains immediately adjoin the mountains, but as the distance from the cordillera increases, the plains give way to largely uninhabited and unexplored jungle. The Pacific coastal area is also characterized by jungle vegetation. Principal rivers on the Pacific coast include the Baudó, San Juan, and Patía.

CLIMATE

Colombia's climatic variations are determined by altitude, and seasons are periods of lesser or greater rainfall, with little or no temperature change. The country may be divided vertically into four regions. The hot country, ortierra caliente, is the tropical zone, reaching from sea level to roughly 1,100 m (3,500 ft), where the mean annual temperature is 24°c to 27°c (75–81°f); at sea level, temperatures have a mean maximum of 38°c (100°f) and a minimum of 18°c (64°f). Between 1,100 m (3,500 ft) and 2,000 m (6,500 ft) is the temperate zone, ortierra templada, where the average year-round temperature is about 18°c (64°f). Between 2,000 m (6,500 ft) and 3,000 m (10,000 ft) is the cold country, ortierra fría, with temperatures averaging a little over 13°c (55°f). Above the 3,000-m (10,000-ft) level the temperature varies from 13°c to -17°c (55°f to 1°f), according to altitude. The annual mean temperature at the capital, Bogotá (altitude 2,598 m/8,525 ft), is 14°c (57°f).

Rainfall is heaviest on the west coast and in the Andean area; rainy and dry seasons, or "winter" and "summer," generally alternate in three-month cycles, as in Bogotá, where precipitation occurs most heavily and consistently during the periods of April to June and October to December. Northern areas have only one long rainy season, from May through October. The annual average rainfall is 107 cm (42 in).

FLORA AND FAUNA

More than 45,000 species of plants have been identified in Colombia, but it is predicted that when the region is thoroughly explored that number may be doubled. At the highest (3,000–4,600 m/10,000–15,000 ft) and coldest level of mountain meadows, called páramos, the soil supports grasses, small herbaceous plants, and dense masses of low bushes. In the intermontane basins some vegetables, European-introduced grains, and corn are found, along with the bushes, trees, and meadow grasses indigenous to the region. The temperate areas support extensive and luxuriant forests, ferns, mosses, trees of the laurel family, Spanish cedars, vegetables, and grain crops. The tropical zone may be divided into four main groups according to the amount of rainfall received: desert like areas supporting arid plants, deciduous forests, rain forests, and grass plains. Palm trees of various species abound in the tropics and there are many edible fruits and vegetables.

Animal life is abundant, especially in the tropical area. Among carnivorous species are puma, a variety of smaller cats, raccoons, and mustelids. Herbivores include the tapir, peccary, deer, and large tropical rodents. Sloths, anteaters, opossums, and several types of monkeys are also found, as well as some 1,665 species and subspecies of South American and migratory birds. As of 2002, there were at least 359 species of mammals, 708 species of birds, and over 51,200 species of plants throughout the country.

ENVIRONMENT

Colombia's main environmental problems are soil erosion, deforestation, and the preservation of its wildlife. Soil erosion has resulted from the loss of vegetation and heavy rainfall, and the soil has also been damaged by overuse of pesticides. Deforestation has resulted from the commercial exploitation of the country's forests, which cover approximately 47.8% of the country. Between 1981 and 1985, 820,000 hectares (2,260,000 acres) were lost each year, and 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) were reforested. Between 1983 and 1993, Colombia lost another 5.8% of its forest and woodland. from 1990–2000, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 0.4% per year. Air pollution from vehicle emissions is also a problem, especially in Bogotá. Safe drinking water is available to 99% of urban dwellers and 70% of the rural population.

The Colombian government has initiated several programs to protect the environment. By 1959, the Amazon forests, the Andean area, and the Pacific coast were protected. In 1973, the government created the National Resources and Environment Code. The main environmental agency is the Institute for Development of Renewable Natural Resources and the Environment (INDERENA), established in 1969. Among other activities, it has undertaken extensive projects in the training of personnel in conservation, fishing, and forestry. The Colombian Sanitary Code, in force since January 1982, establishes pollution control standards. The National Environmental Education Plan for 1991–94 introduces environmental issues in the elementary schools. In 2003, about 10.2% of the total land area was nationally protected. Los Katios National Park is a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are three Ramsar wetland sites.

According to a 2006 report issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), threatened species included 39 types of mammals, 86 species of birds, 15 types of reptiles, 208 species of amphibians, 23 species of fish, and 222 species of plants. Endangered species in Colombia include the tundra peregrine falcon, Cauca guan, gorgeted wood-quail, red siskin, pinche, five species of turtle (green sea, hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback, and arrau), two species of alligator (spectacled caiman and black caiman), and two of crocodile (American and Orinoco). The Colombian grebe and the Caribbean monk seal have become extinct.

POPULATION

The population of Colombia in 2005 was estimated by the United Nations (UN) at 46,039,000, which placed it at number 28 in population among the 193 nations of the world. In 2005, approximately 5% of the population was over 65 years of age, with another 32% of the population under 15 years of age. There were 98 males for every 100 females in the country. According to the UN, the annual population rate of change for 2005–2010 was expected to be 1.7%; the government sought to reduce adolescent fertility, which it viewed as too high. The projected population for the year 2025 was 58,294,000. The population density was 41 per sq km (105 per sq mi), with about 95% of the population residing in the mountainous western half of the country.

A rapid transfer of population to urban centers has taken place since the 1950s, and during the 1990s, over a million people were internally displaced. The UN estimated that 75% of the population lived in urban areas in 2005, and that urban areas were growing at an annual rate of 1.96%. The capital city, Bogotá, had a population of 7,290,000 in that year. The populations of other major metropolitan areas were as follows: Medellín, 3,236,000; Cali, 2,583,000; and Barranquilla, 1,918,000. Other metropolitan areas include Cartagena, Bucaramanga, and Cúcuta.

MIGRATION

Despite government inducements, such as the granting of agricultural land in the eastern plains, immigration has been insignificant, partly because of guerrilla activity and violence. Emigration is small but significant, since many of those who leave the country are scientists, technicians, and doctors. Between 1951 and 1985, some 218,724 Colombians settled in the United States. In 1990 there were more persons in the United States of Colombian birth—304,000—than of any other South American nationality.

As of May 1997, more than 900,000 people had been internally displaced by the violence between the leftist guerrillas and government forces. Though estimates varied, studies agree that displacement is pan-national and on the rise. Twenty-seven provinces within Colombia have been affected by the internal displacement in as far as most of the displaced people have moved to the cities of Colombia. According to SISDESC (System of Information on the Families Displaced by Violence in Colombia), in 1997, every two hours two families were displaced by violence in the country. Between 1985 and 2004, Colombia's internally displaced population numbered 3,100,000.

While the level of external displacement does not match the level of internal displacement, there is a steady outflow of people fleeing the country. The three neighboring countries most affected by cross-border movements are Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In 1999, about 3,000 Colombians from the north of Santander Department fled to Venezuela in response to the armed conflict in the region. In 2004, there were 141 refugees in Colombia, 85 asylum seekers, and 2,000,000 internally displaced persons. As of 2005, the net migration rate of Colombia was estimated as 0.31 migrants per 1,000 population. The government views the migrant levels as satisfactory.

ETHNIC GROUPS

The predominant racial strain in Colombia is the mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian), constituting about 58% of the total population. An estimated 20% of the inhabitants are of unmixed white ancestry; 14% are mulatto (black-white); 4% are black; 3% are zambo (black-Amerindian); and 1% are pure Amerindian. Blacks and mulattoes are concentrated in the coastal regions and tropical valleys. Pure Amerindians are rapidly disappearing; the remaining few live mainly in inaccessible and barren regions. The principal Amerindian culture of Colombia during the pre-Columbian period was that of the Chibcha, whose descendants are today chiefly concentrated in the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander, and Norte de Santander. The Motilones, one of the few surviving Amerindian groups untouched by civilization in South America, inhabit the region west of Lake Maracaibo and the Venezuelan border; they are famous for their lethal weapon, the black palm bow and arrow. Small, diverse Amerindian groups also inhabit the eastern extremities of the Colombian plains region, the south, and the western coastal jungles.

LANGUAGES

The official language, Spanish, is spoken by all but a few Amerindian tribes. Spanish as spoken and written by educated Colombians is generally considered the closest to Castilian in Latin America.

RELIGIONS

Roman Catholicism was the country's official religion until the adoption of the 1991 constitution. The current law states that there is no official or state religion but adds that the state is "not atheist or agnostic, nor indifferent to Colombians' religious sentiment." Some have interpreted this as meaning that the Roman Catholic Church retains a privileged position; however, a 1994 constitutional court decision declared unconstitutional any official government reference to religious characterizations of the country.

According to a national poll commissioned by the nation's leading newspaper, El Tiempo, 81% of the people are Roman Catholic and about 14% belong to other Christian denominations. Officials from the Roman Catholic Church, however, estimate that 90% of the population is Roman Catholic. Protestant groups such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints make up less than 1% of the population. Other religious faiths or movements include Judaism, Islam, animism, various syncretic beliefs, agnosticism, and atheism. A number of Afro-Colombians, particularly those residing in the department of Choco, practice a syncretic religion which combines elements of Catholicism with African animism. About 1.9% of the population claimed no religious beliefs.

According to a 1997 public law agreement, non-Catholic religious organizations must receive special permission from the state in order to provide chaplains to public institutions such as hospitals or prisons or to perform marriages recognized by the state. Total membership, social popularity, and the content of an organization's statutes and required behavioral norms are considered before permission is granted. As of 2004, only 13 non-Catholic churches had received the necessary status to perform legal marriages.

A 2004 report indicated that religious leaders and followers were regular targets of killings, kidnappings, and extortion by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). However, many of the incidents in question seemed to be motivated primarily by political and economic issues.

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation lacks integration, owing to the mountainous terrain. For this reason, air transportation has become the most important means of travel for most passengers. Despite the development of roads and railways, river travel has remained the chief mode of transportation for cargo since the trip up the Magdalena River in 1536 by the Spanish conqueror Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Inland waterways navigable by riverboats totaled 9,187 km (5,742 mi) in 2004. The Magdalena, the fourth-largest river in South America, is navigable for 950 km (590 mi) and carries almost all of Colombia's river traffic.

The railroads, which were nationalized in 1954 and deregulated in 1989, had a combined 3,304 km (2,053 mi) of standard and narrow gauge track in 2004. Of that total, narrow gauge accounted for 3,154 km (1,962 mi).

Also in 2002 there were about 110,000 km (68,354 mi) of roads, of which only about 26,000 km (16,156 mi) were paved. Many roads are plagued by landslides and washouts. The 2,800-km (1,700-mi) Caribbean Trunk Highway, completed in 1974, links the Atlantic ports of Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta with the Pan-American Highway (south of Panama) and the Venezuelan highway system. In 2003 there were 850,000 passenger cars and 534,500 commercial motor vehicles.

Owing to inadequate land transport, air service is essential and well developed. A flight from Bogotá to Medellín takes only half an hour, while a truck requires 24 hours over a winding mountain road. In 2004 there were an estimated 980 airports. As of 2005, only 100 had paved runways, and there were also 2 heliports. Colombia's airline, Avianca, is the second-oldest commercial airline in the world and one of the largest in Latin America. Avianca handles about two-thirds of the domestic and international movement of passengers. Most of the country's air transportation is handled by the six principal airports at Bogotá, Barranquilla (E. Cortissoz), Medellín, Cali, Cartagena (Rafael Núñez), and San Andreas. In 2003, these airports serviced about 9.143 million passengers.

Colombia's merchant marine is dominated by the Grand Colombian Merchant Fleet (Flota), a stock corporation owned by the Colombian Coffee Federation. In 2005, merchant marine companies had an aggregate of 15 vessels with 1,000 GRT or over, totaling 35,427 GRT. The nation's chief ports on the Caribbean are Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Santa Marta. Buenaventura is the only important Pacific port.

HISTORY

Archaeological studies indicate that Colombia was inhabited by various Amerindian groups as early as 11,000 bc. Prominent among the pre-Columbian cultures were the highland Chibchas, a sedentary agricultural people located in the eastern chain of the Andes.

The first Spanish settlement, Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast, dates from 1525. In 1536, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and a company of 900 men traveled up the Magdalena River in search of the legendary land of El Dorado. They entered the heart of Chibcha territory in 1538, conquered the inhabitants, and established Bogotá. As a colony, Colombia, then called New Granada, was ruled from Lima, Peru, until it was made a viceroyalty. The viceroyalty of New Granada, consolidated in 1740, incorporated modern Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The area became Spain's chief source of gold and was exploited for emeralds and tobacco.

In the late 1700s, a separatist movement developed, stemming from arbitrary taxation and the political and commercial restrictions placed on American-born colonists. Among the Bogotá revolutionaries was Antonio Nariño, who had been jailed for printing a translation of the French Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man. Independence, declared on 20 July 1810, was not assured until 7 August 1819, when the Battle of Boyacá was won by Simón Bolívar's troops. After this decisive victory, Bolívar was tumultuously acclaimed "Liberator" and given money and men to overthrow the viceroyalty completely.

After 1819, Bolívar's Republic of Gran Colombia included Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. Venezuela and Ecuador seceded, but Panama remained part of Colombia. In 1831 the country became the State of New Granada. Political and financial order was attained under Francisco de Paula Santander, Bolívar's vice president, who took office in 1832. During Santander's four-year term and in the subsequent decade there was intense disagreement over the relative amount of power to be granted to the central and state governments and over the amount of power and freedom to be given to the Roman Catholic Church. Characterized by Bolívar as Colombia's "man of laws," Santander directed the course of the nation toward democracy and sound, orderly government.

By 1845, the supporters of strong central government had organized and become known as the Conservatives, while the federalists had assumed the Liberal label. The respective doctrines of the two parties throughout their history have differed on two basic points: the importance of the central governing body and the relationship that should exist between church and state. Conservatism has characteristically stood for highly centralized government and the perpetuation of traditional class and clerical privileges, and it long opposed the extension of voting rights. The Liberals have stressed states' rights, universal suffrage, and the complete separation of church and state. The periods during which the Liberals were in power (1849–57, 1861–80) were characterized by frequent insurrections and civil wars and by a policy of government decentralization and strong anticlericalism.

As effective ruler of the nation for nearly 15 years (1880–94), the Conservative Rafael Núñez, a poet and intellectual, restored centralized government and the power of the church. During his tenure as president, the republican constitution of 1886 was adopted, under which the State of New Granada formally became the Republic of Colombia. A civil war known as the War of a Thousand Days (1899–1902) resulted in more than 100,000 deaths, and the national feeling of demoralization and humiliation was intensified by the loss of Panama in 1903. After refusing to ratify without amendments a treaty leasing a zone across the Isthmus of Panama to the United States, Colombia lost the territory by virtue of a US-supported revolt that created the Republic of Panama. Colombia did not recognize Panama's independence until 1914, in exchange for rights in the Canal Zone and an indemnity from the United States.

Conservative presidents held power between 1909 and 1930, and Liberals from 1930 to 1942. During World War II, which Colombia entered on the side of the Allies, social and political divisions within the country intensified.

The postwar period was marked by growing social unrest in the capital and in the countryside. Politics became much more violent, especially after the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the leftist Liberal mayor of Bogotá. This sparked protests that developed into riots, the "Bogotazo," in Bogotá, the end of which only lead Liberals and Conservatives into sporadic guerrilla fighting. This extended and bloody period is commonly known as La Violencia, it claimed 150,000 to 200,000 lives. The political system in the 1950s had become irrelevant in the midst of the violence. Three years of Conservative government were followed by a populist military government under Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who managed a slightly successful recovery of arms from guerrillas. Rojas ruled as an absolute dictator, but could not quell the violence still raging in the field. Overthrown largely by a coalition of Conservatives and Liberals who used newsprint as their weapon, Rojas gave up power in May 1957 to a military junta, which promised and provided free elections.

When the fall of Rojas was imminent, Liberal and Conservative leaders met to discuss Colombia's future. The period of La Violencia had convinced Colombia's elite that there was a need to bring the rivalry between Liberals and Conservatives under control. Determined to end the violence and initiate a democratic system, the parties entered into a pact establishing a coalition government between the two parties for 16 years. This arrangement, called the Sitges Agreement, created the National Front and was ratified by a plebiscite in December 1957. Under the terms of this agreement, a free election would be held in 1958. The parties would then alternate in power for four-year terms until 1974. Thus, Liberals and Conservatives would take turns in the presidency. Parties were also guaranteed equal numbers of posts in the cabinet and in the national and departmental legislatures.

In 1958, the first election under the National Front, was won by Liberal Alberto Lleras Camargo. As provided in the agreement, he was succeeded in 1962 by a Conservative, National Front candidate Guillermo León Valencia.

During this time another civil war period began. A group of leftist liberals who had established small independent agrarian republics during La Violencia and who were cut out of the power-sharing Sitges Agreement, were attacked by the government in 1964. Two years later the survivors formed the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) with the stated goal of overthrowing the government. A year earlier in 1965, another group with roots in La Violencia, the ELN (Ejercito de la Liberacion Nacional), formed the second major revolutionary group after receiving training in revolutionary war tactics in Cuba.

In May 1966, Colombia held another peaceful election, won by Carlos Lleras Restrepo, a Liberal economist. Although lacking the necessary two-thirds majority required under the Colombian constitution to pass legislation, Lleras came to power with the firm support of the press and other important public sectors. His regime occupied itself with increasing public revenues, improving public administration, securing external financial assistance to supplement domestic savings, and preparing new overall development plans. In April 1970, Conservative Party leader Misael Pastrana Borrero, a former cabinet minister, was elected president, narrowly defeating former President Rojas. The election results were disputed but later upheld. A third major revolutionary group, the urban guerrilla M-19 (Movimiento 19) formed a few years later, taking their name from the 19 April 1970 elections dispute.

In August 1974, with the inauguration of the Liberal Alfonso López Michelsen as president, Colombia returned to a two-party system for presidential and congressional elections. As provided by a constitutional amendment of 1968, President López shared cabinet posts and other positions with the Conservative Party. In 1978, another Liberal candidate, Julio César Turbay Ayala, won the presidency, but because his margin of victory was slim (49.5% against the Conservatives' 46.6%), he continued the tradition of giving a number of cabinet posts to the opposition. In June 1982, just before leaving office, Turbay lifted the state of siege that had been in force intermittently since 1948.

Because of a split in the Liberal Party, the Conservatives won the 1982 elections, and a former senator and ambassador to Spain, Belisario Betancur Cuartas, was sworn in as president in August. He continued the tradition of including opposition party members in his cabinet, however, Betancur's most immediate problem was political violence. Since the late 1970s kidnappings and political murders by both left- and right-wing organizations had become common. In 1983, it was estimated that some 6,000 leftist guerrillas were active in Colombia in at least four guerrilla groups. The Betancur government pursued a policy of negotiation with the guerrillas. He offered amnesty and political recognition in exchange for the cessation of activity and for joining in the electoral process. Betancur's last year in office was marred when M-19 seized the Palace of Justice. Troops stormed the building; it was completely destroyed by fire and over 90 people were killed.

The 1986 election went resoundingly to the Liberals under the longtime politician Virgilio Barco Vargas, who campaigned on a platform of extensive economic and social reform that focused on poverty and unemployment. Barco won with a significant majority and the Conservative Party broke from the tradition started by the National Front by refusing cabinet and other government posts to the Liberals. President Barco did not match the rhetoric of his campaign with policies of any substance, and the economy continued to stagnate. Barco made no progress with drug traffickers, who arranged for the murder of his attorney-general. However, he was able to initiate a plan aimed at bringing guerrilla groups into the political system.

Also, in the 1980s a new military force came into being in Colombia, the paramilitary organizations. These were started by narcotics traffickers, wealthy civilians, businesses, political parties, and the military. This myriad of founders hired their paramilitaries for an equally variable number of violent ends: to assassinate, terrorize, protect from kidnappers, cleanse the country of socially unwanted peoples (such as drug addicts, thieves, prostitutes, beggars, street children, and others), and to fight against the rebels (such as the FARC, the ELN, and the M-19). By 1989 all paramilitary organizations were outlawed, but continued to operate with impunity. The complicated balance of military power in Colombia was then exercised through the government, the rebels, the narcotics traffickers, and the paramilitary organizations. It was estimated that during the 1980s Colombian drug traffickers controlled 80% of the world's cocaine trade.

The election of 1990 brought another Liberal, César Gaviria Trujillo, to the presidency. In that election, three candidates were assassinated. Gaviria continued Barco's outreach to the various leftist guerrilla groups, and in 1991 the notorious M-19 group demobilized and became a political party. The other groups chose to remain active. Gaviria responded to their intransigence in November 1992 by announcing new counterinsurgency measures and a hard-line policy against both guerrillas and drug traffickers. A constitutional assembly was also held to create a new constitution, which was promulgated on 5 July 1991. It included a number of reforms aimed at increasing the democratization of Colombia's elite-controlled political system.

The powerful Medellín cartel stepped up its terrorist attacks, including car bombings and political assassinations, but the new constitution strengthened government control and the leaders of the cartel surrendered to the Gaviria government in 1991. However, head boss Pablo Escobar escaped from government custody the following year, and was eventually hunted down and killed in 1993. Most top leaders of the Cali cartel, which had taken over much of the Medellín market, were arrested in 1995 and subsequently imprisoned. Even with the arrests, Colombia's lucrative drug trade continued to flourish.

In the 1994 elections, Colombians continued their preference for Liberal candidates, with Ernesto Samper Pizano winning a runoff election against Conservative TV newscaster Andrés Pastrana. In the general election, only 18,499 votes separated the two candidates. The campaign was again marked by widespread political violence. Samper's government was weakened by charges that he and other senior government officials had accepted money from drug traffickers during the 1994 election campaign. (Congress formally exonerated the president of these charges in 1996.)

As of 1996, there was a guerrilla presence in over half the country's villages and towns, and it was estimated that about one million Colombians had fled their homes between 1987 and 1997 as a result of rural violence. With forces estimated at 10,000, there was no apparent prospect that guerrilla groups would succeed in taking over the country, but they continued to thrive, relying heavily on funds from the drug cartels following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1998, the Conservative Party came back to power when Andrés Pastrana won the presidential election with 50.5% of the vote, defeating Liberal Horacio Serpa. Pastrana was committed to negotiations, but the absence of peace kept interrupting any progress. In November 1998, Pastrana ceded a large area in south-central Colombia to FARC's control as a goodwill gesture, but the rebels continued to mount attacks, until finally Pastrana ordered the military to attack rebel positions and reassert control over the rebel zone. The FARC felt betrayed and withdrew into the jungle. Similarly, Pastrana sought more collaboration from the United States to fight the war, but his efforts proved fruitless. What would have been an aid package turned into the adoption of Plan Colombia in 2000, a multibillion dollar initiative funded by the US government aimed at combating drug production. This generated criticism for its heavy focus on military action rather than economic incentives that could lead peasants to abandon coca leaf production.

In the 2002 presidential election, former Liberal Party leader turned independent Álvaro Uribe won with 53.1% of the vote. Campaigning on a tough platform against guerrilla leaders and drug traffickers, Uribe promised a relentless fight against organized crime if elected. In the first term Uribe's government increased the military and police presence throughout the country, increased social spending and health care, nationalized or reorganized many state-owned companies, and increased the number of indicted and extradited narcotics traffickers.

The two major developments in Uribe's first term were the demobilization of the paramilitary groups and the constitutional amendment to allow a president to run for a second term in office. The demobilization of the paramilitaries was controversial internationally because the leaders were penalized very lightly for their involvement in the drug trade, for the violent acts which they perpetrated, and because there appeared to be few guarantees that they would completely disarm or completely demobilize. Plan Colombia was pushed forward but the drug trade was not subdued. During his first term in office, Uribe enjoyed popular support and was able to build a coalition of Liberal and Conservative legislators to push through his tough plans against the guerrillas, as well as to amend the constitution to allow for a second term in office. As of December 2005, initial peace talks were ongoing with the ELN.

GOVERNMENT

Colombia is a unitary republic, organized democratically under the constitution of August 1886, substantially amended in 1910, 1936, 1945, 1957, 1959, 1968, and 1979, and superseded by the constitution of 1991, which included provisions guaranteeing health care, social security, and human rights protection.

The Congress consists of a 161-member Chamber of Representatives and a 102-member Senate. Members of both houses are elected directly for four-year terms. Colombian congressional representation is determined by the size of the population. Some seats are reserved for blacks, Indians, and other minorities. The chief executive is granted the initiative in fiscal policies and the power to declare a state of emergency during times of economic and social stress. Under such a declaration, the president may rule by decree for a period of not longer than 90 days in any one year. There is universal suffrage for those 18 years of age and over.

Historically, Colombia had an officer called the designado (designate), elected by Congress every two years, who served as a sort of vice president and was responsible for exercising the executive function in the president's absence. The 1991 constitution introduced a formal vice presidency. The Constitution was amended in 2005 to increase the number of terms a president is allowed to serve, from one to two consecutive four-year terms.

POLITICAL PARTIES

For many years, the Colombian constitution allowed only two political parties, the Liberal and the Conservative, to participate in the national government. These two parties consistently dominated Colombian politics. Recent changes allow for more parties, and several have emerged, but the Conservative and Liberal parties control the majority of elected offices.

The Liberal Party (Partido Liberal—PL) continues to support religious toleration and a positive response to the social and economic demands of the masses. The Liberals theoretically support separation of church and state, though in practice a strong church is accepted. Federalism, while important in theory, has been abandoned in practice by Liberal leaders. In general, Liberals have been more successful in elections since the end of the National Front than the Conservatives and have controlled the majority of seats in both houses.

The policy of the Conservative Party (Partido Conservador Social—PCS) has been characterized by close cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church, a lack of tolerance for non–Roman Catholic religious beliefs, maintenance of class privileges, and highly centralized government with local authority strictly subservient to national rule. Before universal suffrage, the Conservatives sought to allow only heads of families to vote. Under the leadership of Andrés Pastrana, the son of former Conservative president Misael Pastrana, the PCS regained the presidency in 1998.

Despite the spread of suffrage and the rise of industrialization and a middle class, both parties continue to be dominated by a wealthy oligarchy. Both are controlled at the national level by a convention and a directorate, and congressional discipline is strong. Since the National Front agreement of 1958, the two parties have become increasingly similar ideologically.

Congressional and presidential elections from 1958 through 1982 primarily constituted votes of confidence in the National Front. Perhaps as a means of protest, 60% of eligible voters abstained from the presidential election in 1978, and 80% of the electorate abstained from the municipal and local elections of March 1980. In 1982 and 1986, however, Colombian voters turned out in record numbers, with 55% of the electorate participating in the presidential ballot in 1982 and 57% in 1988.

The Colombian Communist Party (Partido Communista de Colombia—PCC), a traditional, Marxist-oriented party, combined with the nation's largest guerrilla group, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—FARC), to form the Patriotic Union (UP); the group has not become a major force in electoral politics.

There is considerable independent party activity in Colombia, and it has been increasing. Traditionally, the third force in Colombian politics was provided by former dictator Rojas Pinilla, whose National Popular Alliance (Alianza Nacional Popular—ANAPO), now defunct, was a strong party movement. The election dispute of 19 April 1970 gave rise to the extremist rebel group M-19, which stood for the April 19th Movement. After over two decades of military action against the government, M-19 demobilized in 1991. M-19 is part of a coalition of leftist parties and other dissident groups, called Democratic Alliance M-19, which no longer had a presence in Congress as of 2006. Several militant leftist groups remain outside the political system, including the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional—ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Although officially a member of the Patriotic Union political party, the FARC also refuses to demobilize. The People's Liberation Army (EPL) began to demobilize in 1993, but a dissident faction refused orders to lay down arms, and returned to the field.

The traditional parties have lost so much power that President Uribe was elected as an independent. It was the first time since 1957 that the president was not elected under the Liberal or Conservative party tickets.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Colombia is divided into 32 departments (states) and the Bogotá federal district, and subdivided into 1,011 municipalities. Departments control their own finances, as well as administration, within the limits set by the constitution. Governors of departments, once appointed by the president, are now elected. Each departmental assembly meets yearly for a session of two months. Assembly members are elected by universal suffrage, one for each 40,000 inhabitants.

The departments have the power to establish municipal districts and to review the acts of the municipal governments to determine their constitutionality. Each municipality has a popularly elected municipal council. Another reform from the 1991 constitution is the direct election of mayors; previously mayors were chosen by the president and were directly under the control of their respective governors. Mayors are elected for a two-year term by direct vote.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM

The judicial system is comprised of a Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Justice, Council of State, the Higher Judiciary Council, and superior and municipal courts. The Supreme Court in Bogotá is composed of 24 magistrates selected for lifetime terms by justices already in office. The Supreme Court reviews state and municipal laws, frames bills to be submitted to Congress, and proposes reforms. It acts as an advisory board to the government and can veto decrees. It has original jurisdiction in impeachment trials and constitutional interpretation and appellate jurisdiction in ordinary judicial matters. The court is divided into four chambers—civil cassation, criminal cassation, labor cassation, and constitutional procedure.

The 1991 constitution extensively revised the judicial system. It established an independent prosecution system and a national people's defender office to investigate human rights cases. Traditional courts on Indian reservations were validated. A Constitutional Court reviews the constitutionality of proposed legislation.

There is a superior court of three or more judges in each of the judicial districts and a number of municipal courts. A judge of minors in the capital of each department has jurisdiction throughout the department. There are also special labor courts. In criminal cases, the judge chooses a five-member jury; jury duty is obligatory. There is no capital punishment and the maximum penalty for crimes is 20 years in prison. Although the right of habeas corpus is guaranteed by the constitution, suspects in security cases have been detained incommunicado for 10 days or longer.

The judiciary is independent, both in theory and in practice, from the executive and legislative branches. In 1991, the government set up five regional jurisdictions to handle narcotics, terrorism, and police corruption cases in which anonymous judges and prosecutors handle the major trials of narcotics and terrorists. However a 1996 law dictated that the regional justice system would cease to exist by 30 June 1999.

The jurisdiction of the regional justice system included drugrelated crimes, crimes against the state and constitutional order, arms manufacturing and trafficking, terrorism, and membership in illegal armed groups, but in practice, a wide array of cases were processed by the regional justice system. The inadequate description of the crimes which fell within its competence and the imprecise jurisdiction of the regional justice system elongated processing and led to situations in which either influential individuals avoided this jurisdiction or less fortunate individuals were unable to do so, and often served the applicable sentence for the crime charged before the case even went to trial.

ARMED FORCES

Colombia's armed forces in 2005 had 207,000 active personnel, with 60,700 reservists. The Amy had 178,000 active members. Equipment included 12 light tanks (all in storage) 135 reconnaissance vehicles, over 192 armored personnel carriers and 639 artillery pieces. The Air Force had 7,000 active personnel. Equipment included 22 combat capable aircraft under the service's Air Combat Command and another 30 under the Tactical Air Support Command. The Navy had 22,000 personnel, including 14,000 Marines and 100 naval aviation personnel. Major naval units included four tactical submarines, four corvettes and 179 patrol/coastal vessels. The naval air arm had seven transport and two utility fixed wing aircraft and one antisubmarine warfare and two utlity helicopters. The country's paramilitary forces consisted of an 8,000 member rural militia and a 121,000-member national police force.

Colombia's defense forces are frequently occupied in opposing rural violence, often stemming from militant guerrilla groups and drug lords' armies. Opposition forces include the Coordinadora Nacional Guerrillera Simón Bolívar (CNGSB) which is in collaboration with guerrilla groups numbering around 18,000. The rightwing paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) has approximately 10,600 members. The defense budget in 2005 totaled us$3.5 billion.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Colombia is a charter member of the UN, having joined on 5 November 1945, and participates in ECLAC and many specialized agencies, such as FAO, ILO, IMF, IAEA, UNESCO, UNHCR, the World Bank, and WHO. Colombia became a member of the WTO on 30 April 1995. The nation is a member of the Andean Community of Nations and a nonregional member of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE). It also participates in the Caribbean Development Bank, G-3, G-24, G-77, the Latin American Economic System (LAES), the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), OAS, and the Río Group. Colombia is an observer in CARICOM and an associate member of Mercosur.

The nation is part of the Nonaligned Movement, the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The country is a signatory of the 1947 Río Treaty, an inter-American security agreement. In environmental cooperation, Colombia is part of the Antarctic Treaty, the Basel Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar, CITES, International Tropical Timber Agreements, the Kyoto Protocol, the Montréal Protocol, MARPOL, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the UN Conventions on Climate Change and Desertification.

ECONOMY

With the expansion of the manufacturing sector, Colombia has become more dependent upon industry (34.3% of GDP in 2005) than agriculture (12.5% of GDP). Historically, coffee was by far the most important crop: its share of total exports ranged from about 40–65% of the annual total between 1964 and 1986, depending on crop yields and international commodity prices. In 1997, this share had dropped to only 21%, and by 2000, to 8%. A fall in coffee prices in 2001 reduced coffee's share further, to 6.2%. Nontraditional exports, however, increased 5% in 2001. Colombia's policy has been to reduce its dependence on coffee exports because of widely fluctuating world market conditions, and to encourage other agricultural exports, especially sugar, bananas, rice, potatoes, and cotton. The government has also attempted to attract investment in manufacturing and mining projects. Colombia became a net exporter of petroleum in 1986, and coal has become a major export as well. New oil output from the Cusiana field and other fields helped Colombia reach a record production level in 1999—830,000 barrels per day. By 2002, production had been reduced to 591,250 barrels per day. The share of oil exports to total exports dropped from 34.8% in 2000 to 24.9% in 2001. There is concern that without substantial new crude oil discoveries, Colombia will revert to being a net importer of crude oil again within a few years. Exploration of vast areas of likely territory is inhibited by the occupation of about 40% of the country by groups (mainly the FARC and the ENL) that are not only trying to overthrow the government, but which have made the oil industry infrastructure the prime target of their guerrilla attacks. The Trade Development Bureau's PROEXPO Fund (since renamed the Foreign Trade Bank) was established in 1967 to increase the volume of nontraditional exports and to provide a flexible exchange rate and special tax incentives. Foreign direct investment (FDI), which reached a yearly rate of us$5.56 billion in 1997, fell to a little over us$2 billion a year in 2001 and 2002, as the guerrilla attacks continued unabated (an estimated 3,500 persons were killed in attacks in 2002, with another 2000 kidnapped), reaching into urban areas and targeting prominent politicians. In February 2002, the government broke off negotiations that had been going on for three years with no progress towards a resolution.

During the 1970s, Colombia's economy struggled with an inflationary spiral that rose from a rate of 15.4% in 1972 to 25% during the following decade. Inflation remained close to 20% annually through the 1980s and much of the 1990s. After 1983, however, the economy improved significantly, and growth rates rose above the world and hemispheric averages—an average of 4% between 1988 and 1998. In 1990, President Cesar Gaviria instituted an economic restructuring plan known as apertura (opening). The program emphasized trade expansion through tariff reduction, free trade agreements, and privatization of state-owned enterprises, including banks, power plants, airports, seaports, roads and telecommunications networks. After the initial burst, the pace of privatization was slowed.

In 1995, domestic political considerations constricted Colombia's economic liberalization. In 1996 and 1997 the administration of US president Bill Clinton decertified Colombia as a country fully cooperative with US narcotics policy. The move was taken in response to continued narco-guerrilla activity in the countryside and to allegations that President Samper had solicited and received campaign contributions from drug cartels. The decertification made it difficult for US companies to further invest in the country, and halted the growth of trade; though the United States remained the biggest foreign investor in the country. The decertification was lifted in 1998, but by then the economy was being impacted by intensified guerrilla activity, fiscal shortfalls, and external shocks—the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Russian financial crisis in 1998, and the Brazilian financial crisis in 1999. In 1998, GDP growth fell to 0.6% and then in 1999, Colombia experienced its first contraction (-4.2%) since 1983. Growth returned in 2000, but only at the anemic level of 2.7%. Domestic instability and the external economic slowdown combined to reduce growth to 1.4% in 2001 and 1.6% in 2002. In December 1999, the government entered into a three-year arrangement with the IMF under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and there was a marked decline in the inflation rate across this period: inflation fell from 18.7% in 1998 to 5.7% in 2002. Unemployment in 2002 was estimated at 17.7%, with subemployment at 35%.

In 1999, due to economic instability in 1998, Colombia signed its first agreement with the IMF for a us$3 billion approved standby line of credit. The government also unveiled plans to renew the privatization many state-owned enterprises to revitalize the economy. Nevertheless, guerrilla warfare put off potential investors.

In late 2002, the government offered reform legislation in five areas: taxes, pensions, labor, public administration, and banking. In January 2003, the government entered into a us$2.5-billion standby arrangement with the IMF to support these reforms.

From 2000, the annual average GDP growth was 2.9%; in 2004, it was 4.1%, the highest level since 1995 (as reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit). Figures show that GDP growth continued at this pace in 2005, as well. This growth could be tied to the increases in private investment and household consumption during Alvaro Uribe's term, in which he sought to boost investor confidence ion the country. The increase in growth rates was also aided by good international economic conditions.

As of May 2004, Colombia had begun to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the United States (as did Peru and Ecuador). The talks were expected to culminate in a deal in 2006–07 that would increase liberalization by reducing tariffs and restrictions on trade and capital flows, and strengthening property rights protection (including intellectual property rights).

INCOME

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports that in 2005 Colombia's gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at us$303.1 billion. The CIA defines GDP as the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year and computed on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP) rather than value as measured on the basis of the rate of exchange based on current dollars. The per capita GDP was estimated at us$7,100. The annual growth rate of GDP was estimated at 4.3%. The average inflation rate in 2005 was 5%. It was estimated that agriculture accounted for 12.5% of GDP, industry 34.3%, and services 53.3%.

According to the World Bank, in 2003 remittances from citizens working abroad totaled us$3.076 billion or about us$69 per capita and accounted for approximately 3.8% of GDP. Foreign aid receipts amounted to us$802 million or about us$18 per capita and accounted for approximately 1.1% of the gross national income (GNI).

The World Bank reports that in 2003 household consumption in Colombia totaled us$50.79 billion or about us$1,139 per capita based on a GDP of us$80.0 billion, measured in current dollars rather than PPP. Household consumption includes expenditures of individuals, households, and nongovernmental organizations on goods and services, excluding purchases of dwellings. It was estimated that for the period 1990 to 2003 household consumption grew at an average annual rate of 1.8%. It was estimated that in 2001 about 59% of the population had incomes below the poverty line.

LABOR

In 2005, Colombia's labor force was estimated at 20.52 million. As of 2000, the service industry employed an estimated 58.5% of the workforce, with 22.7% in agriculture and 18.7% in industry. The unemployment rate in 2005 was estimated at 11.8%.

The right to organize unions is provided by the constitution, although violence and discrimination against union members are major obstacles to engaging in union activities. Less than 5% of the workforce was unionized in 2005, with the vast majority of these workers in the public sector. The right to strike is guaranteed by the constitution with the exception of essential workers, such as those in the armed forces or the police.

The basic source of Colombian labor legislation is the Substantive Labor Code. The standard workday is eight hours with a 48-hour workweek. A minimum eight-hour rest period is also required per week. The minimum wage is reviewed each January to set the standard for wage negotiations. As of 2005, the minimum wage was us$167 per month. This amount does not provide a decent standard of living for a family.

The law prohibits children under the age of 12 from working. Those in the age 12 to 13 category are severely limited as to the kind of work they can perform. Minors between the ages of 14 and 17 are limited in the number of occupations they can enter. In spite of these regulations, child labor remains a significant problem especially in the informal sector and in agriculture. Only 38% of children that worked also attended school.

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture, despite an endemic problem of poor productivity, remains the most important segment of the Colombian economy. In 2005, agriculture accounted for 12.5% of the GDP.

Only about 3.7% of Colombia's land area is cultivated, most of it in elevated regions of the temperate zone. The small area of cultivation is due in part to the rugged Andean terrain and in part to lack of irrigation. In 2000–02, 21.5% of cropland was irrigated, up from 13.1% during 1989–91. The flat, fertile valleys are generally devoted to livestock, limiting cultivation to the slopes, an uneconomical practice that is gradually being changed. Hand cultivation, especially by machete and hoe, predominates, but mechanization is making headway on the larger farms. Fertilizer is expensive and not sufficiently used. The small size of farms is another constraint on agricultural growth: in the mid-1980s, farms of less than 20 hectares (50 acres) accounted for 80% of all agricultural land.

Coffee, by far the most important crop, is grown mainly on the Andean slopes at altitudes of 1,300–1,800 m (4,200–6,000 ft). Colombia, the world's second-largest coffee grower, contributes 13–16% of the total world production each year. In 2004, coffee-growing farms, many under 6 hectares (15 acres), accounted for about 800,000 hectares (2 million acres), about 40% of the land under permanent crops. In 1992, despite a severe drought, the amount of coffee exported increased by over 30% as a result of a successful strategy for expanding the external markets. In 1993, coffee production increased to 1,080,000 tons, but dwindled to only 678,000 tons in 1994. Production in 2004 was 663,660 tons. In 2004, coffee accounted for 28% of agricultural exports.

Sugar, also important, is grown chiefly in the Cauca Valley, with its center at Cali. Many varieties of bananas are grown; bananas for export are produced in the Uraba and Santa Maria regions. Colombia is the world's third-largest banana exporter (after Ecuador and Costa Rica) and supplies about one-sixth of the world export market. Corn, yucca, plantains, and, in high altitudes, potatoes have been traditional food staples since before the Spanish conquest. Beans, rice, and wheat, introduced in the 19th century, are also important in the diet. Other export crops include freshcut flowers, cotton, and tobacco. Cocoa is produced in limited amounts for domestic consumption. Colombia produces much of its domestic food requirements, but it has to import wheat, barley, fats, oils, and cocoa.

Since 1940, the government has taken an increasing part in the control, organization, and encouragement of agriculture. Through the Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform (Instituto Colombiano de la Reforma Agraria—INCORA), farmers are given financial support, technical aid, and social assistance for better housing, education, and health facilities. INCORA acquires land for equitable distribution to farmers and helps to develop potentially valuable but uncultivated land and to increase agricultural productivity. The production-oriented Rural Development Program, begun in 1976, gave technical assistance and credit to about 30,000 small landholders. Farmers have also benefited from the us$150-million rural electrification program, introduced in 1981, and from a program to extend irrigation and drainage systems, initiated in the early 1980s.

Agricultural production (in thousands of tons) for major crops in 2004 was: sugarcane, 37,100; plantains, 2,950; potatoes, 2,959; rice, 2,663; cassava, 2,218; bananas, 1,450; corn, 1,458; sorghum, 285; cotton, 52; palm kernels, 144; cocoa, 49; and dry beans, 135. Marijuana, coca leaf, and opium are also grown for the production of illicit drugs. In 2003, there were an estimated 144,000 hectares (356,000 acres) producing coca leaf, generating 680 tons of cocaine base, 80% of the world estimate.

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

Occupying about 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of pasture, livestock farming (especially cattle breeding) has long been an important Colombian industry. Of this total area, about 19 million hectares (46.9 million acres) are actually used for livestock production. The Ministry of Agriculture maintains experimental stations in Antioquia and Bolívar departments to improve breeds, but the quality of livestock is still low. Cattle are driven to market by truck. This practice often entails crossing high mountains, with much wastage; accordingly, there has been a movement to construct slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants near the ranges. Dairy farming, not important in the past, expanded in the 1970s, especially near the big cities. Colombian sheep produce about one-third of the wool used by the country's textile industry. The government maintains an experimental station for sheep in Cundinamarca and for goats in Norte de Santander. In 2004 there were 25 million cattle, 2.2 million sheep, and 2.3 million pigs. The production of beef and veal was 690,000 tons in 2004.

FISHING

Colombia has an abundance of fish in its Caribbean and Pacific coastal waters and in its innumerable rivers. Lake Tota in Boyacá and Lake La Cocha in Nariño abound in trout, as do the artificial reservoirs of Neusa and Sisga in Cundinamarca. About half of the annual catch consists of freshwater fish. Tarpon are caught in the delta waters of the Magdalena, and sailfish, broadbills, and tuna in the Caribbean. The 2003 fish catch was 157,794 tons. The development of crustacean aquaculture has expanded since the mid-1980s, especially for Penaeid shrimps. Aquaculture production totaled 60,895 tons in 2003 and consisted primarily of tilapia and rainbow trout.

FORESTRY

Colombia's forested area is some 50 million hectares (123.6 million acres), or nearly 50% of the total area. Although much timberland is inaccessible or of limited value, the nation is self-sufficient in lumber. Roundwood production was 9.9 million cu m (350 million cu ft) in 2003; exports of roundwood were valued at us$3 million that year. The soft tropical woods that predominate are also suitable for plywood production, for paper pulp, and for furniture manufacture; total export of forest products amounted to us$142.8 million in 2003.

MINING

Historically, Colombia has been the world's leading exporter of emeralds, although the fuel sector now dominates the country's mineral production. It also produced a significant amount of gold (ranking second in the region), was Latin America's only producer of platinum, ws the third-largest producer of cement, and was a leading producer of nickel. In terms of value, the main minerals produced in Colombia (after petroleum) were coal, emeralds, gold, and platinum, respectively, in 2003. Colombia also produced sizable amounts of common clay, kaolin, dolomite, gypsum, limestone, hydrated lime and quicklime, magnesite, nitrogen (content of ammonia), rock and marine salt, sand, gravel, marble, feldspar, phosphate rock, and sodium compounds (sodium carbonate), as well as small quantities of sulfur (native, from ore), asbestos, bauxite, bentonite, calcite, diatomite, fluorite, mercury, mica, talc, soapstone, prophyllite, dolomite, and zinc.

Production figures for principal nonfuel minerals in 2003 were: gold, 46,515 kg, up from 20,823 kg in 2002; emeralds, 8.963 million carats, up from 5.390 million carats in 2002; nickel, 70,844 metric tons, compared with 58,196 in 2002; iron ore and concentrate, 625,002 metric tons, down from 688,106 metric tons in 2002; silver, 9,511 kg, up from 6,986 kg in 2002; and feldspar, estimated at 55,000 tons. Production of nickel content of ferronickel increased to 47,868 metric tons in 2003, up from 43,987 metric tons in 2002.

According to estimates by the Colombian government, 90% of emerald production is destined for exports. Emerald deposits are located in the sedimentary basin of the Cordillera Oriental, in Boyacá in the Cinturón Esmeraldífero Oriental and Cinturón Esmeraldífero Occidental; more than 60 production licenses were active. Most gold production came from small- and medium-sized alluvial operations, which employed artisanal methods of extraction. All platinum was mined by small mining cooperatives or individual prospectors, at Río San Juan, Choco. Silver was produced in Segovia and Río Nechi, Antioquia.

The country's substantial copper, iron, nickel, and lead reserves were of major importance to the future development of the economy. The El Roble copper mine produced output for Japan. A copper deposit with reserves estimated at 625 million tons was discovered at Pantanos, Antioquia, in 1973. Cerro Matoso S.A., a subsidiary of BHP Billiton PLC, was the country's sole producer of nickel and ferronickel, near Monetlíbano, Córdoba. Reserves of the lateritic nickel mine were estimated to be 39.9 million tons with a nickel content of 2.3%. A second production plant, completed in 2001, ahead of schedule, doubled Cerro Matoso's ferronickel production capacity to 55,000 tons per year of nickel.

Under Article 332 of the 1990 constitution, the state retained the rights to all surface and subsurface nonrenewable and natural resources; the government granted concessions for exploration and production. In 1989, a new mining code sought to encourage mineral exploration and development by expediting the processing of claims, improving the security of mineral occupancy and tenure, and providing financial aid to small- and medium-scale miners. The mining code of 2001 sought to encourage exploration and production of mineral resources and limit the role of the government to one of a regulatory and administrative entity, with more production transferring to the private sector. The law also clarified the provisions for establishing mining contracts.

ENERGY AND POWER

Colombia's mountainous terrain and network of rivers offer one of the highest potentials in the world for the generation of hydroelectric power. These resources remain largely undeveloped, despite intensive government efforts. In addition, the nation's energy sector, particularly oil, has had to deal with an ongoing civil war involving a pair of leftist insurgent groups: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia (FARC) and the Ejercito de Liberacion National (ELN); and the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group. Further complicating the security situation has been the problem of narcotics trafficking.

Electric generating capacity was estimated for 2002 to stand at 13.1 GW, of which hydropower accounted for 63.3% and thermal 36.7%. The output of electricity has been estimated for 2002 at 44.9 billion kWh (77% hydroelectricity; 21% thermal), up from 2000, in which output stood at 42.9 billion kWh. Colombia's heavy reliance upon hydroelectric power makes to country vulnerable to drought, such what happened in 1992, when a severe drought led to power blackouts and rationing. Although the government has attempted to encourage the construction of natural gas and coal-fired plants to diversify the nation's electric power supply, since the early 1990s, hydropower has continued to increase its share as a source of power generation. Estimated consumption of electricity rose in 2002, from 2000, to 41.1 billion kWh. In the latter year, consumption of electricity totaled 40.3 billion kWh. Colombia in 2003 had an estimated 7.3 billion short tons in recoverable coal reserves. For the same year, coal production totaled 52.5 million short tons.

According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Colombia has estimated proven petroleum reserves of 1.54 billion barrels and an estimated oil refining capacity of 285,850 barrels per day, as of 1 January 2005. Production of oil rose rapidly from 7.4 million tons in 1982 to 30.1 million tons in 1995. In 1999 it hit an all-time high of 826,000 barrels per day, before declining to 616,000 barrels per day in 2001. In 2004, oil output was estimated at 530,000 barrels per day, of which crude oil accounted of 508,000 barrels per day. Domestic oil consumption was estimated for 2004 at 261,000 barrels per day. The Colombian government since 1999 implemented new measures to encourage increased exploration and production, and to attract foreign investment. While these moves have spurred an increase in the upstream sector, a major contributing factor in the revival of interest, has been an improvement in the nation's security situation. In 2004, the number of kidnappings fell by 60% and attacks against Colombia's oil infrastructure fell significantly in 2003. For example, attacks against the Cano-Limón oil pipeline dropped from 170 in 2001 to 34 in 2003.

The production and consumption of natural gas have grown since the mid-1970s. According to the Oil and Gas Journal, as of 1 January 2005 Colombia had estimated proven natural gas reserves of 4.0 trillion cu ft, down from 4.5 trillion cu ft in 2004. In 2003, production and consumption of natural gas were each estimated at 215 billion cu ft. As with the oil sector, the nation's gas sector has been targeted by saboteurs and guerrillas. However attacks against the natural gas infrastructure and the costs associated with lost production and repairs have been cut, due to increased security measures.

INDUSTRY

The National Association of Manufacturers (Asociación Nacional de Industriales—ANDI) represents firms engaged in some 40 different branches of manufacturing. ANDI was founded in 1944 to assist both large and small businesses. Since 1940, the Industrial Development Institute (Instituto de Fomento Industrial—IFI), a government-operated finance corporation, has been investing in enterprises that otherwise might not be undertaken because of high risk or lack of capital. It provides direct financing for construction, acquisition of essential machinery and equipment installation services, and working capital. Most of the industrial activity is concentrated in and around Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla, and Cali. Industries in Medellín produce textiles, clothing, chemicals, plastic, and printed materials.

Manufacturing accounted for 15% of GDP in 1950, 24% at its peak in 1977, and 14% in 1998. Colombia is almost self-sufficient in consumer products, which represent about half of total industrial production. The 1970s witnessed a shift in industrial development policies from import substitution to expansion of exports. While the pace of industrial growth declined slightly in the mid-1970s, it increased by 2.5% between 1977 and 1987. This growth continued into the early 1990s, but slowed by mid-decade. Industry declined by 2.3% in 1998. Manufacturing growth began to pick up after the 1997–99 recession, registering a 9.7% growth rate in 2000.

Export-oriented industries include coal and oil derivatives, chemicals, porcelain, and glass. In 1995, mining and hydrocarbons grew by 17%, the highest growth sector in the Colombian economy. That the rest of the industrial economy has been sluggish in recent years is due to a cluster of factors, including the lack of infrastructure, labor difficulties, and most significantly, the civil unrest in the countryside caused by bands of paramilitaries loyal to drug traffickers and political extremists. The decline in industry also reflects an ebb in the country's construction boom. The construction sector grew by nearly 10% a year through the early part of the 1990s, but fell to just 5.3% in 1995. Due to the effects of the recession, construction saw negative growth rates of 14.4% and 19.9% in 1998 and 1999, respectively. The construction sector began to stabilize in 2000, contracting by only 1.5%.

Colombia has five oil refineries. Hydrocarbon production decreased by 15.5% in 2000, but due to the rise in international oil prices, revenues were maintained. Though industrial growth was fairly widespread from 2000–2005, the construction industry appeared to have benefited the most.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The government of President Turbay Ayala (1978–82) emphasized research in farming in order to help raise agricultural production. The Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences (founded in 1933) and the National Academy of Medicine (founded in 1890), are both located in Bogotá. As of 1996, there were 24 specialized agricultural, medical, scientific, and technical learned societies, and 13 scientific research institutes in Colombia, and the country had 43 universities offering degrees in basic and applied sciences. In 1987–97, science and engineering students accounted for 28% of college and university enrollments.

In 2002, Colombia had 81 researchers and 46 technicians per million people engaged in research and development (R&D). For 2001 (the latest year for which data is available), Colombia's R&D expenditures totaled us$450.758 million, accounting for 0.17% of GDP. Of that amount, business accounted for 46.9%, followed by higher education at 38.3%, the government at 13.2%, and nonprofit institutions at 1.7%. High technology exports in 2002 totaled us$319 million, or 7% of manufactured exports.

DOMESTIC TRADE

There are four primary marketing areas: the Caribbean coast region, the Antioquia region, the Cauca Valley region, and the Bogotá region. Firms desiring distribution of their products to all important national markets generally appoint agents in the leading city of each of the four regions (Barranquilla, Medellín, Cali, and Bogotá, respectively). Most small purchases are made for cash, but many stores offer installment credit facilities. A 16% value-added tax applies to most goods and services. As of 2002, there were about 80 franchise companies operating stores through the country. These are primarily foreign-based fast-food establishments.

Small, individually owned retail establishments predominate, although chain stores are increasing. Variety stores and department stores on the pattern of those in the United States are becoming popular, and food supermarkets are increasing in larger cities. Local farmers' markets, however, are still more generally patronized even in the cities, and in rural areas they are often the only trading centers. Direct marketing is gaining in popularity.

Business hours vary largely with climatic conditions; however, the usual workday is from 7:30 or 8 am to noon and from 1 to 4:30 or 5 pm. Most businesses close on Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and on state or religious holidays. Banking hours are generally from 9 am to 3:30 pm. Retail establishments are generally open from 9 am to 7 or 8 pm on weekdays and from 9 am to 9 pm on Saturdays. Restaurants and other food stores may be open on Sundays and some holidays. Major credit cards are now generally accepted in most cities and ATM machines are prevalent.

The principal advertising media are newspapers, magazines, radio, and television; in motion picture theaters, it is also customary to display advertisements on the screen between features. There are a number of advertising and public relations firms.

FOREIGN TRADE

Beginning in 1990, Colombia opened up its economy to greater international trade and investment. The program of liberalization resulted in mass privatizations and lifting of restrictions on foreign investment; and substantially reduced import tariffs while eliminating most import licensing requirements. The government also signed the Andean Free Trade Agreement (ANCOM) with Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia; the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras; a Bilateral Free Trade Agreement with Chile; and an agreement with Mexico and Venezuela called the Group of Three (G-3).

Colombia also has several free-trade zones, the largest of which is Barranquilla, on the Caribbean. Other free-trade zones providing benefits for importers and exporters, as well as for manufacturers located within the zone boundaries, are the Buenaventura Harbor, Cúcuta, Palmaseca (near Cali's international airport), and the Caribbean port of Santa Marta. The illicit trade in marijuana and cocaine, especially to the United States, is known to be substantial, but there are no reliable estimates of its volume or its value. The Colombian government estimated in 1999 that drug traffickers smuggled us$5 billion annually in contraband into the country.

Colombia exports 10–20% of the world's coffee, which is the country's second-largest commodity export. Fuels contribute largely to the export market, including crude and refined petroleum; and coal, lignite, and peat. Agricultural exports like fruit, nuts, vegetables, sugar, and honey account for a smaller percentage of Colombia's exports.

In 2004, Colombia exported 42.1% of its products to the United States, 9.7% to Venezuela, and 6% to Ecuador, totalling over us$23 billion. On the other hand, 29.1% of its imports came from the United States, 6.5% from Venezuela, 6.4% from China, 6.2% from Mexico, and 5.8% from Brazil.

BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

When President Carlos Lleras Restrepo took office in August 1966, the economy of Colombia was unstable; inflation was spiraling, and there was a lack of centralized economic planning. Lleras embarked on an austerity program that included trade and exchange controls, tight credit policies, tax reforms, a balanced budget, and the determination of priorities in the field of public investment. The cutback in imports had repercussions in the industrial sector, but controls were then loosened and business activity stepped up rapidly.

Colombia succeeded in building up a national account surplus during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Emphasis on export expansion, import substitution, and continuation of foreign assistance led to further progress. The second half of the 1990s, though, brought a consistently negative balance of payments of about 5% of GDP. The Pastrana government implemented austerity measures through an IMF us$2.7-billion loan in the hopes of cutting the fiscal deficit to 3.6% by 2000 and 1.5% by 2003. In 2000, Colombia had a trade surplus of us$1.5 billion, in contrast with a us$3.8 billion deficit in 1988. Recent rises in exports have focused on nontraditional exports such as bananas, flowers, gold, emeralds, chemical products, machinery, textiles and apparel, and plastic products. In 2000, due to lower international commodity prices for coffee and coal, those exports decreased.

The CIA estimated that in 2005, the current account balance was in deficit at -us$917 million.

BANKING AND SECURITIES

The Bank of Bogotá, founded in 1879, was the first Colombian credit establishment. The Bank of the Republic was established in 1923 as the semiofficial central bank. This bank is the sole note-issuing authority. The notes must be covered by a reserve in gold or foreign exchange of 25% of their value. The Bank of the Republic also operates the mint for the government. It rediscounts and makes loans to official and semiofficial institutions. In 1963, the Monetary Board was set up to assume from the bank the responsibility for setting required reserve rates for managing general monetary policy; this board, which formulates monetary, credit, and exchange policy, is thus the most influential financial agency in Colombia. The government supervises the banking system by means of a special governmental body, called the Superintendency of Banks.

In 2000, the Colombian financial system included 29 commercial banks (four of them state-owned), the Colombian Export Promotion Bank (BANCOLDEX), 107 foreign bank offices, six savings and loans corporations (CAVs), 10 development banks, 32 commercial finance companies, 37 trust companies, 33 insurance companies, and a state-owned mortgage bank. The Bank of the Republic and the commercial banks supply mainly short-term loans, and investment corporations make long-term loans.

In 1982, in the wake of a scandal that led to the liquidation of a commercial bank and a finance company, the government moved to reform the banking sector by placing limits on the equity any individual (or his family) could hold in a financial institution and on the credit any lending institution could extend to any individual or entity. Several more crises in the ensuing years shook public confidence in the financial system, but tight government control over the sector has brought it back to a state of partial recovery.

Beginning in 1989, the government began to privatize the banks. Several bank liquidations took place in 1999, including Pacifico, Andino, and Selfin. Two government owned banks merged (Estado and Uconal), while the largest government bank, Caja Agraria, was liquidated and replaced by the new Banco Agrario. The goal was to reduce the number of banking institutions to about 17. The Central Bank devalued the peso by 9% in 1998 and by 10% in 1999 in an effort to stimulate economic growth. The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to us$8.0 billion. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was us$22.6 billion. The money market rate, the rate at which financial institutions lend to one another in the short term, was 10.4%. The discount rate, the interest rate at which the central bank lends to financial institutions in the short term, was 16.4%.

The Bogotá Stock Exchange, organized in 1928, is the largest official stock exchange in the country. The Medellín Exchange was established in 1961, and the Occidente Stock Exchange in Cali was established in 1983 and began operations in 1993. The Bogotá exchange accounts for about 57%, the Medellín 28%, and the Cali exchange 15%. In 2004, a total of 114 companies were listed by the combined Bogotá, Medelin and Cali stock exchanges (Colombia Stock Exchange), which had a market capitalization of us$25.223 billion. The IGBC rose 86.2% from the previous year in 2004 to 4,345.8.

INSURANCE

The government regulates the insurance industry through the Insurance Section of the Superintendency of Banks. A social insurance system, the Institute for Social Insurance (Instituto para Seguros Sociales-ISS) established by law in 1946, was organized by the Ministry of Labor to provide life and disability insurance, a pension plan, and a health program for employees in the modern private subsector. In 1999, there were 27 insurance companies in operation, two of which were governmental. In Colombia, third-party automobile liability, workers' compensation, personal accident, professional liability, earthquake, and aviation third-party insurance are compulsory.

During 1995, regulations were issued that require insurance companies to adjust investments to market or equity values and to account for such changes through the income statements. Prior to 1995, any such unrealized adjustments were adjusted directly to policy holders' surplus funds. A relatively modest number of insurers, a competitive environment, and a few dominant companies in terms of market share characterize the Colombian market. A number of foreign insurers operate in Colombia, but foreign insurance companies may not establish local branch offices in lieu of opening major offices. Foreign investment in domestic insurance companies is now up to 100%, although a few restrictions may apply. In 2003, direct premiums written totaled us$1.998 billion, with nonlife premiums accounting for us$1.449 billion. Colombia's top life insurer that year was Previsora, with us$144.5 million in gross nonlife premiums written. The country's top life insurer that same year was Suramericana, with us$224.7 million in gross life premiums written.

PUBLIC FINANCE

Much of Colombia's foreign debt has been accumulated by financing infrastructural rather than industrial projects, the latter being more common among Latin American nations during the 1970s and 1980s. Considerable sums were spent in the 1990s to stimulate the development of industry, and higher than normal military expenditures were necessitated by the continuing and disruptive guerrilla activity. The inflationary conditions that prevailed from 1961 into 2000 also stimulated government expenditures. For political reasons, the national government was unable to raise tax revenues sufficient to cover sharply expanding investment outlays. Loans from external financial agencies (including the IMF, IDB, and IBRD) were substantial, but insufficient to permit a buildup in the level of public investment operations. The recession of the early 1980s brought another round of deficits as spending increased far more rapidly than revenues. By the 1990s, reforms in the public sector had greatly improved the efficiency of public expenditures.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimated that in 2005 Colombia's central government took in revenues of approximately us$46.8 billion and had expenditures of us$48.7 billion. Revenues minus expenditures totaled approximately - us$1.9 billion. Public debt in 2005 amounted to 44.2% of GDP. Total external debt was us$37.06 billion.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that in 2003, the most recent year for which it had data, budgetary central government revenues in pesos were c$42,446 billion. The value of revenues in US dollars was us$15 million, based on a principal exchange rate for 2003 of us$1 = c$2,877.65 as reported by the IMF.

TAXATION

In addition to income taxes, Colombia levies a value-added tax (VAT), as well as municipal and property taxes. Many stamp taxes are imposed on legal documents. Personal income tax rates are based on income and there is a flat tax on corporate income. Indirect taxes include a tax on exported goods and services, surcharges on imports, a gasoline tax, and local taxes on vehicles and property.

Colombia's corporate income tax, as of 2005, stood at 35%. However, a 10% surcharge also applies. Branches of foreign companies resident in Colombia are taxed at the same rate as domestic companies, but there is a remittance tax of 7% for foreign companies. A 0.3% tax is charged on debit transactions in the financial system. In 2002, a one-time 1.2% tax on companies and individuals with assets over c$170 million (about us$65,000) was assessed to fund increased military spending.

Individual income is taxed according to a progressive schedule with 35% as the highest marginal rate. The main indirect tax in Colombia is its value-added tax (VAT), with a standard rate of 16%. The VAT applies to most transactions, although items such as utilities, insurance, financial and property leasing, and healthcare are exempt. The VAT also varies, with higher rates of 20–40% applied to certain items, such as vehicles, alcoholic beverages (including wine) and pleasure boats. The VAT for automobiles ranges from 22% for nonluxury vehicles and 40% for luxury automobiles. A lower VAT rate of 10% is applied to nuts and almonds, while games of chance (excluding lotteries) have a 5% VAT.

CUSTOMS AND DUTIES

Colombian import tariffs have been significantly reduced and simplified. There are four tariff levels: 5% for raw materials, and intermediate and capital goods not produced in Colombia; 10% and 15% for goods in the first category but with domestic production in Colombia; 20% for finished consumer goods; and 35% and 40% for automobiles and some agricultural products. The average tariff lies between 11% and 13.5%. The four-tariff system also acts as the common external tariff for the Andean Community, which became effective for Colombia in 1995.

Nontariff barriers to trade include restrictions on poultry parts, powdered milk, wheat, and other agricultural products. Tariff rates for some of these selected basic commodities ranged up to 119% in 1999. Import and export licenses are required for most items.

Colombia maintains free trade agreements with Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Mexico. There are also international agreements for preferential duty rates with the Caribbean Common Market and the Central American Common Market, and Colombia has requested consideration for NAFTA accession and entry into the future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Several free trade zones are in operation.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

After the serious crisis in Colombia's capital markets in the 1980s, the Gaviria administration implemented an aggressive economic liberalization program known as apertura, or opening, in the early 1990s, including increased promotion of foreign investment. Under Law 9 of 1991, together with administrative resolutions from the Council on Economic and Social Policy (CONPES) and Resolution 21 of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank, foreign companies were put on an equal legal footing with local ones and most sectors were opened to foreign investment, barring only investments touching on security and the disposal of hazardous wastes.

In order to continue boosting the economy, the government has negotiated free trade agreements with several countries. A free trade pact among Colombia, Venezuela, and Central America (except Costa Rica) came into operation on 1 July 1993. In addition, an agreement was signed between Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico (G-3) on establishing a free trade zone in 1994. In 1993, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia achieved a customs union, with free trade between the four countries under the auspices of the Andean Pact. Effective 1 January 1994, pact members implemented a common external tariff (CET) based on a four-tier tariff range. In June 1999, the clause in the Colombian constitution permitting expropriation without indemnification was repealed opening the way for ratification by Colombia of bilateral investment agreements (BITS) with Peru, the United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba, and France. Colombia ended its monopoly over telecommunications in 1998, limiting foreign ownership to 70%. In 2003, the US Trade Representative (USTR) was raising objections that restrictions on foreign entry into Colombia's telecommunications sector violated its obligations under the World Trade Organization.

The petroleum industry is one industry that has enjoyed significant foreign investment; international investment grew from us$458 million in 1993 to us$890 million in 1997. In 1996, CONPES eliminated the requirement of government authorization for investment in public services, mining, and hydrocarbons. Despite this allowance, investment in the hydrocarbons sector requires an association contract with the state-owned oil company ECOPETROL. Due to the apertura program, the sectors that have seen the largest growth in international investment have been infrastructural. Investment in the utilities sector (electricity, gas, and water) leapt from us$145 million in 1996 to us$2.3 billion in 1998. The transportation and communications sectors, which have been mostly privatized in recent years, grew from us$5.7 million in 1993 to us$360 million in 1997. The increased foreign investment coincided with increased borrowing in foreign financial markets (enabled by the opening of the financial sector in 1991) and a large inflow of capital from increased petroleum exports. The excess liquidity led to a credit boom and a sharp increase in interest rates, which rose further as the Central Bank tried to support the peso's exchange rate. Aggravated by political uncertainty, the economy was in another financial crisis by 1998.

Annual direct foreign investment (DFI) inflow reached a peak of us$5.56 billion in 1997 and then fell to us$2.83 billion in 1998 and to us$1.47 billion in 1999. For 2000 to 2002, average annual FDI inflow was about us$2.2 billion. FDI inflow from the United States in 2002 was us$317 million.

Security concerns remained a major deterrent to foreign investment in 2003 as the government continued its 40-year fight against two major leftist guerrilla groups that had come to control about half of the country. In 2003, hostage taking and hostage execution involving increasingly prominent individuals and a bombing in a Bogotá nightclub indicated the penetration of guerrilla activity into major urban centers. In June 2003, as part of a us$98 million military aid package, the United States sent about 60 Special Forces members to train local soldiers to guard the Occidental Petroleum pipeline; the Cano Limón pipeline, which had been bombed 40 times in 2002 and 170 times in prior years.

In terms of portfolio investment, the total market valuation of companies listed on the Colombia Stock Exchange peaked in 1997 at us$19.5 billion (189 listed companies) and had fallen to us$9.56 billion in 2000 (126 listed companies). In 2001, total market valuation had risen to us$13.2 billion with 123 listed companies, but turnover was at a record low of 3.2%.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1974, President Alfonso López outlined to Congress a long-range development plan with a major objective of achieving maximum growth while raising the living standards of the poorer half of the population. Efforts were to be concentrated in four main areas: exports, agriculture, regional development, and industry. An economic program published in 1980 during the administration of President Julio César Turbay, listed investment in energy, economic decentralization, regional autonomy, improvements in communications and transportation, mining development, and social improvement as its principal aims. A national development plan for the years 1981–84 provided for acceleration of public works. In 1982, during the Belisario Betancur presidency, economic emergencies were declared so that decrees to revise banking and fiscal policies could be issued without the need of congressional approval. The Virgilio Barco administration formulated an economic program similar to that proposed in 1974 by López, whose objectives were to attack unemployment and poverty while encouraging growth.

In 1990, President Cesar Gaviria instituted a national system of economic liberalization known as apertura, or opening. The system called for greatly increased international investment, a lowering of trade barriers, and massive state sell-offs. These began in earnest in the early 1990s as the government sold off seaports, airports, power plants, telecommunications networks, banks—even roads. In addition to these measures, the government aggressively pursued the creation of regional trading blocs and became a major voice in support of a hemispheric free trade area. Colombia became a member of Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), a bilateral free-trade pact with Chile and the G-3.

Liberalizations secured Colombia as a reliable regional market. The country saw positive growth every year for over two decades and was one of the only Latin American countries not to default on its international loans during the 1980s. Impeding further development are domestic political scandals, poor infrastructure, and narco-terrorism. In 1998, growth slowed, and even turned negative in 1999.

A us$2.7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan in 1999 was needed in order to save the shrinking economy, which improved from the inflow and austerity measures during the next year. In 2000, the US government gave us$1.3 billion in aid to Colombia's government and army, chiefly to help the war against drugs, but guerrilla armies continued to operate in at least two-fifths of the country.

President Uribe, elected in 2002, pledged to restore order to the country and to increase security measures. He planned to raise defense spending from 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 5.8% by the end of his term in 2006, and the government in 2003 was training 10,000 new police and 16,000 part-time "peasant soldiers" to secure close to 200 towns previously lacking police. US troops were also enlisted to guard Colombia's main oil pipeline. Uribe employed crop-dusting aircraft supplied by the United States, which in 2002 resulted in a 30% fall in coca cultivation. The government in 2003 also pledged to raise social spending, and depended on lending from international bodies such as the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and Andean Development Corporation to augment the lack of sufficient revenue. In exchange for the assistance, the government was planning to implement structural reforms, such as pension and labor reforms to cut costs, and other spending cuts to reduce the deficit. In January 2003, Colombia negotiated a two-year, us$2.1-billion Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF.

Though Colombia has been embroiled in armed conflict, the economy has managed to take a turn for the better, possibly due to export promotion and government budgets designed to decrease public debt. Business confidence in Colombia has increased due to Uribe's economic and democratic strengthening. Also, Colombian coffee has been earning greater market shares in developed countries, raising the price of the prized export. Furthermore, from 2002 to 2005, unemployment dropped slightly—from 15.7% in 2002 to 15.2% in July 2005, as reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The CIA had slightly more optimistic predictions for Colombia's 2005 unemployment, at 11.8%. However, unemployment, along with pension reform and the need to increase oil production, continued to be challenges to be faced by President Uribe. Yet, as of 2005, Uribe was praised by various international financial institutions for the benefits that had come of the administration's economic policies. In addition to unemployment, the inflation rate was also on the decline—a rate that previously had persisted at a near 20% throughout the 1990s (with the exception of the recessionary years of 1998–99, when inflation was less than 10%). In 2002, inflation dropped further due to weak domestic demand. Throughout the increase in economic growth in 2003–05, inflation still remained consistently low—near 5%—due to the strengthening currency.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Social security coverage extends to all employees with the exception of some agricultural workers. Coverage is voluntary for the self-employed. Both employers and employees contribute to the program, while the government guarantees a minimum pension. All private-sector employees are covered by unemployment, and there is voluntary coverage for public workers. A worker's compensation program is funded fully by employers and provides benefits in proportion to the degree of incapacity. Employers also fund the family allowance benefits available to low income families.

The law provides women with extensive civil rights and prohibits any form of discrimination against women. However, there is still discrimination against women, especially in rural areas. They earn less than men for doing similar work, and occupy few of the top positions in government. Sexual harassment is pervasive. Rape and other acts of violence against women are widespread, and traditionally the law has not provided strict penalties for offenders. Trafficking in women for sexual exploitation continues to be a major problem.

Urban Colombia, and especially Bogotá, has acquired a reputation for street crime: pickpockets and thieves are a common problem. Drug trafficking flourishes on a large scale, despite government efforts to suppress cocaine smuggling and to eradicate the coca and marijuana crops. Kidnapping, both for political reasons and for profit, is widespread.

Human rights excesses by security forces continue with reports of extrajudicial killings and disappearances. Human rights abuses are committed by many groups, including guerrillas, narcotics traffickers, paramilitary groups and the military. Prison conditions are harsh, but international monitoring of conditions is allowed by the government. The constitution provides for special rights and protection for Colombia's many indigenous minorities, but these are not always respected in practice.

HEALTH

Health standards have improved greatly since the 1950s, but malaria is still prevalent in areas up to 1,100 m (3,500 ft) in altitude. In the mid-1990s, malaria was at epidemic numbers with nearly 130,000 cases reported. Many Colombians suffered from intestinal parasites. Malnutrition, formerly a very serious problem, with nutritional goiter, anemia, scurvy, and pellagra frequent, had become less severe by the early 1980s, when the per capita calorie supply was estimated at 102% of requirements. As of 2000, an estimated 15% of children under five years old were considered to be malnourished. In 2000, 91% of the population had access to safe drinking water and 85% had adequate sanitation. In 1990, the government began an initiative to improve the national health system at every level. Health care provisions (doctors and beds) do not compare favorably with other countries of the region. As of 1999, total health care expenditure was estimated at 9.4% of GDP.

In 1993, Colombia departed from its older health care system to one of payment by capitation and structured competition among integrated health care service delivery systems; 5 million people in the poorest groups, previously excluded from the medical system, were given access to health services. Approximately 87% of the population had access to health care services. As of 2004, Colombia had an estimated 135 physicians, 237 nurses and 78 dentists per 100,000 people.

Average life expectancy in 2005 was 71.72 years. The infant mortality rate decreased from 99.8 per 1,000 live births in 1960 to 20.97 in 2005. As of 2002, there were an estimated 22 births per 1,000, with 77% of married women (ages 15 to 49) using contraception in 2000. In 1999, children up to one year of age were immunized against the following: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 74%, and measles, 74%. Colombia's estimated death rate as of 2002 was 5.66 per 1,000 inhabitants. Between 1986 and 1992, there were approximately 22,000 civil war-related deaths.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence was 0.70 per 100 adults in 2003. As of 2004, there were approximately 190,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. There were an estimated 3,600 deaths from AIDS in 2003.

The disease is mostly spread by sexual activity. The first case of perinatal transmission occurred in 1987 and there have been 195 cases reported since then.

HOUSING

Colombia's housing shortage is largely a result of the rapid growth of the urban population. With the annual urban population growth rate at over 5%, the housing deficit was estimated to be around 800,000 units in the early 1980s and is expanding annually. Total housing units numbered approximately seven million in the mid-1990s. About 6,923,945 units were privately owned. About 81% of privately owned units were detached homes; about 13% were apartments, and the remainder were mobile units, natural shelters, and nonresidential housing. Roughly 70% were owner-occupied, and 25% were rented. Three-fourths of all dwellings were made of bricks, adobe, mud or stone; nearly 15% had external walls of wattle or daub; 7% were wood; and 3% were mostly cane.

In 2005, Habitat for Humanity reported that about 11.5 million homes are still without basic necessities. About 40% of these homes are overcrowded and of inadequate structures. The housing deficit is at about 900,000 and growing. In rural areas, poverty-stricken residents often construct their own tin huts called cambuches. Rural housing problems in Colombia are dealt with primarily by the Credit Bank for Agriculture, Industry, and Mining, and by the Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform.

Public resources are channeled into urban housing through the Central Mortgage Bank, whose mortgages, because of interest rates, down-payment requirements, and repayment terms, have usually been accessible only to upper-middle-income groups; and the savings and loan corporations, whose interest rates are pegged to inflation through daily monetary correction factors known as units of constant purchasing power value (UPACs). In addition, through AID, substantial private funds from US investors have been used for various housing programs.

EDUCATION

The constitution provides that public education shall not conflict with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church; courses in the Roman Catholic religion are compulsory, and the Church is in virtual control of the public schools. Private schools have freedom of instruction, and there are a number of Protestant schools, principally in Bogotá. The national government supports secondary as well as university education and maintains a number of primary schools throughout the country.

Education is free and compulsory for nine years, beginning with one year of preschool starting at age five or six. Primary school covers five years of study and is followed by four years of basic secondary school. For their remaining two years of secondary school, students may choose a general course of studies or a technical school program. The government has established two basic programs for improving secondary education—the integration of practical training into high-school academic curricula and the training of agricultural experts at the secondary level—so that students who do not go on to college are prepared to receive further technical training or to earn a living. The National Apprenticeship Service offers technical and vocational training in fields that contribute to national development; the program is financed by compulsory contributions from private enterprises and employees.

In 2001, about 36% of children between the ages of three and five were enrolled in some type of preschool program. Primary school enrollment in 2003 was estimated at about 87% of age-eligible students. The same year, secondary school enrollment was about 55% of age-eligible students. Dropout rates are high at the primary level, particularly in rural areas, where the students frequently live at considerable distances from their schools. Almost all secondary schools are in the larger cities; thus, little educational opportunity is open to rural children, except those reached by educational radio and television broadcasting. The student-to-teacher ratio for primary school was at about 27:1 in 2003. The ratio for secondary school was about 21:1.

By law, Colombia must spend at least 10% of its annual budget on education. Financing and supervision of public education is the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Education, the departments, and the municipalities. Secondary and technical education and universities are administered by the Ministry of Education. The central government also pays teachers' salaries. As of 2003, public expenditure on education was estimated at 5.2% of GDP, or 15.6% of total government expenditures.

The National University in Bogotá, founded in 1572, is one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. Other important universities include the Universidad Javeriana (founded 1622), which is operated by the Jesuits; the Universidad de los Andes, a private institution based on a US model; and the Universidad Libre, a private university with active liberal leanings. In 1964, the Colombian Overseas Technical Specialization Institute (ICETEX) was formed to coordinate scholarship and fellowship funds for Colombians wishing to study abroad. Graduates of foreign schools who return to Colombia reimburse ICETEX from their subsequent earnings. In 2003, about 24% of the tertiary age population were enrolled in some type of higher education program. The adult literacy rate for 2004 was estimated at about 94.2%.

LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS

The National Library, founded in 1777 in Bogotá, has over 800,000 volumes. It also acts as a public library, maintaining a small circulating collection and a children's room, and serves as a depository library of the United Nations. The cities have municipal libraries and the towns have village libraries, which are under the control of the Colombian Institute of Culture. There are two valuable private libraries in Bogotá, established by Dr. Luis Agusto Cuervo and Dr. Antonio Gómez Restrepo, respectively; each contains about 50,000 volumes. The Bank of the Republic maintains the Luis Angel Arango Library, an important cultural center holding some 400,000 volumes. The library of the National University in Bogotá has approximately 230,000 volumes. The University of the Andes in Bogotá has 210,000 volumes. The Library of Congress holds 140,000 volumes. There are over 1,000 local branches of the public library.

The most notable of Bogotá's museums are the National Museum, which concentrates on history and art since the Spanish conquest, the founding of Bogotá, and the colonial period; the National Archaeological Museum, which exhibits indigenous ceramics, stone carvings, gold objects, and textiles; the Museum of Colonial Art, formerly part of the National University, which specializes in art of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; and the Gold Museum, located in the Bank of the Republic. There are more than 50 provincial museums, including many archeological and anthropological sites.

MEDIA

Telephone and telegraph networks link all provincial capitals and connect these centers with surrounding rural areas. Each local system is independent; most are municipally owned, but a few are in private hands. Long-distance service is provided by the national government and is based on an agreement among local and departmental systems. In the early 1980s, the National Telecommunications Enterprise (TELECOM) had one of the largest automatic telephone service networks in Latin America. Its high-capacity microwave system connected the 40 largest cities in the country. Colombia launched its own communications satellite in 1985. In 2003, there were an estimated 179 mainline telephones for every 1,000 people; nearly one million people were on a waiting list for telephone service installation. The same year, there were approximately 141 mobile phones in use for every 1,000 people.

Most of the nation's 498 (463 AM, 35 FM) radio stations are privately owned. In 1997 there were 60 television stations. Color television was introduced in 1979. Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia is the government owned radio station. Intravision is a government-owned television station that operates two commercial and one educational station. Caracol is a prominent private commercial station for both television and radio. In 2003, there were an estimated 548 radios and 319 television sets for every 1,000 people. The same year, there were 49.3 personal computers for every 1,000 people and 53 of every 1,000 people had access to the Internet. There were 159 secure Internet servers in the country in 2004.

Almost every town publishes at least one daily newspaper. The press varies from the irregular, hand-printed newspapers of the small towns of the interior to such national dailies as El Tiempo, one of the most influential newspapers of the Spanish-speaking world. The leading newspapers in Bogotá, with their political orientation are El Tiempo, liberal; El Espacio, liberal; and El Nuevo Siglo, conservative. La Republica in Bogotá reported a 2004 circulation of 55,000. In Cali, the leading newspapers are El País, conservative, 60,000 circulation in 2004 and Occidente, conservative, 25,000. In Medellín, the conservative El Colombiano had a 2004 circulation of 90,000. The same year, the Barranquilla El Heraldo (liberal) had a circulation of 70,000. and the Bucaramanga El Vanguardia liberal had a circulation of 48,000.

In general, the authorities are said to respect free speech and free press; most media are able to resist pressure from the government concerning sensitive issues, though censorship has been exercised occasionally in times of national emergency, and journalists exercise some self-censorship.

ORGANIZATIONS

The National Federation of Coffee Growers, organized in 1927, is a semiofficial organization partly supported by tax revenue. The organization carries great weight as the representative of Colombia's leading industry, and its influence is felt in many spheres. Other trade associations include the National Association of Manufacturers, the People's Association of Small Industrialists of Colombia, and chambers of commerce in the larger cities. The Bank Association is an association of both national and foreign banks in Colombia. The Colombian Livestock Association, the National Federation of Cotton Growers, and the National Association of Sugar Growers serve their respective industries. Most farmers belong to the Agricultural Society of Colombia.

Learned societies include the Academy of History, the Colombian Academy of Language, the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences, the Academy of Medicine, the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence, the Colombian Geographical Society, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology, and a number of regional bodies. The National Association of Colombian Writers and Artists includes most of the country's writers, painters, sculptors, and composers. Journalists have national and local organizations.

There are a number of youth organizations, some of which are affiliated with political or religious groups. Scouting programs are active throughout the country as are organizations of the YMCA and YWCA. A wide variety of sports organizations are active in the country.

In 2004, there were over 60,000 human rights and civil society nongovernmental organizations in the country. The Center for Popular Research and Education, sponsored by the Jesuits, is a prominent human rights organization. Others include the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective. There are national chapters of the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Habitat for Humanity.

TOURISM, TRAVEL, AND RECREATION

Colombia has mountains, jungles, modern and colonial cities, and resorts on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, all of which the Colombian Government Tourist Office (CORTURISMO) has aggressively promoted.

Football (soccer) is the most popular sport, followed by basketball, baseball, boxing, and cockfighting; there are also facilities for golf, tennis, and horseback riding, and bullrings in the major cities. Visas are not required, but all visitors need a valid passport and an onward/return ticket for entry.

The tourist industry in Colombia developed greatly in the late 1970s but declined in the 1980s. Spurred by the government's economic liberalization program, earnings from tourism rose from us$755 million in 1993 to us$955 million in 1997. In 2003, about 625,000 tourists arrived in the country and tourism receipts reached us$1.1 billion. There were 54,820 hotel rooms with 109,940 beds and an occupancy rate of 50%.

In 2005, the US Department of State estimated the cost of staying in Cartagena at us$234 per day; in Bogotá, us$184; in Cali, us$186; and in Medellín, us$160.

FAMOUS COLOMBIANS

Outstanding political and military figures in Colombian history include Francisco de Paula Santander (1792–1840), who served as a general in the war of independence and was the first president of independent Colombia, and José María Córdoba (1800?–1830), a brilliant young soldier of the war of independence, who was made a general at 22 by Simón Bolívar.

Colombia, famous for its literary figures, has produced three outstanding novelists widely read outside the country: Jorge Isaacs (1837–95), whose most famous work, María, is a novel in the Romantic tradition; José Eustacio Rivera (1880–1929), whose outstanding novel, La Vorágine (The Vortex), written after World War I, is a drama of social rebellion; and Gabriel García Márquez (b.1928), a Nobel Prize winner in 1982, who is best known for Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude ). Colombia has had a number of noteworthy poets. The 19th-century Romantic school included Julio Arboleda (1814–92), José Eusebio Caro (1817–53), Gregorio Guitiérrez Gonzales (1826–72), and Rafael Pombo (1834–1912). Caro, who was influenced by the English poets, is generally rated as the most important Colombian Romantic. José Asunción Silva (1865–96) is regarded as the father of Latin American symbolism; his Nocturnos are among the finest poems in the Spanish language. Guillermo Valencia (1873–1945), the author of Anarkos, was a polished poet of the classical school, and León de Greiff (1895–1976) was a well-known poet. Miguel Antonio Caro (1843–1909) and Rufino José Cuervo (1844–1911) were philologists and humanists of great erudition who influenced scholars and students in the 19th century. The Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá is devoted to the study and publication of their works. Well-known literary critics include Baldomero Sanín-Cano (1861–1957) and Antonio Gómez-Restrepo (1868–1951).

Colombia's most notable painter was Gregorio Vázquez Arce y Ceballos (1638–1711), whose drawing and coloring have been compared to the work of the Spanish painter Murillo. Fernando Botero (b.1932) is a contemporary painter and sculptor whose human and animal subjects are known for their corpulence and exaggerated proportions. Francisco José de Caldas (1770–1816) was a brilliant botanist who discovered a system for determining altitude by the variation in the boiling point of water and began the scientific literature of the country. Guillermo Uribe-Holguín (1880–1971) and José Rozo Contreras (1894–1976) are noted composers. The works of historian Germán Arciniegas (1900–99) are well known to the English-speaking world through translation.

DEPENDENCIES

The archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia, administered as an intendancy, is located 729 km (453 mi) from the Caribbean coast northwest of Cartagena and about 190 km (118 mi) off the Nicaraguan coast. Grouped roughly around the intersection of longitude 82° w and latitude 12° n, the archipelago consists of the islands of San Andrés and Providencia and 13 small keys. The population is mostly black. Both English and Spanish are spoken. The principal towns are San Andrés, San Luis, and Loma Alta on the island of San Andrés and Old Town on Providencia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, Yonah (ed.). Combating Terrorism: Strategies of Ten Countries. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2002.

Bruhns, Karen Olsen. Archaeological Investigation in Central Colombia. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum, 1995.

Calvert, Peter. A Political and Economic Dictionary of Latin America. Philadelphia: Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2004.

Davis, Robert H. Historical Dictionary of Colombia, 2nd ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1993.

Garretón, Manuel Antonio, and Edward Newman, (eds.). Democracy in Latin America: (Re)constructing Political Society. New York: United Nations University Press, 2001.

Giraldo, Javier. Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1996.

Health in the Americas, 2002 edition. Washington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization, Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Regional Office of the World Health Organization, 2002.

Molano, Alfredo. Loyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom: Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Moser, Caroline O. N. Encounters with Violence in Latin America: Urban Poor Perceptions from Colombia and Guatemala. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Simons, G. L. Colombia: A Brutal History. London, Eng.: Saqi, 2004.

Tertiary Education in Colombia: Paving the Way for Reform. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2003.

COLOMBIA

Republic of Colombia

República de Colombia

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

LOCATION AND SIZE.

Shaped like an odd-looking pear with a thin top, Colombia is located in the northwestern corner of South America, alongside the Caribbean Sea between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the Pacific Ocean between Panama and Ecuador. Colombia has an area of 1,138,903 square kilometers (439,733 square miles) and a total coastline of 3,207 kilometers (1,993 miles) distributed between the Caribbean Sea and North Pacific Ocean. It shares borders with Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south-southwest, and Panama to the northwest. With the fifth-largest area in Latin America in terms of size, Colombia is one-ninth the size of the United States, and is approximately the same size as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany combined. The capital city, Bogotá, is located in the center of the country in a mountainous setting.

Topographically, Colombia is divided into 4 regions: the central highlands, the Caribbean lowlands, the Pacific lowlands, and Eastern Colombia (east of the Andes mountains). In this diverse geography one important feature is the 3 chains of high mountains (cordilleras) that cut the country from south to northeast.

POPULATION.

In Latin America, Colombia ranks fourth in overall population and tenth in population density. Its population was estimated at 39.68 million in July of 2000, up from 25.4 million in 1975. In 2000 the birth rate stood at 22.85 per 1,000 while the death rate was 5.73 per 1,000. With a projected annual growth rate of 1.6 percent between 2000 and 2015, the population is expected to reach 53.2 million by the year 2015.

At the end of World War II, Colombia's population growth accelerated dramatically, peaking at about 3.2 percent per year by the 1960s. In 1951 Colombia's population was 11.5 million, and by 1973 it had doubled to 22.9 million. Beginning in the late 1960s the annual population growth rate dropped dramatically, such that between 1973 and 1985 it stood at only 2 percent. This drop was partly the result of a control policy initiated during the Lleras Restrepo administration (1966-70). Colombia was one of the few Latin American countries to adopt family planning as an official policy and to integrate it into development plans.

Population distribution is highly uneven. Roughly 94.5 percent of the population is concentrated in 42 percent of the territory, mostly in the plateaus and basins scattered among the Andes cordilleras and the valleys of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers, which run south to north in the western half of the country. Some 58 percent of the territory, mostly the 9 eastern departments (administrative units, much like provinces), accounts for a scant 5.5 percent of the population. Three-fourths of the population live in the Central Highlands in the temperate and cool zones and the remainder in the Caribbean lowlands.

Visitors travelling to Colombia during the 1950s and 1960s were struck by the social and economic changes in the country. The population explosion was accompanied by significant migrations from the countryside to intermediate and big cities, which led to rapid urbanization. According to the 1938 census, 30.9 percent of the population lived in urban municipal towns. By 1951 this had increased to 38.7 percent and continued to increase sharply so that by 1985 it had reached 67.2 percent. By the mid-1980s urban growth had consolidated the change from a predominantly rural to an urban economy. According to the 1993 census, Bogotá, the capital city, had a population of 5,399,000. Other major cities are Medellín (2,556,000 people) in the western province of Antioquia; Cali (2,064,000), southwest of Bogotá; and Barranquilla (1,329,000), on the Caribbean.

Colombia is one of the most Spanish of all South American nations, although persons of pure Spanish descent constitute only 20 percent of the population. The mestizos (people who are a mixture of white and indigenous Amerindians) comprise 58 percent. The mulattos (a mixture of African and white ethnicities) make up 14 percent, and those of African descent are only 4 percent of the population. The zambos (those of mixed African and Amerindian origins) comprise 3 percent of Colombia's people.

Colombia is a country composed primarily of young people, with 63 percent aged between 15 and 64 years, 32 percent below the age of 14, and 5 percent of the population older than 65.

An important feature of the latter half of the twentieth century has been a strong tendency for Colombians to emigrate . The 2 main destinations of emigrants are the United States and Venezuela. Up until the end of the 1980s, most of the emigrants to the United States were professionals, which represented a considerable brain drain (when talented professionals leave their home country due to better pay and living conditions abroad). However, in the 1990s the composition of emigrants also included less qualified professionals. Emigration to Venezuela has also been a major demographic phenomenon. The number of Colombians living illegally in Venezuela has been variously estimated at between half and three-quarters of a million. If legal migrants are considered, there may be as many as a million Colombian migrants in that neighboring country. The illegal migration is virtually impossible to control because the border is long and open, and Colombians are indistinguishable from Venezuelans. During the 1990s the trend has diminished due to Venezuela's economic problems. Overall, Colombia's emigration problem has been the result of not only better economic opportunities elsewhere, but rampant insecurity in the country.

OVERVIEW OF ECONOMY

Colombia is a market economy with major commercial and investment links to the United States, and more recently to its neighbor countries in the Andean region. For close to a century the country was known as a "coffee economy." As the twentieth century came to close, Colombia remained a major coffee producer, though coffee was second to oil as a generator of foreign exchange earnings. By the end of the century, even chemicals had surpassed coffee in export earnings. In the last 25 years the country has also gained an unfortunate reputation as a haven for illegal drug cultivation and manufacture.

Colombia has attained greater diversification both in terms of production and exports, allowing the country to cushion the external shocks typically felt by less developed countries which are dependent on shifting world prices for their major exports. Apart from oil production, recent examples of success range from the export of fresh-cut flowers to the chemical industry, a leading exporter to other Latin American countries.

The net result has been an economy growing steadily—though moderately—over the last 50 to 60 years, with an important positive impact upon the welfare of the population measured by almost any indicator. Life expectancy, nutrition, and access to health and education have all improved. Major services such as electricity, urban sewage, roads, and telecommunications have increased substantially. Furthermore, GDP per capita has risen, although it is still unevenly distributed.

To continue this process, Colombia has required many technology inputs, both in terms of equipment, chemical products, and raw materials for production, as well as consumer products to match the needs of a sophisticated urban society. Colombia's growth has been close to the average of developing countries, but this growth has not been steady. Annual GDP growth in the 45 years after World War II was about 4.8 percent, but it varied from a high of 6.08 percent between 1967 and 1972 to a more modest 2 percent between 1990 and 1997. In 1999 GDP diminished by about 5 percent, the only negative result in close to 70 years as investment activity and demand plummeted.

Topographical conditions have made internal communications very difficult, isolating most regions from one another. For close to a century such difficulties prevented the consolidation of an integrated national market. Today, modern transportation infrastructure is still lacking, both for the internal market and for exports.

Unlike most other Latin American countries, Colombia was never very cut off from the world in economic terms. During the second half of the twentieth century, the country managed a mixture of relatively open and moderate economic strategies combined with industrial and export promotion policies. One good example is currency management. Up to 1967 the currency had several values through multiple exchange rates . The government then chose to have one rate, with its value fluctuating over time using a crawling peg mechanism. In addition, several other mechanisms were designed to promote exports. Following such changes, exports expanded, bring in new sources of foreign exchange.

Such policies—unusual in the region—allowed Colombia to avoid the hardship of the 1980s, known throughout the area as the "lost decade." One major difference was the national debt . During the 1980s Colombia managed to avoid the "debt trap" with a debt of roughly 7 percent of GDP, although in the last 7 years it increased to 30 percent. The country's total external debt by 1998 was US$35 billion. So when the times were ripe for major changes, Colombia was able to launch economic reforms without the strains suffered by other countries. The first 5 years of liberalization in the late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by higher economic growth than the previous decade (between 4 to 5 percent annually). Subsequently, the GDP growth rate fell to 0.6 percent in 1998, and close to-5.0 percent in 1999 during the recession which affected all of Latin America.

Despite its comparative advantages, Colombia has suffered from the introduction and expansion of a powerful illegal drug industry that today stands as a major threat to the consolidation of the country as a democratic society and operates as a major fuel to social and political violence. Originating in the early 1970s, the narcotics business managed to profit from weak social and legal controls, political corruption, and the collusion of some authorities. With their headquarters established in the regions of Antioquia and Cauca, the Medellín and Cali cartels set up a vast international network of coca, marijuana, and poppy cultivation, the manufacture of cocaine and heroine, distribution channels, and money laundering .

POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND TAXATION

Colombia was one of the first South American nations to gain independence from Spain in 1824. A part of the Gran Colombia (comprising also Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama) until 1830, from the 1840s the country started on its own route, oriented toward a mild form of economic and social liberalism. From those early years onwards the country has been characterized by 3 major political features: first, a dominance of 2 major parties, the Liberals and Conservatives. From around the mid-19th century, traditional political parties have dominated the political scene, adapting to major social, economic, and international conditions. Second, the pervasive presence of political violence. The greatest bloodshed came in the War of the Thousand Days (1899-1902) in which 100,000 people died, and the "Violencia" (1948-66) during which between 100,000 and 200,000 lost their lives. Currently Colombia is plagued by violence from several leftist guerrilla groups and high levels of violence involving both street criminals and drug lords.

Paradoxically, the third feature has been a relatively long stability of democratically elected governments from 1910 onwards, with the exception of the period from 1949 to 1958. Apart from that brief period, Colombia's military forces have been known for their support of civilian-elected governments. In response to the mid-twentieth-century violence, the 2 traditional parties formed the National Front coalition under which Liberals and Conservatives alternated the presidency and shared power in Congress and the government bureaucracy from 1958 to 1974.

The political regime is presidential, with presidents elected directly every 4 years with no opportunity for reelection. The current president is Andrés Pastrana, elected in 1998. Every now and then there have been pressures toward more provincial autonomy, but the regime remained quite centralized from the enactment of the 1886 Constitution until a new one was drafted and approved in 1991. Regarding the judiciary system, the top of its hierarchy is selected by Congress. There is a bicameral (2-chamber) Congress; governors, mayors, and local councilors are also elected every 4 years, though on different dates. Although political confrontation has been bitter and even violent occasionally, the 2 parties have shared power most of the time, either through implicit agreements or under constitutional provisions, such as those forming the National Front.

The National Front era contributed to diminishing differences over policy, especially in economic matters, and served as a positive factor for stability and growth. At the same time, however, it was a means to exclude other players in the legal arena, which created incentives for armed struggle. During the National Front period— as well as other periods when compromise governments formed—it was virtually impossible to create a political organization outside the Liberal or Conservative parties.

For more than half a century Colombia has suffered from the action of left-wing guerrillas. From the late 1940s, growing discontent over poverty and social inequities in rural areas led to the formation of guerilla groups, which evolved into 2 major organizations, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC, communist oriented), and the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN, which supported Cuban leader Fidel Castro). During the 1970s and 1980s, the guerrillas turned their attention to the cities, and several attempts toward peace ended in bloodshed. Today the 2 former guerrilla groups have turned to the narcotics business in their search for financial support. In their pursuit of total power, the guerrillas have failed to topple the government but have caused major disruptions. That is also the case of the growing power of the drug cartels and paramilitary groups.

In 1991 a new constitution was drafted by a Constituent Assembly and later approved by a majority of Colombians. It cleared the way for new entrants to the political scene, instituted direct elections of provincial governors and mayors, and strengthened the office of the Attorney General, Constitutional Council, and the Electoral Authority. Other constitutional provisions regarding the political system, such as banning re-election and a 4-year presidential period, were maintained.

The strategy of the Pastrana administration has been to reinitiate peace negotiations with the 2 major groups (FARC and ELN) while at the same time obtaining important financial support from the U.S. government. This program—called Plan Colombia—is designed to combat the illegal drug plantations, laboratories, and the commercial drug network, thus depriving the guerrillas of financial support.

The size and influence of government over the economy has been rather mild. According to the World Bank, the central government revenues in 1998 were only 12 percent of GDP. Though the level of state involvement increased from the 1940s to the 1970s, Colombia never concentrated major portions of wealth creation in the hands of the state. Coffee production, with its wide participation of private growers and commercial retail networks, has been an important factor both in terms of tax collection and the presence of private capital.

For many years financial policy was shared between the executive branch and congress, with participation of the private sector , but from the mid-1960s, most of the responsibility has rested with the former, with monetary policy in the hands of the Banco de la Republica (central bank). Traditionally, the government has regulated the prices of electricity, water, sewage, telephone services, public transportation, rents, education tuition, and pharmaceuticals. During the 1960s the government also established a set of public financing institutions and in the 1980s, amid a financial crisis, it nationalized a number of private banks.

In general terms, Liberals and Conservatives have agreed on major policy issues like monetary stability, the avoidance of high inflation , export promotion, and the cautious development of oil. During the 1980s and 1990s, most differences between the parties were over the pace of economic reforms. The Liberal party advocates milder and slower reforms while Conservatives tend to support more open market policies. In 1990, the administration of President Cesar Gaviria (1990-94) initiated economic liberalization, or apertura, and it has continued since then, though at a slower pace. It consists of tariff reductions, financial deregulation , privatization of state-owned enterprises, and the adoption of a more flexible foreign exchange system. After a period of lack of interest in liberalization during the Samper administration (1994-98), the Pastrana administration has regained the pace of economic reforms.

According to the World Development Indicators 1999 more than one-quarter of Colombia's current revenues come from indirect taxes , primarily from domestic taxes on goods and services, and another quarter from direct taxes on income, profit, and capital gains. An unfavorable aspect of the tax situation in Colombia has been a recurrent tendency of several administrations to pardon unpaid taxes accumulated by firms and individuals over the years.

INFRASTRUCTURE, POWER, AND COMMUNICATIONS

For many decades Colombia suffered from a weak and even non-existent infrastructure that made national market integration difficult. The 3 mountain chains that cut through the most populated areas rendered road and railroad construction very costly. After the 1930s important programs of public investment in infrastructure began, and in recent decades the situation has somewhat improved, though infrastructure still does not meet general needs. Colombia has 115,543 kilometers (71,811 miles) of roads, of which only 13,866 kilometers (8,618 miles) are paved. The rail system is small and outdated, with only about 3,379 kilometers (2,100 miles) in the whole country.

Colombia has a network of 1,101 airports, of which only 90 have paved runways. There are 10 international airports, with heavy traffic in Bogotá, Cali, Barranquilla, Medellín, and Cartagena. The most important airport is "El Dorado," located in the capital city. The difficulties in land communication and transport have made aviation profitable, so for many years Colombia was far ahead of its neighbors in this area. The airports are served by 9 large and medium airlines and also a group of small airlines. In addition, Colombia has 18,136 kilometers (11,272 miles) of waterways navigable by river boats and a number of important ports and harbors, mostly related to tourism.

Electrical power capacity in Colombia falls short of current and projected needs. Electricity production was 45.02 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 1998, with 69 percent of production coming from hydroelectric sources, 30.11 percent from fossil fuel, and the rest from other sources. According to World Bank sources, electricity use decreased from 904 kWh per capita in 1996 to 885 kWh per person in 1998. It is also very decentralized, with 37 companies providing power. Among these firms are Interconexion Electrica ISA, Generadora Union, Codensa, Transelca, Genercauca, Centrales Electricos del Norte de Santander, Electrocost, Electromag, Conelca, and EEPP.

Electricity became a lagging sector during the 1990s. Programmed cuts during the mid-1990s ran for several hours a day in the main cities for as long as 2 years. As a result, by 1999 imports of electricity jumped to 94 million kWh. These shortcomings, however, have not affected exploitation of new natural resources such as oil and coal, since investment in those areas usually involve their own infrastructure requirements, like pipelines, integrated camps, and airfields.

Colombia has a relatively modern telephone system represented by a nation-wide relay system, a domestic satellite system with 41 earth stations, and a fiber optic network linking 50 cities. The telecommunications business in Colombia is experiencing a major boom: there were 75 telephone lines per 1,000 people in 1990, doubling in 1998 to 173 lines per 1,000 persons. Cellular subscribers have also increased substantially. In 1990 cell phones were nonexistent, while in 1998 there were 49 subscribers per 1,000 people. Among the many telecommunications companies are Globalnet Telecom, Energia Integral Andina, Skytel, Intelsa, Americatel, Metrotel, Andicel, Cetell ISP, and Colomsat.

According to the CIA World Factbook 2000, Colombia had 5,433,565 telephones main lines in use by 1997 and 1,800,229 cellular telephones in 1998. By 1999 Colombia had 13 Internet service providers. Thus Colombia is moving towards greater connectivity, higher density in mass media, and dynamism in the telecommunications sector.

ECONOMIC SECTORS

Colombia is the world's second-largest coffee grower and coffee exporter (after Brazil), accounting for 31.2 percent of the world's production. Coffee production and exports were a major engine of growth during most of the twentieth century. However, by the end of the century, the country had achieved greater diversification. By 1999, agriculture accounted for 19.7 percent of GDP, while manufacturing attained 18.9 percent, and the banking and insurance sector accounted for 15.8 percent. Of less significance were commerce, restaurants and similar activities with 8.8 percent, mining at 4.2 percent, government services with 8.9 percent, construction at 3.4 percent, and electricity, gas, and water with only 1.1 percent. An overview of the productive landscape shows agriculture diminishing over time, with a considerable increase in services, a mining sector (mostly oil and coal) growing in terms of output and exports though diminishing in terms of employment, and a stagnating manufacturing sector. Although these sweeping changes led to the diminishment of agriculture, some agricultural products have seen higher levels of revenue over the last forty years, either through modernization in the production of established crops (cotton, sugar cane, bananas, and cocoa) or through introduction of new ones, like cut flowers.

Changes in population growth have been accompanied by a major shift in the distribution of the economically active population. In 1960, 50.1 percent of the labor force was engaged in agriculture, 19.5 percent in industry, and 30.4 percent in services. By 1980 the figures were 34.3, 23.5, and 42.2 percent, respectively, and by 1999 they stood at 30 percent, 24 percent, and 46 percent, respectively. These shifts reflect a different composition of economic output and have altered many economic relations in the country.

AGRICULTURE

For a long time agriculture was the main source of living for many Colombians. By the year 2000, however, it accounted for roughly 19 percent of GDP, though still employing 30 percent of the population and accounting for 17.4 percent of exports, with coffee the major export. Coffee employs one-fourth of the agricultural labor force, accounts for 20 percent of the cultivated area, and contributes nearly 9 percent to GDP. Production by 1998 was estimated by Colombia's Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Colombia (DANE) at 2,445,224 metric tons.

Colombia has a diversity of other agriculture products, including bananas for export (2,061,992 metric tons), rice (1,818,726 metric tons), potatoes (1,476,869 metric tons), sugarcane (1,061,272 metric tons), cassava (970,951 metric tons), oilseed (378,481 metric tons), and other products like cotton, cocoa beans, and tobacco. There are an estimated 167,000 cattle ranches in the country, of which 40 percent are in the departments of Atlantico, Bolivar, Cordoba, and Magdalena, and 15 percent in Boyaca, Meta, and Arauca.

Of the total land area of Colombia (113,891,400 hectares), an estimated 27 percent is agricultural land, most of it in elevated regions of the temperate zone. Mechanization trends have stagnated in the last twenty years. By 1980 the number of hectares of arable land per tractor was 183, and by 1997 the number rose only slightly to 211 hectares per tractor. Under the traditional system of slash-and-burn agriculture, fields are usually cleared at the beginning of the dry season and the brush from the cleared land is burned. This practice results in soil exhaustion and erosion. Yields are generally low and variable because of the inadequacy of flood control systems and irrigation. Although the country receives adequate rainfall, droughts are common. The U.S. government is working with the Pastrana administration to modernize the agricultural sector and provide incentives for farmers to switch from coca production to other crops.

Colombia ranks high in terms of land concentration and disparities in land ownership. Of the total farmland, 68 percent is owned by 4.3 percent of landowners, and half of Colombia's farms account for less than 2.3 percent of the farmland. Although 69 percent of the farms and 75 percent of the farmland are owned by individual farmers, 62 percent of these farms are too small to provide a living. The number of landless workers is estimated at 1 million, representing close to a third of the population engaged in agriculture. Traditional rural labor markets have virtually disappeared. Migration from traditional agricultural areas to the cities has contributed to more modern hiring and land tenancy systems.

The economic reforms of the 1990s ended most special protective measures for particular sectors, which led to a weakening in the production of some traditional crops like corn, cotton, and cassava. As a member of the Andean Community (formerly Andean Pact), a common trade agreement established during the 1960s and revamped in the 1990s, Colombia still enjoys special protection for many agricultural products. To do this, the "Andean price band system" is employed, which imposes tariffs on certain commodities that vary according to a pre-determined range. Fourteen basic agricultural commodities including wheat, sorghum, corn, rice, barley, milk, and chicken parts are subject to tariffs under the price-band system employed as part of this agreement.

Colombia is also an illicit producer of the drugs coca, opium poppies, and cannabis. According to recent information disclosed by Colombia's Ministry of Defense, the country is the world's leading coca cultivator (coca is used in the production of cocaine). The country was responsible for 67 percent of world supply by 2000, and total land area devoted to coca was approximately 122,500 hectares by the end of 1999, more than a 35 percent increase from 1997, with a refining potential of 710 tons of pure cocaine per year. Cultivation of opium in 1998 remained steady at 6,600 hectares a year.

As of 1999, most small farmers were involved in coca cultivation, largely because of the steady demand from markets in the United States and elsewhere. Coca is harvested from 3 to 6 times a year. Payment is in cash, and this helps farmers maintain a steady source of income. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of State reports that small coca farmers "barely manage to survive, partially due to the 'protection' fees charged by the guerrilla and paramilitary forces." Small farm plots may account for roughly one-quarter to one-third of coca cultivation, or 30,000 to 40,000 hectares.

INDUSTRY

MINING.

One significant part of the transformation of the Colombian economy from the 1970s has been the expansion of the mining sector, mostly comprised of oil production and coal, though it also includes gold and valuable gems such as emeralds. Oil production in Colombia has been declining as of late, with 700,600 barrels a day (bbl/d) in 2000, down 125,000 bbl/d from the previous year. The country's reserves are estimated at about 2.6 billion barrels, but the potential reserves are much higher. Colombia's main oil export market is the United States, with 332,000 bbl/d in 2000. Production is located mainly in the Cusiana and Cupiagua fields in the Andes foothills and in the Cano Limón field near the Venezuelan border. British Petroleum has major operations at Cusiana and Cupiagua, while the Cano Limón field is operated by U.S.-based Occidental.

All foreign investment in petroleum exploration and development in Colombia must be carried out under a profit-sharing association contract between the investor and the state petroleum company, Ecopetrol. In the face of U.S. oil companies' interest in increasing exploration and production if contract and tax requirements are smoothed, the Pastrana administration has responded by liberalizing contracting terms.

Colombia produces more than 90 percent of the world's emeralds; it is the second-largest South American producer of gold and the most important coal producer in Latin America. Coal reserves have been estimated between 12 billion and 60 billion tons, approximately 40 percent of all Latin American reserves. Important levels of production began in 1984, attaining 4,000 metric tons, which jumped to close to 13,000 metric tons by 1993 and 28,500 metric tons in 1997. Excluding oil production, there was a relative decline in mining from 1992 to 1996, accompanied by a decline in the number of persons employed to almost 20,000.

MANUFACTURING.

The economic landscape of Colombia has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, and one clear example is the changes in the manufacturing industry by the late twentieth century. Industrial manufacturing is quite varied. According to DANE, by the year 2000 the most important products included basic chemicals (5.3 billion pesos), beverages (3.5 billion pesos), milling and cereal processing (3 billion pesos), oil refining (2.9 billion pesos), and pulp, paper and derived products (2.1 billion pesos). Though an important proportion of production is for the domestic market, the relative level of sophistication in some of these products can be measured by the extent to which they are exported. In 2000 manufactured products accounted for nearly 40 percent of all exports, with chemicals and textiles ranking near the top.

Manufacturing is located mostly in the provinces of Antioquia, Cauca, in the capital district, and to a lesser extent in Barranquilla, on the Atlantic coast. The number of people employed by this sector is 588,681—ap-proximately 20 percent of the economically active population.

The lowering of many trade barriers in the 1990s served to streamline Colombian industry, and most sectors have managed to remain competitive with other Latin American competitors, leading to an increase in exports to those countries.

The construction industry, one of the largest employment sectors in Colombia, has been very dynamic over the last 2 decades, totaling close to 7,000 companies. In the years from 1998 to 2001, however, it was hit hard by the recession and tight credit conditions.

SERVICES

FINANCIAL SERVICES.

Colombia has an extensive banking sector. According to DANE, it accounted in 1995 for close to 16 percent of GDP, clearly the most important service activity. It is headed by the Bank of the Republic, which functions as the central bank. There are approximately 1,700 companies devoted to financial services, of which 37 are established banks, 30 are investment companies, nearly 70 stock and bond brokers, and a small number of leasing and real estate leasing. There are 17 long-term and development financial institutions, including the government-owned Industrial Development Institute. The government has played an important role in the financial sector since the 1970s because of the unwillingness of banks to make long-term loan commitments to riskier projects such as coal development, and because of the necessity for periodic public intervention to stabilize financial markets.

The 6 largest of these corporations hold 86 percent of all assets in this sector. In the mid-1980s there was a crunch in the banking system that forced the government to nationalize a number of troubled domestic banks. It also created the Financial Institutions Guarantee Fund (Fondo de Garantias de Instituciones Financieras) as the authority to intervene or recapitalize those financial institutions in great need of support. By the end of the 1980s the government set out plans for privatization, the second phase of which took place by the end of the 1990s.

TOURISM.

Tourism is a relatively minor activity in the country. In 1997 inbound tourists to Colombia numbered 1,193,000 people, contributing US$955 million in foreign exchange, representing 6 percent of exports. In 1980 the corresponding figures were US$357 million and 6.7 percent of exports, so in twenty years there was a slight decline in tourism's contribution to the economy. If hotels and travel agencies are included, the number of people involved in tourism by 1997 was only 23,700. Most tourist activities are concentrated in the Atlantic coast, in the cities of Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Barranquilla. Tourists are mainly attracted to a mixture of beaches and historic sites. As part of the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada during colonial times, the coastal cities retain a good part of this heritage. With Colombia suffering from violence for 2 decades and targeted as a high-risk country, it is quite understandable that there are not more tourists.

RETAIL.

The commercial sector is very important in most urban areas, and it has modernized substantially over the years, though suffering from the recession from 1998 to 2000. According to the most recent DANE survey, by 1997 personnel employed in supermarkets, "hypermarkets," and malls was nearly 84,000, with sales of 2.87 billion pesos. These figures declined to 74,000 persons employed and 2.02 billion pesos worth of sales in 2000. Main lines of sales are food, clothing, and pharmaceuticals, though automobiles have increased their share over the last 5 years. Although most retail is regionally based, there are 3 main chain stores—Almacenes Exito, Vivero, and Carulla—which have remained strong despite the downturn of the economy by the end of the 1990s. Also important national and regional companies—including the 3 just mentioned—have forged alliances or have opened participation to foreign owners, mostly in the coastal area, while new foreign firms have established retail operations of their own.

TRANSPORTATION.

Despite geographical and political difficulties, transportation has become over the years an activity of increasing importance, attaining 8.8 percent of GDP by 1997. According to the Asociación Nacional de Instituciones Financieras (ANIF), the transport of cargo and passengers by land represents 76 percent of revenues in the sector, while air transportation accounts for 10 percent, and maritime only 3.3 percent. Passenger transportation accounted for 75 percent of revenues, with the rest going to cargo. According to ANIF, rail transportation's importance diminished by 1997 to a third of the value in 1987.

Colombia's domestic air-transport market was deregulated in 1990, a move that led to domestic passenger traffic doubling to just over 6 million people by 1996. International traffic more than doubled to 1.7 million passengers by the same year. Colombia also concluded an agreement with Venezuela, which led to flights between Venezuela and Bogotá increasing dramatically.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

One of the most striking aspects of Colombia's economic performance over the years has been the change in the export mix. Once predominantly a coffee economy, by the year 2000 coffee accounted for only 8.43 percent of foreign exchange earnings, while oil and related products jumped to 35.34 percent and manufacturing products accounted for 39.54 percent of exports. However, Colombia still exports oil and coffee to the developed world (the United States, Japan, Germany, and Belgium), while most of its exports to countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, and Ecuador are manufactured products.

At the same time, the relative importance of Colombia's partners has also changed. The United States remains the main trading partner, receiving 37.2 percent of Colombia's exports and providing 32 percent of Colombia's imports in 1998. However, the role of Venezuela as a trading partner has increased substantially. In 1996 the United States was the destination of US$5,991 million of exports, while Venezuela had climbed to US$1,178 million. Ecuador accounted for US$413 million, Germany US$353 million, Peru US$338 million, and Japan US$216 million. This trend diminished after 1997, mostly due to the recession on both sides of the Venezuela-Colombia border. The year 2000 has shown a relative recovery between both partners.

More than 70 percent of Colombian exports to the United States are primary products such as food (mainly coffee, bananas, cut flowers, tuna, shrimp, and sugar), and fuel (petroleum and coal). The United States also holds the largest share of foreign direct investment , with US$4.3 billion, or 28.1 percent of the estimated total direct foreign investment of US$15.4 billion.

Imports to Colombia also grew extensively during the 1990s, creating a trade deficit until 1998. Through

September 1999, Colombia's overall trade balance has swung from a US$2.7 billion deficit to a US$1.1 billion surplus, while the U.S.-Colombia trade balance swung from a US$292 million U.S. surplus to a US$1.8 billion deficit. The type of imports also show the overall changes in the Colombian economy. While during most of the twentieth century imports were mainly consumer goods , and later capital goods , the trend has changed. According to DANE, in the year 2000 21.9 percent of imports were capital goods, 51.99 percent were raw materials, 8.57 percent were transportation equipment, and 18.72 percent consisted of consumer goods.

MONEY

The value of the Colombian peso per US$1 was 2,179.3 in December 2000. This reflects a loss of over half its value against the dollar since 1995, when it traded at 912.83 pesos to the dollar.

Colombia's monetary policies are formulated by the Junta Monetaria (Monetary Board), and banking operations are regulated and supervised by the Superintendencia Bancaria. The Central Bank conducts monetary policy based on behavior of the financial sector, and determines the amount of money in the system and makes other decisions in line with indicators such as inflation and growth of the economy at large.

The Colombian peso has floated freely against the dollar and other currencies since 25 September 1999, when the Central Bank abandoned the crawling band exchange regime, which acts like a crawling peg. Under that system, the Bank intervened in the market by buying or selling dollars to keep the dollar's price in pesos within the band. Soon after abolition of the band—by December 1999—the peso had depreciated 20 percent from the beginning of the year, increasing the competitiveness of Colombian exports to the United States.

Inflation has always been moderate in Colombia, with peaks in the mid-twenty percent range. By the end of 1999 inflation was 9.2 percent, more than 5 percentage points below the previous year, mainly as a consequence of the recession. The figure for 2000 was 10 percent

as consumption reversed the downward trend and the government restrained wage hikes. Despite economic recovery and a slight weakening of the peso, officials were not able to relax monetary policy later in year 2000. Average interest rates were 19.5 percent in 1999 and about 15.3 percent in 2000.

In August 1989 the government authorized plans to return to private ownership 65 percent of the assets of all financial institutions nationalized after the financial crisis of 1987.

POVERTY AND WEALTH

Colombia is neither a poor nor a rich country. Income per person was by year 1999 roughly equal to the world average. According to the Andean Community, GDP per capita was US$1,487 in 1993, and rose to US$2,090 by 1995. The CIA's World Factbook estimates income per capita for 1999 at US$6,200. More interesting, however, are changes over time. By 1980 income per capita was about 108 percent higher than in 1950, with most of the growth having occurred between 1969-1979 when it increased by 50 percent. During the 1980s economic growth declined significantly, but income per capita managed a modest percent increase given a population growth slowdown.

Income distribution has also shown important changes during the last fifty years. Total income inequality peaked in the 1960s. Later on, when education levels improved drastically and the relative income of agricultural workers improved somewhat, inequalities in income levels became less extreme. Among the poorest workers, the picture is also positive. In Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia, Francisco Thoumi sums up the trends this way: "Based on a constant poverty line, the incidence of poverty has declined continuously during the fifty-year period. A head-count index shows that three-fourths of the population was poor in 1938, half in the mid-1960s, and one-fourth in the late 1980s. The poor declined from 70.5 percent of the country's population in 1973 to 45.6 percent in 1985, while the extreme poor declined from 44.9 to 22.8 percent." All the changes notwithstanding, according to the ANIF, Colombia's income

inequality is still one of the highest in Latin America, and deteriorated greatly between 1997 and 2000, particularly in the urban areas. Rural GDP is only 50 percent of that of urban areas.

Education has also improved substantially in the last forty years. According to Thoumi, in 1951 "44 percent of the population was illiterate [and] in 1955 it was estimated that only 57 percent of 7 to 12-year-olds were enrolled in elementary schools. Under state control, elementary school enrollment … reached nearly 100 percent by 1970. Increases in high school and college enrollments have also been substantial. In 1960 high school enrollment was only 11.9 percent, while college enrollment was only 1.8 percent. By 1980 these rates had increased to 44 and 10.6 percent respectively, the latter achieving 28 percent by 1997."

In health care, Colombia also shows continuous improvement. First of all, the control of tropical diseases like malaria in the countryside and improvement in sewage systems in the cities strongly contributed to a diminishing trend in infant mortality rates (from 123.3 for each 1,000 new births in the early 1950s to 48.6 by the end of the 1980s, and 23 by the year 2000). Life expectancy has risen in Colombia; by the end of the 1980s the figure stood at 68 years, and reached 70 years in 2000. This is a far cry from the early 1950s, when the average was barely 50 years. A contributing trend has been the construction of a health care network for the growing urban population. A pension system created in 1993 allows access to both public and privately-funded health care for all employees. This program has both taken the pressure off of the public health system and has supplemented it, leading to a net improvement in the quality of health facilities in the country.

The quality of housing has also improved. According to data quoted by Thoumi from the 1951 census, "52.7 percent of the housing units had earth floors and 90.3 percent had walls made of 'precarious' materials. By the 1985 census these percentages had dropped to 17.1 and 24.4 respectively. Similarly, in 1951 only 28.8 percent of the units had running water, 25.8 percent had electricity, and 32.4 percent had sewage or septic tanks. By 1985 these figures had increased to 69.7, 78.2, and 77 percent respectively. In urban areas … these percentages were much higher: 89.8, 95, and 93.6 respectively."

While the physical standard of living has improved, the country has actually become less livable. Colombians today enjoy better housing, health services, and education; they own cars, telephones, and have greater access to information about their country and the world. They are more broadly traveled and they have more material goods than in the past. But many fundamental aspects of the quality of life, such as physical security and property protection, have deteriorated sharply due to the increase in political and criminal violence associated with both guerrilla terrorism and the narcotics war. According to ANIF, life expectancy among male Colombians dropped 3 to 4 years between 1994 and 1997 largely due to the rise in violence, both political and criminal.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The workers' movement emerged by the end of World War I. From that time, the labor movement was greatly influenced by episodes of violent confrontation. The most critical of these occurred during the first massive industrial action, aimed at the United Fruit Santa Marta complex in 1928 when railroad, banana, and field workers went on strike to force changes in wages, hours, and non-wage compensation. The human toll was 1,000 dead. The aftermath of this tragedy diminished the dominance of the Conservative Party and contributed to the Liberal Party winning the presidency. The incoming government had a more open and pragmatic stance toward labor activities and pressed for important labor reforms, which helped in union expansion nation-wide. During this period, there was a greater participation of labor in national politics, mainly through the Liberal Party. The Confederation of Colombian Workers (Confederacion de Trabajadores Colombianos, CTC) was created in 1935, and represented the first successful attempt at uniting smaller unions from various professions into a collective organization. Later, Cold War ideological confrontation led to fears by more conservative elements that the CTC was too left-wing; thus in 1946 the Catholic Church established the Union of Colombian Workers (Union de Trabajadores Colombianos, UTC), which gained important support from the more moderate unions.

A second labor confrontation occurred in 1947 during a strike by port workers on the Magdalena River, which also ended in the loss of lives. During the "Violencia" (1948-66), organized labor became increasingly demoralized and weakened. After 1960, however, 2 more labor federations emerged: the Trade Union Confederation of Colombian Workers (Confederacion Sindical de Trabajadores Colombianos, or CSTC) and the General Confederation of Workers (Confederacion General de Trabajadores, or CGT). The former was aligned with the communists and the latter with the tiny Social Christian party. However, although the percentage of workers enrolled in unions more than doubled from 1959 to 1965, union membership was still a very low 13.4 percent.

Later on, in September 1986, an important group of independent unions and those affiliated with the CSTC joined forces to create the United Workers Central Organization (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, or CUT). The CUT represented 70 to 75 percent of the organized workforce, and emerged as a major voice against organized violence. This organization proved to be less timid in terms of industrial action, and by the late 1980s the labor movement appeared to play a greater role in representing workers' social and political rights. Working conditions and wages are governed by the Labor Code of 1950 and some additional laws. The work week is 48 hours, except in agriculture. Fringe benefits include annual vacations and sick benefits. Employees are eligible for a retirement pension after 20 years of service. Social security is compulsory with the employer paying half the cost and the employee and the government paying a quarter each.

The total workforce of Colombia reached 18 million by 1999, with a record 20 percent unemployment level due to the recession, which has affected living standards and poverty levels, especially in the countryside.

COUNTRY HISTORY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1821. Gaining independence from the Spanish empire, Colombia emerges from colonial rule as part of Gran Colombia, together with Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.

1859. Emergence of the Liberal Party. Tobacco accounts for 28 percent of exports while gold's share is down to 33 percent.

1860S-70s. Liberal constitution establishes liberal economic principles and quasi-federal autonomy to provinces. The 1870s marks efforts in railroad building. The Conservative Party is founded. By late 1870s coffee production, carried by rail and financed by banks, becomes even more important.

1886. A conservative constitution is promulgated, marking a major swing toward a more centralized state.

1898. Coffee reaches 50 percent of exports.

1899. Colombia's greatest civil war ruins the country. Coffee-producing areas are greatly affected, and chaos shakes the economy.

1903. Panama is separated as a consequence of the war, supported by U.S. intervention. After the war, Congress reforms monetary system, budget, customs, tariff legislation, and some protectionist policies .

1904-09. Rule of dictator Rafael Reyes. His conservative administration starts reconstruction under economic orthodoxy.

1910-30. Bipartisan consensus emerges with constitutional reform. Paper money is banned, and minority party representation established. Coffee production takes place on larger farms, and has a greater impact on the domestic economy.

1920s. A strong coffee export trend (11.3 percent of world production by 1930) allows for the tripling of public spending, mostly in infrastructure.

1930-46. Known as the Liberal Republic, this is a period of social reform, slower economic development, and growing tension between the parties. The collapse of coffee prices is partially compensated for by greater exports and the strengthening of domestic industry. Liberal dissident Jorge Eliecer Gaitan rises to prominence.

1946. Split in Liberal party ends the period of liberal rule. Gaitan dominates the Liberal party.

1948. Assassination of Gaitan leads to a virtual civil war known as "The Violence" (1948-66).

1950. Extreme Conservative Laureano Gomez comes to power, unleashing terror against liberal insurgencies in the countryside. Exports start a diminishing trend.

1953. A military coup supported by both traditional parties brings in General Rojas Pinilla. Political calm is affected by a downturn in coffee prices and a weak economic performance.

1958. Beginning of the National Front, under which Liberals and Conservatives alternate the presidency and share government posts at all levels.

1960s. After economic difficulties and currency instability, the largest post-war economic expansion period comes after 1964.

1969. Colombia joins the Andean Pact, a trading agreement among several South American countries.

1974-84. A period of economic instability and political stability. An increase in coffee prices reduces foreign exchange constraints, allowing an upward trend in income, lower unemployment, and an increase in international reserves. After 1980, a collapse in coffee prices produces slow growth, an industrial setback, rising unemployment, and an increase in deficits.

1987-89. Political violence starts again; prominent politicians are kidnapped or assassinated by drug dealers trying to overthrow the government.

1990-94. The Cesar Gaviria administration opens up the economy and leads the approval of a new constitution.

1994-98. The Ernesto Samper administration begins under accusations of campaign financing by drug dealers. The pace of economic reforms slow down, while the narcotics business and the guerrilla activities grow.

1998-2000. Peace negotiations with the guerrillas begin under President Andrés Pastrana. Plan Colombia against illicit drug production and trafficking is launched.

FUTURE TRENDS

Most of Colombia's dilemmas at the beginning of the 21st century are political rather than economic. The confrontation between guerrilla groups allied to the narcotics industry has become highly delicate, and is likely to remain so throughout the rest of the Pastrana presidential period, which will end in 2002. This situation will also affect the modernization of the political system and any economic recovery. Despite a better structural situation than other countries in the region, the continuous violence not only stops major advances, due to the uneasiness of foreign investors, but also creates major incentives for the emigration of the elite and professional groups. Putting all his eggs in the basket of the peace process has led to frustration over the failure of Pastrana's efforts. The weak economic performance has additionally undermined the popularity of the president. His administration has enjoyed strong support from the U.S. government, which in 2000 agreed to an aid package of US$1.7 billion (Plan Colombia) to combat illegal drugs in the south, southeast, and northern areas.

According to most sources, peace talks with the guerrillas that started in 1999 continue against a background of violence. Although some progress has been made, the conflict has escalated and the guerrillas' commitment to ending the hostilities is questionable. Negotiations with the largest guerrilla group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), have followed a stop-and-go trend, stagnating for half a year and then resuming after continuous confrontations. So far the clashes have not ended. Pastrana and his successor are likely to come under increasing pressure to abandon talks and opt for a purely military solution if progress continues to prove elusive. Despite the eventual promise of military support from the United States, it is unlikely that such an option will be followed, mostly because of the risks involved in an open civil war against well-armed and widely dispersed guerrilla forces. Also, the peace talks still enjoy the support of important civil sectors, including the Church and non-government organizations (NGOs). While Bogotá continues to try to negotiate a settlement, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.

Colombia's leading exports, oil and coffee, face an uncertain future. New exploration is badly needed to offset a pending decline in oil production, and the coffee harvest has dropped because of aging plantations and natural disasters. The lack of public security is a key concern for investors, making progress in the government's peace negotiations with insurgent groups an important driver of economic recovery. Net foreign direct investment fell to about US$675 million in 1999 from US$2.5 billion in 1998, reflecting poor business confidence. The tide changed again in 2000, more than doubling the previous figure amid lower interest rates, greater oil investment, and privatization. Officials are also offering better contract terms to encourage greater foreign investment in the oil industry. In spite of pipeline bombings and kidnappings, current oil prices remain a powerful incentive for further oil investments, especially since Colombia's untapped oil reserves are estimated to be huge. According to the International Energy Agency, oil production is expected to top 1.2 million barrels a day within the next 5 years and show little decline through 2020.

Despite the end of the recession, investor sentiment and economic recovery will remain vulnerable to further troubles in the beleaguered financial sector and the delicate peace process.

DEPENDENCIES

Colombia has no territories or colonies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asociación Nacional de Instituciones Financieras. <http://www.anif.org>. Accessed February 2001.

Bergquist, Charles, Ricardo Peñaranda, and Gonzalo Sánchez, editors. Violence in Colombia: The Contemporary Crisis in Historical Perspective. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Books, 1992.

Bushnell, David. The Making of Modern Colombia. Berkeley:University of California Press, 1993.

"Colombia." Energy Information Administration. <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/colombia.html>. Accessed August 2001.

DANE: Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Colombia. <http://www.dane.gov.co>. Accessed February 2001.

Economist Intelligence Unit. Country Profile: Colombia. London: Economist Intelligence Unit, 2001.

Kurian, George Thomas, editor. Encyclopedia of the Third World. New York: Facts on File, 1987.

Ocampo, José Antonio, editor. Historia Económica de Colombia .Bogotá: Presidencia de la República, Imprenta nacional, 1997.

Thoumi, Francisco E. Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook 2000. <http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html>. Accessed August 2001.

—Leonardo Vivas

CAPITAL:

Bogotá (Santa Fe de Bogotá).

MONETARY UNIT:

Colombian peso. One peso equals 100 centavos. There are coins of 10, 20, and 50 centavos and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 pesos, and notes of 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, and 10,000 pesos.

CHIEF EXPORTS:

Petroleum, coffee, coal, bananas, chemicals, gold, cut flowers.

CHIEF IMPORTS:

Industrial equipment, transportation equipment, consumer goods, chemicals, paper products, fuels, electricity.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:

US$245.1 billion (purchasing power parity, 1999 est.).

BALANCE OF TRADE:

Exports: US$11.5 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.). Imports: US$10 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.).

Colombia

Basic Data

Background & General Characteristics

Colombia is one of the more complicated and interesting of the world's nations. Its history has a significant connection to its media and its press traditions. From its founding as a nation into the twenty-first century, it maintained a tradition of freedom of the press, and it attained an extensive and high quality press. However, violence threatens the country as a democratic entity as well as the health of its media.

Colombian History

The territory that came to be called Colombia was originally populated by Chibcha Indians, who were conquered by Spanish conquistadors (colonialists). The Spanish used the term, Indian, which derived from indigena (indigenous). Although the nation was named for Columbus, the explorer never actually set foot on the land. Spain colonized the territory in the 1600s after conquering the Chibchas.

Originally part of Gran Colombia, which included what are now Panama and Venezuela, Colombia developed a constitution and government in 1811. It began its efforts towards independence from Spain in 1812. When Gran Colombia was liberated at Boyoca in 1819, under the leadership of Bolivar, it became an independent nation. Ecuador joined Gran Colombia in 1822. Panama became part of Colombia in 1821, after gaining its independence from Spain.

The Gran Colombia constitution was a model of popular democratic government. It established a two house or bicameral Congress, guaranteed the inviolability of persons, homes, and correspondence, and also guaranteed freedom of the press. By 1828, however, Bolivar, had returned from liberating other South American nations and had become a dictator and a self-proclaimed president for life. The people of Gran Colombia organized a constitutional convention in 1830, at which time Bolivar resigned. In the process, Ecuador and Venezuela seceded from Gran Colombia, and Gran Colombia collapsed. That left Colombia and Panama as the remaining entities and they essentially became Colombia.

Ethnic Groups

As of 2002, about 58 percent of the people are mestizo (mixed Spanish and Chibcha Indian), and whites are 20 percent. The Spanish brought African slaves who were from the areas now called Angola, Nigeria, and Zaire. Mulattos (mixed black and white) are 14 percent; blacks, 4 percent; and mixed black-Amerindian 3 percent. In addition, Amerindian represent 1 percent of the population.

Population Density

The 2001 estimate of the Colombian population, 40,349,388, suggested a population density of 92 persons per square mile. About three-fourths of the population was classified as urban. One-third of the Colombia people are young. The age distribution was given as follows: younger than 14 represented 31.88 percent; between 15 and 64 represented 63.37 percent; those 65 years and older constituted 4.75 percent. The overall population growth rate was 1.64 percent. The birth rate was 22.41 births per 1,000 population and the death rate was 5.69 deaths per 1,000 people. The population was decreased slightly by a few more people leaving the country than moving to it.

Literacy and Education

The Encarta Encyclopedia estimated that 97 percent of all Colombians could read and write by 2001. In 1996 some 4.9 million pupils attended primary schools and 3.3 million secondary schools. Elementary education was free and compulsory for five years. Most schools were controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, but even governmentally-funded schools required Catholic religion educational content, an arrangement which reflects the close ties between the nation and the Church. There were some Protestant schools, primarily in Bogotá. The government paid for elementary education in communities that could not afford to do so; it also financed secondary and university-level schooling. Late 1990s data showed that 4.9 million pupils annually attended primary schools. Another 3.3 million attended secondary schools including vocational training and teacher training institutions. Of the 235 institutions of higher education some were public and others were affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

Religion & Language

In the early 2000s some 95 percent of the people were Roman Catholics. The Concordat between Colombia and the Roman Catholic Church gave that religion a special status in the nation. The rest of the population included some Protestant groups as well as a small Jewish population, many of whom were descendents of individuals who fled Nazi Germany.

Spanish is the dominant language in Colombia. But the 1991 Constitution recognized diverse ethnic groups and made some provision for bilingual education. Dialects characterize different regions of Colombia, and Colombians take special pride in their language and some believe Colombian Spanish to be most closely related to the mother tongue Spaniards brought to Latin America.

Colombian Newspapers

There are 37 Spanish language daily newspapers in Colombia, in addition to two English language dailies, The Colombia Times and The Bogotá Daily. According to 2001 International Year Book: The Encyclopedia of the Newspaper Industry four of the Spanish language papers had circulations of fewer than 10,000; eight had circulations between 10,000 and 25,000; eight others had circulations from 25,000 to 50,000; five had circulations from 50,000 to 100,000; and three had circulations from 100,000 to 500,000.

In Colombia, there were two daily (except for Sunday) newspapers, La Cronica and Diario del Quindio The capital city of Bogotá had several newspapers: Diario, El Espacio (The Space), and El Espectador (The Spectator), considered one of the most influential newspapers in Colombia and Latin America. In Barranquilla, an important port city, there were two newspapers (daily except for Sunday), El Heraldo (The Herald) and La Libertad (The Liberty).

Established in 1925, El Nuevo Siglo was a morning Bogotá paper which also has a Sunday edition and a circulation of 68,000. Begun 1988, La Prensa (The Press), a morning paper without a Sunday edition, had a circulation of 38,000. Started in 1953, La Republica (The Republic), a morning daily newspaper without a Sunday edition, had a circulation of 55,000. Operating since 1911, El Tiempo (The Time), the largest in Bogotá and the nation, had a daily circulation of 265,118 and its Sunday edition, which included supplements, had a circulation of 536,377. El Vespertino (The Evening) was also available afternoons in Bogotá.

In Bucaramanga, El Deber (The Duty) is a morning daily which does not publish on Sundays. El Frente (For-ward) is a morning daily without a Sunday edition, with a circulation of 10,000. Finally, Vanguardia Liberal (Liberal Vanguard) is a daily with a Sunday edition and a circulation of 48,000.

In the city of Cali, El Caleño is a tabloid paper in operation since 1977. Cali also had El Crisol, a morning daily without a Sunday edition, and Occidente, a morning newspaper without a Sunday edition. Cali's La Republica (The Republic) published both morning and Sunday editions and had a circulation of 20,000. El Pais (The Country) was as of 2002 Cali's largest circulation newspaper. It had both morning and Sunday editions and circulations of 60,000 on weekdays, 120,000 on Saturdays, and 108,304, for the Sunday edition with supplements.

The resort city of Cartagena had El Periodico de Cartagena (The Newspaper of Cartagena) and El Universal (The Universal) which published both daily and Sunday editions with supplements. In Cucuta, the newspapers included Diario la Frontera (Frontier Daily) and La Opinion (The Opinion). In Girardot, the newspaper was El Diario (The Daily). In Ibague there were two papers, El Cronista and El Nuevo Dia. The town of Manizales had La Patria (Homeland), a morning paper established in 1921.

The major city of Medellin, in Antioquia, had El Colombiano (The Colombian) which was established in 1912. This newspaper published morning and Sunday editions and had an extensive circulation of about 90,000. It was one of the three most influential in the nation, along with El Tiempo and El Espectador of Bogotá.

Many smaller towns had one or more papers. In Neiva there are two newspapers, Diario de Huila (Huila Daily) and La Nacion (The Nation). In Pasto, the two papers were El Derecho (The Right) a morning publication established in 1928, and El Radio (The Radio). In Pereira,El Diario (The Daily) provided a daily but no Sunday edition, and Diario del Otun (Otun Daily) put out an evening newspaper. La Tarde (The Afternoon) was an evening newspaper in Pereira. The morning paper without a Sunday edition, El Liberal (The Liberal), was established in 1938 in Popayan and had circulation of 6,500. The newspaper in Santa Marta was El Informador (The Informer). In Tunja, there were two newspapers, Diario de Boyaca (Boyaca Daily) and El Oriente, a daily. In addition to these general interest daily newspapers, there were many specialized newspapers in Colombia, some dealing with the economy and some with sports. There were also a large number of general interest and special interest magazines published in the country.

Colombian Newspapers: Characteristics and Orientations

Newspapers are an important part of Colombian life. According to the World Almanac and Book of Facts in the early 2000s there were 55 newspapers daily per thousand persons. However, historically there was little communication among the various distinct regions of Colombia. For example, the Department of Antioquia, with its capital of Medellin, was quite distinct geographically and culturally from the capital city of Bogotá and other major cities such as Cali. News and information tended to be local. Moreover, Colombian industry was divided by region. In some sense, each major part of the nation could be seen as a separate nation. These divisions were partly caused by geography. As of 2002, roads were difficult to travel, especially through the high Andean mountains. Air travel, though widely available, was expensive. Therefore, interaction among the regions was not common, and pervasive violence, kidnappings, and robberies discouraged people from going too far from their homes.

Generally, newspapers were of high quality—well-written, well-edited, and generally independent. Colombians depended upon and tended to trust their newspapers, which were widely available and read even across regions. Many of the larger newspapers were readily available through the Internet.

It is possible to infer, from their names alone, the political persuasions of many dailies. Some had "liberal" in their titles, for example. Then, too, the government was an important factor in newspaper business because of its extensive advertising. However, Human Rights Watch and other sources reported that despite the intimidating violence and disorder in the nation, news media independence persisted and papers presented a wide range of political views.

In the early 2000s, Colombian newspapers were mostly owned by wealthy individuals. Human Rights Watch indicated that there was a high concentration of media ownership and, at the same time, fewer advertisers than there had been in the past. Since advertising funds are valued and government is one of the major advertisers, Human Rights Watch suspected that newspapers increasingly practiced self-censorship. Elizabeth Dirnbacher, a journalist in Colombia, called the nation the most dangerous in Latin America for her profession. She stated:

Colombia's leading television networks and newspapers are run by members of long-standing political and economic elites. The Santo Domingo group, Colombia's largest industrial conglomerate, owns the Caracol TV and radio networks as well as the El Espectador newspaper. The rival RCN TV and radio network is controlled by the Ardila Lulle beer empire. Other prime-time TV news shows and the weekly political magazine Semana are owned by family members of former presidents of the two traditional Conservative and Liberal parties that have held power for the last 150 years.

She also noted that the president elected in 1998, Andres Pastrana, was a former journalist from the Conservative Party.

Robert N. Pierce noted that there was a longstanding Colombian tradition of national leaders who mixed politics and the direction of newspapers. Two other presidents who were newspaper directors preceded Pastrana, Laureano Gómez of the no longer existing El Siglo and Eduardo Santos of El Tiempo. Clearly, newspapers though free are closely tied to the political system.

Economic Framework

Colombia's wealth comes from a number of sources. It has natural resources in petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper, emeralds, and hydropower. Agriculture is a major industry and the following statistics on its land and land use are significant in understanding its magnitude: arable land, 4 percent; permanent crops, 1 percent; permanent pastures, 39 percent; forests and woodland, 48 percent; and other, 8 percent. The nation's agricultural products include coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn, sugarcane, cocoa beans, oil-seed, vegetables, and forest products. It exports petroleum, coffee, coal, clothing, bananas, and cut flowers. In all, it exports US$14.5 billion, half of which goes to the United States, 16 percent to the other Andean nations, 14 percent to Europe, and two percent to Japan. In addition, the country imports industrial equipment, equipment for transportation, chemicals, consumer goods, paper products, and electricity. Although it imports electricity, Colombia produced as of 2002 more than 75 percent of its electricity by hydropower, a renewable and relatively inexpensive source of energy.

The economy of the country has been shrinking. In 1998, Colombia had a gross domestic product of US$102.9 billion, but in 1999 a gross domestic product of only US$88.6 billion. Of course, this gross domestic product figure does not account for sales of illegal drugs, such as cocaine, which constitute a major agricultural crop and industry in the country. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, the cultivation and manufacture of coca, opium, cocaine, and heroin are growing industries in Colombia. The potential production of heroin in 1999 was eight metric tons. As of the early 2000s Colombia supplied 90 percent of the cocaine used in the United States and was a major supplier of the substance to other nations. It supplied large quantities of the heroin brought to the United States. Clearly, the illegal narcotics business contributed to the economy in ways that were contrary to the notions of healthy growth for the nation. These illegal activities were not taxed, a minor issue compared to the fact that much of the earnings from narcotics went into building the narcotics business and into supporting the anti-government forces who threaten to destabilize the nation. These anti-government forces were also responsible for kidnapping and murdering many journalists. So the narcotics trade, in several ways, countered the economic and social growth of Colombia as a nation.

Of course, the narcotics business contributed to the Colombian official economy. For example, individuals operating narcotics productions pay farmers for the produce. They pay employees who process coca and opium into cocaine and heroin and those who traffic in the substances. Those who are paid in turn put their money into the economy by paying for their food, transportation, and shelter. In these and other ways, illegal transactions affect the legal economy. One might also argue that the drug industry also brings U.S. funds into the country: it induces U.S. concern and encourages the United States to send Colombia large sums to use in counteracting the production and distribution of drugs.

In the early 2000s, of the total legal Colombian legal economy, US$61.5 billion of the gross domestic product was composed of services and US$24.4 billion was industry. The remaining US$14.1 billion came from rich Colombian agriculture. On the Caribbean coast, there are mangroves and coconut palms. The forest areas have a variety of trees, including mahogany, cedar, pine, and balsam. Other plants yield rubber, chicle, ginger, vanilla, and many other products. Of course, Colombia is known worldwide for its coffee. The country also produces textiles.

Socioeconomic Structure

In the early 2000s, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that the lowest 10 percent of the Colombian population, by income, had about one percent of the household income and the top ten percent had about 44 percent of the income. The per capita annual income was about US$6,200 and the inflation rate was nine percent. According to the Encarta Encyclopedia, the upper socioeconomic class in Colombia was largely composed of white people who might trace their family histories to the Spanish colonial period. Their wealth largely came from owning land and other forms of property. Some of these individuals earned their wealth through commercial activities.

The nation had a growing middle class composed of educated, professional people who were successful in business and industry. Some middle class members were teachers, government employees, and professionals in law and medicine, for example.

The lower class lacks adequate housing, health care, and education. In the early 2000s, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that 55 percent of the Colombian population was below the poverty level. Many lived in rural areas and were employed by wealthy landowners. Labor unions helped to improve the situation of some working poor. Some human services programs were incorporated into the structure of many businesses and industries. In some businesses, the social services programs equaled in value the workers' pay. These social services provided basic education, some counseling, and vacation resorts for workers and their families. Nonetheless, the predominance of low wage employment remained a factor in the growth of the illicit drug industry, which was itself the most important economic and social development in recent Colombian history. In the early 2000s, the total labor force, at all levels, was estimated to be about 18.3 millione. Forty-six percent of those were in service work, 30 percent in agriculture, and 24 percent in industry.

Government

As of 2002, Colombia was divided into 32 departments and the one capital district, which was officially called Distrito Capital de Santa Fe de Bogotá. The nation operated under the 1991 constitution which defined three democratic governmental branches. Men and women age 18 or older were eligible to vote.

As of the early 2000s, Colombia was a republic dominated by an executive branch. The executive branch was headed by a president who was elected for a four-year term. The president governed with a cabinet, which was a coalition of representatives from the two major political parties. There was also a vice-president elected by popular vote. In the 1998 elections, runoffs were needed when no candidate initially received more than 50 percent of the vote. The president and vice-president who were elected in 1998 received just slightly more than 50 percent of the vote each in the runoff.

The Congreso, Colombia's bicameral legislature, consisted of the Senado (Senate) with 102 members elected for four year terms and the Camara de Representantes (House of Representatives) with 163 members also elected for four year terms. Of the two main political parties, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party had a much larger proportion of the Congreso membership (about half) than the Conservative Party. Smaller parties were also usually represented. In 2002, the president was an independent.

Although the Colombian law is based on Spain's, the judiciary was organized similarly to the system maintained in the United States. The judicial system could, for example, exercise judicial review, not a common function of courts in the Spanish tradition.

In addition to the two traditional parties, there were the Patriotic Union (UP), a legal party formed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian Communist Party (PCC), and the 19 of April Movement Party (M-19).

Besides political parties, the country contended with powerful insurgent groups that caused great difficulty for the government. The two largest were the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The largest paramilitary group is United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC). As of 2002, both received part of their financing, perhaps much of it, from drug operations. They controlled lands that were used for the cultivation and manufacture of cocaine and heroin. The profits from those drugs amply financed the revolutionary groups. The government's troops constituted a third force of violence in the nation, although their task was to control or eliminate the revolutionaries.

Press Laws

Article 20 of the Colombian Constitution stipulated a series of guarantees regarding freedom of the press. It guaranteed freedom of expression as well as freedom for journalists to carry on their work. It also guaranteed the right of individuals to begin media companies and the right of journalists to keep their sources secret. The constitution promised to protect journalists. It set up a complicated body to monitor and defend press freedom with elected persons representing the media who must have experience in the media professions. The group had to be representative of the wide range of media—newspapers, radio and television, public, for profit and non-profit, regional, and national. Pierce wrote that Colombia had greater press freedom than any of its Latin neighbors. That tradition continued through decades of conflict that the nation faced and periods of insurrections which occurred toward the end of the twentieth century.

The World Bank reported that the nation's "Colombia Portal," a plan for increasing information available to the public and providing for ready access to information about the nation, made a strong commitment to open information on purchasing, budgets, and planning. Part of the commitment was the establishment of Web sites for the Colombian government and all its agencies, making them available through the Internet. All government regulations since 1900 were to be accessible on the government Web site.

Human Rights Watch generally agreed that the Colombian press was free. It stated that the media are generally free of legal restrictions by the government. It noted, however, that some laws under the penal code and anti-corruption laws prohibited the publication of some kinds of information connected to criminal investigations. Pervasive interior conflict made these laws necessary.

For a time, Colombia had government requirements for professional journalists. The Law of the Journalist required new entrants into journalism to have university degrees. Continuing journalists were "grandfathered" into the professon. However, those laws were abolished in 1998.

Censorship

Even though as of 2002 no theoretical restrictions on press freedom or official censorship existed in Colombia, practical aspects media work led to the kinds of self-censorship that actually constituted restrictions. Dirnbacher reported that in the 1980s investigative reporting increased sharply. That was an understandable development in a nation torn by revolutionaries, guerillas, and government troops accused of human rights violations. But there was also a tendency toward other kinds of crimes in some segments of the society. She noted that El Espectador reported on secret financial deals involving Colombian banks. The banks withdrew their advertising from the newspaper, throwing it into financial crisis, she reported.

Attitudes Towards Foreign Media

In the early 2000s, illegal factions in Colombia were hostile to foreign media. However, official media outlets in the country associated heavily with international and regional organizations and sometimes provided leadership to them. For example, Colombia was a member of the InterAmerican Press Association. Moreover, U.S. media such as Time and Newsweek were popular in the nation, and many exchanges of all kinds took place between Colombia and the United States, the primary non-Latin American foreign nation with which it deals. Still, journalists were targets of hostile acts, including kidnapping and murder by rebel groups. Clearly, foreign and local journalists who become deeply involved in reporting on violent groups could be threatened by those groups.

Violence Against Journalists

In the early 2000s, the major news stories about Colombia dealt with its descent into chaos and violence. Connected to issues of press freedom, much of the violence was directed against journalists. As a result of a series of violence events, the president issued presidential decree 1592 which created in 2000 the Program for the Protection of Journalists.

According to Colombia Policy Briefs, 11 journalists were killed in the midst of Colombia's armed conflicts in 2000. A total of 169 had been killed since 1977, according to the Colombian Committee for the Protection of Journalists. At least 15 journalists were kidnapped, and 13 left the country after receiving threats. Six more were killed between January 1 and July 11, 2001. Kidnapping and abductions were a widespread problem, a common tactic used by the revolutionary and anti-government guerilla groups.

Dirnbacher wrote about the murder of several journalists. A reporter for El Espectador was killed in 1998. He had been investigating connections between bullfighting and organized crime. A political reporter and professor in Cali was shot as he left his university in 1998. He had helped the National Police establish a FM news radio station. In that same year, a teacher and journalist who was news director of Radio Sur, a subsidiary of the National Radio Chain, was shot. He had alleged there was corruption among members of former municipal administrations.

In 1999, a journalist and satirist who served as a go-between for families of kidnap victims who were taken by left-wing groups was shot on the way to his radio station. In that year, the FARC group kidnapped seven journalists because, FARC said, they had not reported the truth about guerillas and paramilitary groups committing atrocities against farmers. Also that year a bomb exploded near the offices of the El Tiempo in Bogotá. A FARC member said the bomb was set because of an article in that newspaper about FARC's attacks on the oil industry.

The editor-in-chief of El Tiempo, Francisco Santos, had to leave Colombia in 2000 because of death threats issued against him, probably by FARC, probably a result of his leadership of an anti-kidnapping organization. Santos had been held hostage with other journalists in 1990 by Pablo Escobar, as a protest against government threats to extradite drug traffickers to the United States for prosecution.

News Agencies

As of 2002 Colombia had several news agencies, notably the CNTV, the Comision Nacional de Television, and ERBOL. The Associated Press also was active in Colombia as were other private news services, such as UPI and Reuters. Cox News Service had a long presence in Colombian journalism and in reporting about Colombia. The government also provided a news service.

Broadcast Media

In addition to newspapers, Colombia has extensive radio and television coverage. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, as of 2002, there were 21 million radios in the nation (155 radio sets per thousand people, according to the World Almanac and Book of Facts ). There were also 454 AM radio stations and 34 FM stations. In addition, there were 27 short-wave stations and 60 television stations. World Almanac and Book of Facts reported that there were 188 television sets per thousand.

These media outlets were served by a variety of government and private organizations. The agency responsible for regulating AM, FM, and television frequencies and regulations is the Comision de Regulacion de Telecommunicaciones (CRT). Other government broadcasting agencies, according to TV Radio World, were Inravision and the Ministerio de Comunicaciones (Ministry of Communications). In addition, television was served by the nation's National Television Broadcasting, Regional Television Broadcasting, and Satellite/Cable Television Networks. There was also a government organization, the Instituto Nacional de Radio y Television de Colombia, that operated several radio and TV stations on behalf of the government.

There were a number of national radio networks, the best known of which was a conglomerate, Caracol (Snail.) It consisted of several networks including a sports operation, salsa and rock music networks, and other programming units.

The Radio Cadena Nacional (National Radio Chain, RCN), which called itself La Radio of Colombia, included a love music stereo network, a sports programming operation, a network that combined information and romantic music, another that was music and news-oriented, one that transmitted pop and rock music for young listeners, another that presented Colombian folk music, and the Rumba Digital Stereo network which focused on various dance music such as the salsa, cumbia, merengue, and elporro.

Generally, the broadcast media were covered by the same constitutional guarantees as the print media. However, the broadcast media could be taken over by government in emergency situations, a procedure that is similar to that followed for emergencies in the United States. The Colombian government may exercise the right to censor radio and television in times of emergency, especially those associated with violence.

Electronic News Media

The nation has a few Internet news providers that provide news only. However, many of the newspapers and some of the radio networks sponsor news sites that provide extensive coverage of news information from the Internet.

Education & TRAINING

As of 2002, Colombia had 20 institutions of higher education that offered study in periodismo (journalism). (A journalist is a periodista. ) "Social communication" programs offered much more than traditional journalism in their academic programs. They may teach advertising, public relations, media management, and electronic journalism as well as print.

Journalism education programs in Colombia were organized into the Association of Faculties of Social

Communication (what were usually called departments or schools in the United States are referred to as faculties in Colombia.) The Association, in turn, belongs to the Latin American Federation of Faculties of Social Communication.

In the early 2000s, the Colombian journalism faculties presented curricula spanning 10 semesters or five years of study. Content included theoretical and practical information that might be found in U.S. schools of journalism as well as other subject matter. The programs typically included field experiences, too.

There were associations of journalists in Colombia, in addition to those involved in journalism education. There was an effort in the 1970s to organize Colombian journalists in a labor union. However, Colombia did not have a member organization of the International Federation of Journalists, the international group that oversees and coordinates such efforts.

Summary

In the early 2000s Colombia was, in many ways, a nation of contrasts. That was especially true of its press and journalism. The press was essentially free from governmental interference and was also generally of high quality. That appeared to be true of both print and electronic media. It treated journalists as major figures and had presidents who came from the field of journalism. Its education of journalists was sophisticated and widespread.

However, Colombia was also a nation that was beset with internal conflicts. One of the results of those conflicts was the spread of the illegal drug trade, especially the production and distribution of cocaine. It was also a producer of heroin. Rebel groups were believed to finance themselves with proceeds from the production and distribution of drugs. The drug issue was further complicated by the economic deprivation experienced by many Colombians so many of whom lived in poverty. Growing the raw material for drugs and otherwise engaging in the drug trade was a route out of poverty for many economically disadvantaged Colombians.

The internal conflicts also involved journalists and press officials, some of whom were kidnapped or assassinated or who faced threats of such violence. Therefore, the press and journalism were difficult areas of employment in Colombia. Perhaps they were more dangerous in that nation than in any other.

Therefore, what may well be considered a high quality press industry was tempered by one of the world's most complex and unstable social environments—in which inordinate numbers of public facilities and the nation's infrastructure were subject to constant threat. In addition, numbers of people, including journalists, were kidnapped, murdered, and displaced by the activities of rebel groups. The violence facing Colombia, although warring parties and the factors in the violence might characterize the end of the twentieth century, was a part of Colombian life for a half century.

It was inadvisable to generalize about this nation of contrasts. In many ways, it was an inviting environment for press work while in others it posed dangers to those who worked in the field.

Significant Dates

• 1998: Andres Pastrana, former journalist and candidate of Conservative Party, is elected president of Colombia, begins negotiations with rebel groups to end violence, and establishes "control zones," where rebel groups are able to control territories they had conquered.
• 1998-1999: More journalists and other media personnel kidnapped, forced into exile, or murdered, and media facilities are bombed.
• 1998: Law of the Journalist terminated.
• 2002: FARC again bombs, kidnaps, and murders Colombians. President Pastrana announces that peace with rebel groups will not be achieved during his presidency. Álvaro Uribe Ve'lez elected president as an independent.

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Leon Ginsberg

Colombia , officially Republic of Colombia, republic (2005 est. pop. 42,954,000), 439,735 sq mi (1,138,914 sq km), NW South America. Bogotá is the capital and largest city. The only South American country with both a Caribbean and a Pacific coastline, Colombia is bounded on the northwest by Panama, on the northeast by Venezuela, on the south by Ecuador and Peru, and on the southeast by Brazil.

Land

Colombia has both torrid jungles and majestic, snowcapped mountains. By far the most prominent physical features are the three great Andean chains that fan north from Ecuador. The Andean interior is the heart of the country, where in pre-Columbian days the highly advanced Chibcha lived. It has the largest concentration of population and is the area of large-scale cultivation of coffee, Colombia's major crop.

Of the three principal Andean ranges, the Western Cordillera is of the least economic importance. One of Colombia's major cities, Cali , lies just east of the range, in the upper Cauca valley. The Central Cordillera has a towering chain of volcanoes (e.g., Tolima) and is the divide between the valleys of the Magdalena and the Cauca rivers. It was until the 19th cent. an undeveloped region, but with improved transportation, the introduction of coffee culture, and the exploitation of high-grade coal reserves, its cities of Medellín and Manizales have become the economic and industrial core of the republic. A third major city in the Central Cordillera is Armenia . The Eastern Cordillera is the longest chain. Its western slopes yield coffee, and in its intermontane basins grains and cattle are raised. The area is rich in iron, coal, and emeralds. Among the leading cities of the highland basins are Tunja , Bucaramanga , and Cúcuta , in addition to Bogotá. In the eastern foothills of the Andes some hundred miles east of the capital lies a vast supply of light crude oil. Discovered in 1992, the oil fields constitute the largest find in the Americas since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field (1969) and have revitalized Colombia's petroleum industry.

To the east of the Andes lies more than half of Colombia's territory, a vast largely undeveloped lowland. The plains are crossed by navigable rivers, tributaries of the Orinoco and Amazon systems. The northern section consists of savannas (the llanos ), which are devoted to a large extent to cattle and sheep grazing. Villavicencio , at the region's western end, is its major urban center. The dense jungles of the extreme southeast are of negligible economic importance. Leticia is the country's southernmost town, and its only port on the Amazon River. A fourth mountain chain, the Cordillera del Chocó, runs parallel to the Pacific N of Buenaventura . The range's slopes yield dyewoods and hardwoods, rubber, tagua nuts (vegetable ivory) and other forest products, and gold and platinum.

On the Pacific are the ports of Buenaventura and Tumaco , terminus of a pipeline from the oil-rich area of Putumayo across the mountains. Colombia's chief ocean ports, however, lie on the Caribbean coast to the north: Santa Marta , Cartagena , and Barranquilla . At Mamonal, adjacent to Cartagena, is the terminus of the pipeline from the Barrancabermeja oil fields. In the north, separating the La Guajira peninsula from the rest of the country, is the magnificent Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which contains Colombia's highest peak, Pico Cristóbal (18,947 ft/5,775 m). The difficult terrain in Colombia limits the availability of road and rail transportation and makes air and water travel especially important.

People

About 60% of Colombia's population are mestizos, and some one fifth are of European descent. Indigenous peoples, who account for only about 1% of today's population, live on the edge of some of the major cities and in remote areas. About 15% of the people are of mixed African and European descent. The small (less than 5%) black population is concentrated along the coasts and in the Magdalena and Cauca valleys. Spanish is the official language. The population is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. There are universities in all the major cities.

Economy

Agriculture has traditionally been the chief economic activity in Colombia. An extremely wide variety of crops is grown, depending on altitude, but coffee is by far the major crop and its price on the world market has affected Colombia's economic health. Among the commercial crops, coffee is grown between elevations of 3,000 and 6,000 ft (914 and 1,829 m); bananas, cotton, sugarcane, oil palm, and tobacco are grown at lower elevations. Between 6,000 and 10,000 ft (1,829 and 3,048 m) potatoes, beans, grains, flowers, and temperate-zone fruit and vegetables are grown.

Colombia is rich in minerals, including petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper, emeralds, and platinum. The saltworks at Zipaquirá, near Bogotá, are world famous. Hydroelectric potential was developed during the 1970s and 80s. The manufacturing sector of the economy has expanded greatly in recent decades, although it is heavily dependent on imported materials. Beverages and processed foods, textiles, clothing and footwear, and chemicals are the chief products. Tourism is also a sizable source of income.

Oil replaced coffee as the nation's leading legal export in 1991. Other important official exports include petroleum-related products, coal, nickel, emeralds, apparel, bananas, and cut flowers. Cocaine is the major illicit export, accounting for about 25% of foreign exchange earnings. Once most of the raw materials were grown in Peru and Bolivia, but cultivation has increased in Colombia as a result of those nations coca-eradication programs. The drug trade (Colombia also produces heroin and grows cannabis) has brought riches to some, but has seriously disrupted the fabric of Colombian society with its violence. Industrial and transportation equipment, consumer goods, chemicals, paper products, fuels, and electricity lead Colombia's imports. The United States and Venezuela are the chief trade partners.

During the early 1990s the economy was growing quickly in comparison with that of other Latin American countries, and inflation and unemployment were under control. However, government spending and foreign debt soared in the late 1990s, the country suffered its worst recession in a century, and labor unrest and internal problems related to the drug trade continued to threaten the country's economic stability. The economy improved somewhat in the early 2000s. Colombia is a member of the Andean Community, an economic organization of South American countries.

Government

Colombia is governed under the constitution of 1991 as amended. The president, who is elected for a four-year term, may serve two terms. The legislature, subservient to the president, consists of a 102-seat Senate and a 166-seat House of Representatives. The members are popularly elected for four-year terms. Administratively, Colombia is divided into 32 departments and the capital district.

History

History to 1858

Prior to the Spanish conquest, Colombia was inhabited by Chibcha, sub-Andean, and Caribbean peoples, all of whom lived in organized, agriculturally based communities. After the Spanish conquest, which began in 1525, the area of present-day Colombia formed the nucleus of New Granada (for colonial history, see New Granada ). The struggle for independence was, as in all Spanish-American possessions, precipitated by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. The revolution was, however, foreshadowed by the rising of the comuneros .

Prominent among the first revolutionary leaders was Antonio Nariño , who took part in the uprising at Bogotá on July 20, 1810. The revolution was to last nine years before the victory of Simón Bolívar at Boyacá (1819) secured the independence of Greater Colombia (Span., Gran Colombia ). The new state Bolívar created included what is now Venezuela, Panama, and (after 1822) Ecuador, as well as Colombia. Cúcuta was chosen as capital. While Bolívar, who had been named president, headed campaigns in Ecuador and Peru, the vice president, Francisco de Paula Santander , administered the new nation. Political factions soon crystallized. Santander advocated a union of federal sovereign states, while Bolívar championed a centralized republic.

Although Bolívar's authority prevailed by and large in the constitutional assembly (1828), Greater Colombia soon fell apart. In 1830, Venezuela and Ecuador became separate nations. The remaining territory emerged as the republic of New Granada. Through the 19th cent. and into the 20th cent. political unrest and civil strife reappeared constantly. Strong parties developed along conservative and liberal lines; the conservatives favored centralism and participation by the church in government and education, and the liberals supported federalism, anticlericalism, and some measure of social legislation and fiscal reforms. Civil war frequently erupted between the factions. During the 19th and early 20th cent. three statesmen stand out—Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera , Rafael Núñez , and Rafael Reyes . While Mosquera was president, a treaty was concluded (1846) granting the United States transit rights across the Isthmus of Panama.

The New Nation

A new constitution in 1858 created a confederation of nine states called Granadina. Three years later (1861) under Mosquera, the country's name was changed to the United States of New Granada and in 1863 to the United States of Colombia. The antifederalist revolution of 1885 led one year later, during the presidency of Núñez, to the formation of the republic of Colombia and enactment of a conservative constitution. In 1899, five years after Núñez's death, civil war of unprecedented violence broke out and raged for three years. As many as 100,000 people were killed before the Conservatives emerged victorious. Another humiliation occurred when, after the United States had acquired the right to complete the Panama Canal (although the agreement was later rejected by the Colombian congress), the republic of Panama declared and, aided by the United States, achieved its independence from Colombia (1903).

During the semidictatorial administration (1904–9) of Reyes, internal order was restored and the country's trade and productivity were vigorously expanded. Reyes, nevertheless, had to resign because of discontent over his handling of the Panama issue. Soon afterward Colombia recognized (1914) Panama's independence in exchange for rights in the Canal Zone and the payment of an indemnity from the United States.

For the next four decades political life remained fairly peaceful, although there was economic and social unrest in the 1920s and 1930s. Colombia settled (1917) its boundary disputes with Ecuador, and in 1934 a border clash with Peru over the town of Leticia was settled by the League of Nations in Colombia's favor. Under the leadership of the liberals Olaya Herrera (1930–34), Alfonso López (1934–38), and Eduardo Santos (1938–42), wide-ranging reforms were enacted. Colombia participated in World War II on the Allied side. During the war years, internal divisions worsened. The Liberals split and in the 1946 elections presented two candidates, enabling the Conservatives to win.

Mid-Century to the Present

In 1948, while an Inter-American Conference was being held in Bogotá, the leftist Liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, under whom the party had reunited, was assassinated, precipitating violent riots and acts of vandalism. The death of Gaitán exacerbated the enmity between social groups and plunged the country into a decade of civil strife, martial law, and violent rule that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Political violence turned into sheer criminality ( la violencia ), particularly in rural areas. An archconservative dictator, Laureano Gómez, took power in 1950, when the Liberals put forward no candidate. In 1953, Gómez was ousted by a coup led by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla , the head of the armed forces. Repressive measures continued, fiscal reforms failed, the country was plunged into debt, and Rojas Pinilla became implicated in scandalously corrupt schemes.

A military junta, backed by Liberals and Conservatives alike, ousted Rojas Pinilla in 1957. The following year Alberto Lleras Camargo became president, elected under the National Front coalition agreement. The National Front presidential candidate of 1970, Misael Pastrana Borrero, won very narrowly over Rojas Pinilla, who returned to politics as the champion of the underprivileged. Colombia's economy began to recover from the setbacks of the early 1970s as economic diversification and incentives to lure foreign capital into the country were initiated. However, a high inflation rate continued to impede economic growth. In 1974 the Liberal party candidate Alfonso López Michelsen won the first presidential election following the end of the National Front.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Colombia's illegal drug trade grew steadily, as the drug cartels amassed huge amounts of money, weapons, and influence. The 1970s also saw the growth of such leftist rebel groups as the May 19th Movement (M-19), the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN). The violence continued, and many journalists and government officials were killed. The 1980s saw the rise of right-wing paramilitary groups, which were organized to oppose leftist rebels but also attacked on civilians. The guerrillas of the left and right both eventually became involved in the drug trade, which provided a ready source of funding.

In 1986, Virgilio Barco Vargas, of the Liberal party, was elected president; he was succeeded in 1990 by César Gaviria Trujillo, also a Liberal. In 1990 a Constitutional Assembly, which included members of the M-19 group, was elected to draft a new constitution; the document, which came into force on July 5, 1991, included protection for human rights and established citizens' rights to social security and health care. Liberal Ernesto Samper Pizano was elected president in 1994 and, though he appeared to make efforts to combat drug trafficking, he was accused of having accepted money from the Cali cocaine "cartel" for his election campaign. He was cleared of all charges (1996) by the Congress, but his administration was marked by charges of corruption and mismanagement.

The notorious Medellín drug cartel was broken in 1993, and the Cali cartel was later undermined by arrests of key leaders. Drug traffickers continued to have significant wealth and power, however, and FARC and the ELN remain actived, perpetuating a condition of instability. From the 1980s into the early 21st cent., some 3 million Colombians were displaced by political and drug-related violence. Conservative Andrés Pastrana Arango, a former mayor of Bogotá and son of Misael Pastrana, was elected president in 1998. He pledged to work with both leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary leaders in an attempt to end more than 30 years of conflict in the country.

In Nov., 1998, Pastrana ceded an area the size of Switzerland in S central Colombia to FARC's control as a goodwill gesture, but the rebels negotiated with the government only fitfully, continued to mount attacks, expanded coca production, and essentially established a parallel government in the region under their control. The government's energies also were diverted by a severe recession in 1999 and a major earthquake that hit W Colombia early in 1999, leaving over a thousand people dead. Ongoing negotiations with the rebels in 2000 and 2001 were marred by rebel attacks and kidnappings and fighting between rebels and paramilitaries for control of coca-growing areas in Colombia. As a result, popular disenchantment with Pastrana increased, even as he moved forward with his "Plan Colombia," a $7 billion social aid and antidrug program that included $1.3 billion in largely military aid from the United States.

In Feb., 2002, after FARC hijacked a airplane and kidnapped Senator Ingrid Betancourt, a presidential candidate, Pastrana ordered the military to attack rebel positions and reassert control over the rebel zone. FARC withdrew into the jungle and began attacks against the power grid, telecommunications facilities, and other aspects of Colombia's infrastructure, in an attempt to disrupt the lives of the largely urban population while avoiding a direct conflict with the military. In May, a hard-line rightist candidate, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who promised to crack down on the leftist rebels, won the presidential election. Uribe, a former governor and senator who ran as an independent, declared a limited state of emergency, broadening the government's police powers, as part of his campaign against the rebels.

By the end of 2003, the government's increased use of its forces had decreased violence somewhat, but the rebels remained strong, if withdrawn into the countryside. Also, the economy improved, cocaine production—a source of rebel income—was reduced with American help, and some paramilitary forces agreed to begin disarming. Despite his resulting popularity, however, in November Uribe lost a referendum that would have increased his control over the government's budget and made other structural governmental changes; the national debt had risen to 50% of the GDP. Negotiations with the paramilitary forces continued into 2004, by which time drug traffickers had become predominant among the paramilitary leaders. Safe zones were established for paramilitaries while negotiations were ongoing, and late in the the demobilization of some paramilitaries began.

The Dec., 2004, kidnapping by bounty hunters in Venezuela of a FARC leader, who was then turned over to Colombian authorities, led to a brief crisis in Colombia's relations with Venezuela in early 2005. Colombia first denied any involvement in the incident, claiming the rebel was captured in a Colombian border town, but subsequently admitted a bounty had been paid. The dispute between the two nations was settled by Feb., 2005, when the nations' presidents met in Caracas, Venezuela.

In June the congress passed legislation designed to facilitate the disarming of paramilitary groups by shielding them from extradition and minimizing the penalties they might faced. The law was criticized for not requiring a complete cease-fire or disarmament by participating groups and for not assuring that criminal activities such as drug-trafficking would end, and it indeed subsequently appeared that some former paramilitaries continued to operate as organized crime groups and corrupt government officials. However, by mid-2006 some 31,000 paramilitary fighters were reported to have demobilized, and in Aug., 2006, Uribe ordered the arrest of a number of senior paramilitary leaders who had refused to surrender as required.

Meanwhile, the situation with respect to the leftist rebels, who continued to mount successful, if more limited, attacks, remained largely unchanged. Uribe also secured changes to the constitution permitting the popular president to run for a second consecutive term. The government began a new round of talks with the ELN in Dec., 2005, but the FARC, who remained responsible for the most significant attacks, rejected any negotiations with Uribe's government. Parties aligned with President Uribe secured a majority of seats in both houses of the congress in the Mar., 2006, elections, and Uribe himself won reelection in May. Talks with the ELN continued through 2006, but did not produce substantive results.

A supreme court investigation exposed paramilitary links to members of Colombia's congress and other politicians, with widespread links revealed in N Colombia; several members of the congress were arrested in late 2006 and 2007. The foreign minister resigned because her brother, a senator, was one of those arrested in Feb., 2007. In Mar., 2007, a leaked CIA report linked the chief of the army to paramilitary death squads that had operated in 2002; the general denied the charge. Testimony from a former paramilitary warlord in May accused the current vice president and defense minister, former government officials, and military leaders of ties to and support for the paramilitaries, who were used to fight drug cartels and leftist rebels. In May, 12 generals were forced to resign after revelations of illegal wiretaps on political leaders and government officials. Revelations about government and military ties to the paramilitaries, the rebels, and the drug dealers continued during the summer; in July, several senators, including Uribe's cousin, became the subject of an investigation into paramilitary links. Additional revelations and charges concerning ties between the paramilitaries and government and military officials were made in 2008. In August, Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez , offered to act a mediator with the rebels. Although Chávez's efforts led to the release of some hostages in 2008, they also caused strained relations between the two nations in 2007.

In Mar., 2008, a Colombian raid on rebels encamped in Ecuador led to several days of tensions between Colombia and neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela, who mobilized forces to their borders. Colombia said computer files seized in the raid had evidence of ties between the rebels and its neighbors' governments. Colombia subsequently apologized for the raid, which the Organization of American states called a violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty and the OAS charter. Although tensions subsequently eased with Venezuela, relations with Ecuador, which had broken diplomatic relations with Colombia, remained strained; full diplomatic relations were restored only in Dec., 2010. In July, 2008, Colombian forces, posing as a humanitarian group and journalists, rescued a number of hostages from FARC control, include Senator Betancourt. Revelations in 2008 that Colombian soldiers were executing civilians to inflate rebel body counts, in part to advance the careers of officers, led to the dismissal of three generals and other senior officers and, in Nov., 2008, the resignation of the army commander.

Tensions again increased with Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia beginning in mid-2009 over an agreement (signed Nov., 2009) between Colombia and the United States allowing U.S. forces to use additional Colombian bases to combat drug trafficking. Venezuela especially stridently objected, characterizing the agreement as a belligerent move by the United States and threatening to break relations with Colombia. (In Aug., 2010, Colombia's constitutional court nullified the base agreement because it had not been approved by Colombia's congress.) Colombia-Venezuela relations were also strained by border incidents and Colombian accusations of Venezuelan support for Colombian rebels, including charges that Venezuela had supplied the rebels with weapons (based on the capture from the rebels of weapons purchased by Venezuela from Sweden).

In Sept., 2009, the Colombian congress approved a referendum on allowing Uribe to seek a third term, but in Feb., 2010, the constitutional court ruled it unconstitutional before it was held. The March congressional elections resulted in a victory for Uribe's party and its allies. In June, after a runoff election, Juan Manuel Santos , Uribe's former defense minister, was elected president. Colombia's perennially cyclical relations with Venezuela soured again in July, 2010, after Colombia accused Venezuela of harboring Colombian rebels. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia, but they were restored the following month after Santos took office and subsequently improved significantly.

Bibliography

See O. Fals-Borda, Subversion and Social Change in Colombia (rev. ed., tr. 1969); A. E. Havens and W. L. Flinn, Internal Colonialism and Structural Change in Colombia (1970); T. E. Weil et al., Area Handbook for Colombia (1970); J. M. Henao and G. Arruba, History of Colombia (tr. 2 vol., 1938; repr. 1976); J. B. Sokol et al., Colombia: Economic Development and Policy under Changing Conditions (1984); R. H. Dix, The Politics of Colombia (1986); J. Hartlyn, The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia (1988); B. Bagley et al., The State and Society in Colombia (1988).

Colombia

Official name : Republic of Colombia

Area: 1,138,910 square kilometers (439,736 square miles)

Highest point on mainland: Pico Cristóbal Colón (5,775 meters/18,947 feet)

Lowest point on land: Sea level

Hemispheres: Northern and Western

Time zone: 7 a.m. = noon GMT

Longest distances: 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) from north-northwest to south-southeast; 1,210 kilometers (752 miles) from north-northeast to south-southwest

Land boundaries: 6,004 kilometers (3,731 miles) total boundary length; Brazil, 1,643 kilometers (1,021 miles); Ecuador, 590 kilometers (367 miles); Panama, 225 kilometers (140 miles); Peru, 1,496 kilometers (930 miles); Venezuela, 2,050 kilometers (1,274 miles)

Coastline: Total: 3,208 kilometers (1,993 miles); Caribbean Sea, 1,760 kilometers (1,100 miles); North Pacific Ocean, 1,448 kilometers (905 miles)

Territorial sea limits: 22 kilometers 12 nautical miles

1 LOCATION AND SIZE

Located in the northwest corner of the South American continent, Colombia is the only country in South America with both Atlantic (Caribbean) and Pacific Ocean coastlines. It is the fifth-largest in size of the Latin American countries. It shares borders with Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. With an area of about 1,138,910 square kilometers (439,736 square miles), the country is slightly less than three times the size of Montana. Colombia is divided into thirty-two departments and one federal district.

2 TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES

Colombia has no outside dependencies or territories.

3 CLIMATE

Temperatures throughout the country are dependent more on altitude than on a change in seasons. The hottest area, also known as tierra caliente, is a tropical zone that extends vertically from sea level to about 1,100 meters (3,500 feet). In this area, the temperature is usually between 24 and 27°C (75°F and 81°F), with a maximum near 38°C (100°F) and a minimum of 18°C (64°F). A temperate zone, or tierra templada, exists at elevations between 1,100 and 2,000 meters (3,500 and 6,500 feet), with an average temperature of 18°C (64°F). Rising to elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 meters (6,500 and 10,000 feet), one encounters the tierra fría, or cold country, which has yearly temperatures averaging 13°C (55°F). Above 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), one encounters more frigid temperatures, often between -17°C and 13°C (1°F and 55°F).

The seasons are determined by changes in rainfall. Areas in the north generally experience only one rainy season, lasting from May through October. Other areas of the country, particularly on the western coast and near the Andes, experience alternating three-month cycles of wet and dry seasons. Annual rainfall averages 107 centimeters (42 inches).

4 TOPOGRAPHIC REGIONS

The country consists of four main geographic regions: the Central Highlands (including the three Andean ranges and the lowlands between them), the Atlantic Lowlands, the Pacific Lowlands and their coastal regions, and the Eastern Plain. Among the unusual animals that thrive in Colombia are the jaguar, puma, ocelot, peccary (a small hog-like animal), and armadillo. Native birds include the colorful red-billed emerald hummingbird, found along the coast and in the forested lower slopes of the mountains, and various species of eagle, hawk, falcon, vulture, and condor. Several species of poisonous snake inhabit the tropical forests, including the South American rattlesnake, the anaconda, and various coral snakes.

Colombia sits on the extreme edge of the South American Tectonic Plate. Just to the east is the Nazca Plate, and immediately to the north is the Caribbean Plate. Subduction (one plate pushing under another) at these plate boundaries has pushed up the rock, resulting in the mountains that exist on Colombia's coasts. This process also formed volcanoes, and many of them remain active. Folding and faulting of Earth's crust resulted in seismic fault lines between the mountain ranges, and the continued movement of the plates subjects Colombia to frequent earthquakes, some of which are very destructive.

5 OCEANS AND SEAS

Seacoast and Undersea Features

The Caribbean Sea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, lies northwest of Colombia. The waters along the Caribbean coast are attractive to snorkelers and scuba divers from around the world, since the water is clear and the coastal areas are lined with extensive coral reefs. Colombia has a southwestern coastline along the Pacific Ocean, which is separated from the Caribbean Sea by the Isthmus of Panama.

Rich marine life fills the Pacific Ocean waters along Colombia's western coast, influenced by the Humbolt Current. It is common to see dolphins here, and deep-sea fishing is a popular tourist activity. From July through September, humpback whales populate the waters during their mating season.

Sea Inlets and Straits

The Gulf of Morrosquillo is located on the Caribbean coast, south of Cartegena. Further south, the Gulf of Urabá cuts sharply into the mainland just before the Isthmus of Panama.

The Pacific coast is very irregular, featuring many alternating bays and capes. From north to south, the sea inlets are the Gulf of Cupica, the Gulf of Tibugá, and at the southernmost point, Tumaco Bay.

Islands and Archipelagos

Colombia possesses a few islands in the Caribbean Sea and some in the Pacific Ocean. The combined area of these islands does not exceed 65 square kilometers (25 square miles). Off Nicaragua, about 644 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of the Colombian coast, lies the San Andrés y Providencia Intendency, an archipelago of thirteen small cays grouped around the two larger islands of San Andrés and Providencia. Other islands in the same area—the ownership of which has been in dispute—are the small islands, cays, or banks of Santa Catalina, Roncador, Quita Sueno, Serrana, and Serranilla. Off the coast south of Cartagena are several small islands, among them the islands of Rosario, San Bernardo, and Fuerte.

The island of Malpelo lies in the Pacific Ocean about 434 kilometers (270 miles) west of Buenaventura. Nearer the coast, a prison colony is located on Gorgona Island. Gorgonilla Cay is off its southern shore.

Coastal Features

The Atlantic Lowlands consist of all land in Colombia north of an imaginary line extending northeastward from the Gulf of Urabá to the Venezuelan frontier at the northern extremity of the Cordillera Oriental. The region corresponds generally to one that is often referred to as the Caribbean Lowland or Coastal Plain. This Atlantic Lowland region is roughly the shape of a triangle, the longest side of which is the coastline. Inland from the coastal cities are swamps, hidden streams, and shallow lakes that support banana and cotton plantations, countless small farms and, in higher places, cattle ranches. The northernmost extension of the Atlantic Coast is Point Gallinas.

The Pacific Lowlands are a thinly populated region of jungle and swamp with considerable but little-exploited potential wealth in minerals and other resources. Buenaventura, at about the midpoint of the 1,287-kilometer-long (800-mile-long) coast, is the only port of any size. On the east, the Pacific Lowlands are bounded by the Cordillera Occidental, from which run numerous streams. The peaks of the Cordillera Occidental provide a barrier to rainclouds; as a result, the rainfall along the coast is heavy. The rainforest that lines the coast is dense, with a rich diversity of plant, animal, and bird life. From north to south along the Pacific Coast are Point Marzo, Point Solano, and Cape Corrientes.

6 INLAND LAKES

While Colombia has several lakes, none of them are very large and data concerning the area of each lake is scarce. Laguna de la Cocha, a volcanic lake located in the department of Nariño, and Lake Fúquene (with an area of 30 square kilometers/11 square miles), a shallow lake that lies in the Cordillera Oriental, are both being considered by the international organization RAMSAR as wetlands of international significance.

Lake Tota near Bogotá supports tourism with abundant resources for fishing and boating. The largest lake in the north is Laguna de la Plaza. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy Mountain Range near the border with Venezuela and has a shore lined with rock formations. Another lake in the area is Laguna Grande de los Verdes. Lake Zapatosa is the largest of the many lakes of northern Colombia.

7 RIVERS AND WATERFALLS

The Amazon River is the longest river in South America and the second-longest river in the world. The Amazon starts in Peru and touches the southernmost part of Colombia before coursing through Brazil to flow eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. The total length of the Amazon is about 6,570 kilometers (4,080 miles). It has a total of eighteen major tributaries, including ten that are larger than the Mississippi River. The river is also known as having the world's largest flow of water, with about eighty million gallons of water per second emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The main Colombian rivers that serve as tributaries to the Amazon are the Vaupés, Apaporis, Caquetá, and the Putumayo.

The Magdalena River rises near a point some 177 kilometers (110 miles) north of Ecuador, where the Cordillera Oriental and the Cordillera Central diverge. It is fed by numerous mountain torrents originating high in the snowfields, where for millennia glaciers have planed the surface of folded and stratified rocks. The Magdalena is navigable from the Caribbean Sea as far as the town of Neiva, deep in the interior, but is interrupted at the midpoint of the country by rapids at the town of Honda.

Running parallel to the Magdalena and separated from it by the Cordillera Central, the Cauca River has headwaters not far from those of the Magdalena. The Cauca eventually joins the Magdalena in swamplands of the Atlantic (Caribbean) coastal region. Further west, the navigable Atrato River flows northward to the Gulf of Urabá.

There are no great rivers in western Colombia, as the mountains lie too close to the coastline. The longest rivers in this region are the San Juan and the Patia. East of the Andes, however, there are many large rivers, including several that are navigable. The Orinoco River flows north along part of the border with Venezuela. Many of Colombia's eastern rivers flow into it. The Guaviare River and two rivers to its north, the Arauca and the Meta, are the Orinoco's major Colombian tributaries. The Guaviare serves as a border for five political subdivisions, and it divides eastern Colombia into the Eastern Plains subregion in the north and the Amazonas subregion in the south.

8 DESERTS

In the plains region of the northeast, between the Meta River and the Cordillera Oriental, some of the terrain is dry. This region may resemble desert during periods of drought, but there is no true desert terrain in Colombia.

9 FLAT AND ROLLING TERRAIN

The Eastern Plains lie east of the Andes and are crisscrossed from east to west by many large rivers. The Spanish term for plains (llanos ) can be applied only to the open plains in the northern part where cattle are raised, particularly in piedmont areas near the Cordillera Oriental.

The narrow region along the Pacific coast, known as the Pacific Lowlands, is swampy, heavily forested, and sparsely populated. Along the Atlantic coast, the Atlantic Lowlands also consist largely of open, swampy land, but there are cattle ranches and plantations there, and settlements centered on the port cities.

The Cordillera Occidental is separated from the Cordillera Central by the deep rift of the Cauca River Valley. This tropical valley follows the course of the Cauca River for about 241 kilometers (150 miles) southward from a narrow gorge at about its midpoint near the town of Cartago. The cities of Cali and Palmira are situated on low terraces above the floodplain of the Cauca Valley. It is a fertile sugar agricultural zone that includes the best farmland in the country.

10 MOUNTAINS AND VOLCANOES

Beginning near the border with Ecuador, the Andes Mountains divide into three distinct cordilleras (mountain chains) that extend northward almost to the Caribbean Sea. The Cordillera Occidental in the west roughly follows the Pacific coast. Slightly inland, the Cordillera Central extends parallel to the Cordillera Occidental, while the Cordillera Oriental lies furthest east. Altitudes in these ranges reach almost 5,791 meters (19,000 feet) and the mountain peaks are permanently covered with snow. Below the summits, the elevated basins and plateaus of these ranges have a moderate climate that provides pleasant living conditions and enables farmers in many places to harvest twice a year.

The Cordillera Occidental range is the lowest and the least populated of the three and supports little economic activity. It is separated from the Cordillera Central by the deep rift of the Cauca River Valley. A pass about 1,524 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level provides the major city of Cali with an outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The relatively low elevation of the cordillera permits dense vegetation, which on the western slopes is truly tropical.

The Cordillera Central, also called the Cordillera del Quindío, is the loftiest of the mountain systems. Its crystalline peaks form a 805-kilometer-long (500-mile-long) towering wall dotted with snow-covered volcanoes, several of which reach elevations greater than 5,500 meters (18,000 feet). There are no plateaus in this range and no passes below 3,352 meters (11,000 feet). The highest peak, the Nevado del Huila, rises 5,750 meters (18,865 feet) above sea level. Toward its northern end, this cordillera separates into several branches that descend toward the Atlantic coast, including the San Jerónimo Mountains, the Ayapel Mountains, and the San Lucas Mountains.

The Cordillera Oriental is the longest of the three systems, extending more than 1,200 kilometers (745 miles). In the far north, where the Cordillera Oriental makes an abrupt turn to the northwest near the Venezuela border, lies the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy.

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mountain system near the Caribbean coast in the northern, semiarid Guajira Peninsula. It is the tallest coastal mountain range in the world. The range includes many tall peaks, as well as some active volcanoes. Its slopes are generally too steep for cultivation. In the southern part of the peninsula, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta rise to a height of 5,775 meters (18,947 feet) at Pico Cristóbal Colón, the highest peak in Colombia.

DID YOU KNOW?

In the volcanic mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the town of Arboletes is especially known for its pungent mud volcanoes, which, instead of spewing molten rock, bubble and spatter a mixture of hot water and clay or mud from deep within Earth. One of its volcanoes has a large crater that is filled with a lake of mud. Locals and tourists alike enjoy swimming and soaking in the lake.

To the west of the Atrato River, along the Pacific Coast and the Panama border, rises the Serranía de Baudó, an isolated chain that occupies a large part of the coastal plain. Its highest elevation is less than 1,829 meters (6,000 feet).

11 CANYONS AND CAVES

There are no major caves or canyons in Colombia.

12 PLATEAUS AND MONOLITHS

North of Bogotá, the densely populated plateaus of Chiquinquirá and Boyacá feature fertile fields, rich mines, and large industrial establishments. The average elevation in this area is about 2,438 meters (8,000 feet).

13 MAN-MADE FEATURES

There are two major dams in Colombia, both of which are built on fairly small but fast-flowing rivers. The Guavio Dam, on the Guavio River near Bogotá, is the tenth-highest dam in the world at 243 meters (797 feet). This hydroelectric dam produces most of the electricity for the surrounding areas. The Urrá Multipurpose Dam Project is located on the Sinú River, which flows south of the town of Montería in northwest Colombia. Besides serving as a source of hydroelectric power, this dam is expected to regulate the annual downstream flooding.

DID YOU KNOW?

Colombia has two archeological sites that are designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Tierradentro is a complex of hypogea (underground chambers) located in the town of San Andrés de Pisimbalá in the southern Andes. The underground structures are ancient burial chambers that have been decorated with black and red geometric figures representing the decorations of homes from the time period in which they were created (between the sixth and tenth centuries). There are a number of large animal-like statues surrounding the chambers, which were most likely meant to serve as guards to the tombs.

San Agustin, located in the mountains and canyons just to the south of Tierradentro, is a similar site that also contains a number of burial mounds, tombs, small temples, and large monolithic animal sculptures. Researchers believe that this area was a ceremonial site where natives worshipped nature and death as symbols of continuity and evolution.

14 FURTHER READING

Books

Dydynski, Krzysztof. Colombia: A Travel Survival Kit. Hawthorn, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, 1995.

Lessard, Marc. Colombia. Montréal, Canada: Ulysse, 1999.

Morrison, Marion. Colombia. New York: Children's Press, 1999.

Pollard, Peter. Colombia Handbook. Lincolnwood, IL: Passport Books, 1998.

Williams, Raymond L., et al. Culture and Customs of Colombia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Web Site

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Colombia. http://www.geo.ya.com/travelimages/unesco-colombia.html (accessed June 13, 2003).

Colombians

PRONUNCIATION: koh-LUHM-bee-ens

LOCATION: Colombia

POPULATION: 36 million

LANGUAGE: Spanish (official); various Amerindian languages

RELIGION: Roman Catholicism; native Amerindian religions

1 • INTRODUCTION

Amerindian tribes, including the Páez, inhabited the area of modern-day Colombia before the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century. By the late 1700s, the Amerindians grew tired of paying high taxes to the Spanish, and decided to fight for independence. On July 20, 1810, they successfully revolted against Spanish officials in the capital, Bogotá. This day is still commemorated as Independence Day.

However, the struggle for independence continued for nine more years. In 1819, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador together became the Republic of Gran Colombia. Before long, though, each became an independent nation.

Colombia has had a democratically elected government since the 1950s. By the late 1990s, illegal activity in drug trafficking threatened the survival of democracy.

2 • LOCATION

Colombia occupies the northwestern corner of South America. It has coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Caribbean Sea on the east. The mighty Andes Mountains divide into three long ranges—called cordilleras— that run the length of the country. To the east, there are extensive plains. To the south, a thick jungle extends toward the Amazon River.

Colombia has a population of over 36 million people. The majority of its inhabitants are mestizo— of mixed Amerindian and white heritage.

3 • LANGUAGE

Spanish is the official language of Colombia. It is spoken with an accent that varies considerably according to region. In addition, various Amerindian groups speak their own languages.

People usually use both their father's and their mother's surnames, in that order. The strong influence of the Catholic Church has made names like María very popular, usually in combination with another name, such as María Cristina or María Teresa. Even men are often named María, in combination with masculine names, such as José María or Pedro María.

4 • FOLKLORE

Amerindian, black African, and Spanish folk customs have combined to create a rich culture that expresses itself in festivals throughout the year. According to one legend, a mythical hero named Bochica introduced culture and civilization to the people living around Bogotá. He taught them how to build dwellings and introduced laws to govern daily life. Problems started when his wife, Chia the moon goddess, kept leading people astray, encouraging them to break the laws. The couple fought, and Chia used magic powers to make the rivers flood the home the people had built.

Bochica led the people who survived the floods to the top of a mountain. To make sure that Chia would not cause any more trouble, he sent her away to be exiled in the night sky forever.

Barranquilla and other coastal towns celebrate a yearly Carnival. Celebrants wear colorful costumes and masks, and play flutes and African drums.

5 • RELIGION

Roman Catholicism is the religion of Colombia. Amerindians in remote areas practice beliefs that include forms of shamanism (belief in good and evil spirits).

6 • MAJOR HOLIDAYS

Colombia celebrates Independence Day on July 20 and the discovery of America on October 12. The main Roman Catholic holidays are also observed. Easter (late March or early April) is marked by major religious events. One is the Holy Week procession in the town of Popayán. Statues of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and saints are paraded by groups of cargueros (carriers) along the streets. Others walk alongside them carrying candles called alumbrantes.

7 • RITES OF PASSAGE

All the main Catholic rituals that mark important phases in a person's life are observed by a majority of the population. Among these are baptism and first communion, as well as Catholic marriage and burial rites. Some practices have included a mixture of either Amerindian or black African customs.

8 • RELATIONSHIPS

Women usually greet each other with a kiss; men shake hands. Good friends shake hands and pat each other on the back several times as well.

It is considered essential to offer any visitor a small cup of black coffee called a tinto. This is the custom on both business and social occasions. Colombians consider it rude to launch directly into a discussion without first asking about the other person's welfare and that of his or her family.

9 • LIVING CONDITIONS

Living conditions vary greatly according to social class. The wealthy suburbs have modern houses and apartment blocks. In poorer neighborhoods there are often large areas with poorly constructed or rundown shacks. These are called shantytowns.

In mountain villages some houses have adobe walls and thatched roofs. Others have plaster walls and tiled roofs. In hotter climates along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, housing is built from local cane, reeds, and palm branches. In such areas it is not unusual for people to use hammocks rather than beds.

10 • FAMILY LIFE

Colombians keep in touch with large extended families through weddings, baptisms, and other special occasions. Close ties with immediate and extended families are an important aspect of Colombian life, providing support in many aspects of life. The family network extends to second and third cousins. Godparents, or padrinos, may also play an important role, helping with tuition or assisting the family in other ways. Family members are also depended upon to provide jobs whenever possible.

11 • CLOTHING

Western-style clothing is worn throughout Colombia. However, it varies according to climate. In warm coastal areas, men wear cotton shirts with bright, colorful patterns. In the cooler climate of the Andes mountains, both men and women wear woolen ruanas (capes). Middle-and upper-class women wear stylish versions of the ruana. The most primitive ruanas are made from undyed wool in shades of brown. More stylish versions may be striped or plain, using a wide range of colors. Traditional peasant women in mountain areas wear large, fringed shawls called pañolones. The traditional women's folk costume, seen mostly at festivals, consists of a round-necked, lace-edged blouse and a wide, flowery skirt.

12 • FOOD

Colombia has a great variety of fruits and vegetables. Cocido, a traditional stew served in Bogotá, can include twenty different kinds of vegetables. Ajiaco, another local dish, includes a bright yellow potato (papa criolla), chicken, and corn, served with a slice of avocado and cream. A typical dessert is made with sweet, stewed figs called brevas. They are served with arequipe, milk cooked with sugar until it resembles toffee. On the coast a variety of fish are served fried or sometimes grilled, often with rice flavored with coconut milk.

Recipe

Ajiaco Bogotano
(Potato and Chicken Soup)

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
• 8 cups (4 cans) chicken broth
• 1 onion, cut in half
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• 2 pounds potatoes (Colombian cooks use several kinds of potatoes, including yellow potatoes), peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 cup heavy cream, brought to room temperature
• 1 avocado, cut into slices

Directions

1. Put chicken broth, onion, bay leaf, cumin, and thyme into soup pot and bring to a boil.
2. Lower heat and simmer about 20 minutes. Remove onion and bay leaf.
3. Add potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are very soft (about 20 minutes).
4. Add corn and cooked chicken and simmer about 5 minutes more.
5. Pour about 1 Tablespoon of cream into each soup bowl and ladle the hot soup over it.
6. Garnish with one slice of avocado and serve immediately.

Adapted from Karoff, Barbara, South American Cooking. Berkeley, Calif.: Aris Books, 1989.

13 • EDUCATION

Primary education is free in Colombia, but it is not compulsory. About 20 percent of children in cities and 40 percent in rural areas do not go to school.

College and university education has expanded since the 1960s. There are dozens of universities, and technical and commercial institutes. Technical training schools have helped Colombia improve the skills of factory workers.

14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE

Colombia has a rich musical heritage that blends Amerindian, African, and Spanish elements. In the Andes region, twelve-string guitars called tiples are often used to sing courtly and romantic songs called bambucos. On the coast, the style of music is the cumbia, played with flutes and drums.

Colombia's main cities, especially Bogotá, have symphony orchestras, theaters, art galleries, bookshops, and many movie theaters. Colombia's most famous novelist is Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez (1928–), author of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

15 • EMPLOYMENT

Small commercial traders and shopkeepers form an important part of the economy. There is also a growing educated class that finds employment in trade, manufacturing, or finance. In addition, jobs are increasing in the fields of engineering, communications, and computers. In rural areas people usually work in the fields. In many parts of Colombia children must work to help the family make ends meet.

16 • SPORTS

The most popular sport is soccer, but many other sports are played in Colombia. These include basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis, and swimming. In cattle-ranching areas there are rodeos. People in river or coastal areas enjoy boating and fishing. Cycling has developed as a competitive sport. A game called tejo, similar to horseshoe pitching, is played in the small towns in the mountainous Andes region. Players try to land a horseshoe over an upright stick fixed some distance away from the thrower.

17 • RECREATION

Colombians participate enthusiastically in the many secular and religious fiestas (festivals) around the country. Many people enjoy festivals that revolve around beauty pageants. Some towns, such as Manizales and Bogotá, have bullfighting seasons that draw large crowds. Movie-going is also popular with Colombians.

Another favorite pastime is the paseo, or outing to the countryside by a group of friends or family members. Some town-dwellers own land or a small farm in the country, or have relatives they can visit in rural areas. Others simply choose a small town or village with beautiful scenery. They and their friends travel there by bus to relax, have a picnic, and spend the day.

18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

Colombians are very fine craftspeople, known for beautiful woodwork, metalwork, and weaving.

The Quimbaya Indians of northwestern Colombia have been skilled gold-and silversmiths since the 1500s. Pottery has also been made in Colombia for centuries, both by the Amerindians and by mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white ancestry) craftspeople.

The tiple, or twelve-string guitar, is still produced by hand. On the coast, an African drum-making tradition was brought to Colombia through the slave trade and continues to this day. Craftspersons also make reed flutes and rattles.

A number of Amerindian tribes weave beautiful bags called mochilas that are hung loosely over the shoulder. Amerindian hammocks in various styles are also produced. In the tropical (hot-weather) zones of Colombia, people often hang hammocks on their front porches.

19 • SOCIAL PROBLEMS

One of Colombia's most serious problems is the wide difference in the living standards of the rich and poor.

The activities of drug traffickers cause many problems. Drug lords resort to violence to settle scores with rivals and use bribes to obstruct the course of justice.

There are also ongoing conflicts between government army units and guerrilla armies. Both guerrilla armies and drug traffickers often resort to kidnapping in order to obtain ransom money. Sometimes they do it to threaten people they think are interfering with their activities. The resulting atmosphere of insecurity has led to the increased use of security guards. They guard individual citizens who feel threatened and are also used to protect private homes and public buildings.

20 • BIBLIOGRAPHY

DuBois, Jill. Colombia, Cultures of the World. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1991.

Hanratty, Dennis M., and Sandra W. Meditz, eds. Colombia: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1990.

Karoff, Barbara. South American Cooking. Berkeley, Calif.: Aris Books, 1989.

Markham, Lois. Colombia: The Gateway to South America. New York: Benchmark Books, 1997.

WEBSITES

Embassy of Colombia, Washington, D.C. [Online] Available http://www.colombiaemb.org/, 1998.

Ruiz-Garcia, Pedro. The Latino Connection. [Online] Available http://www.ascinsa.com/LATINOCONNECTION/colombi.html, 1998.

World Travel Guide. Colombia. [Online] Available http://www.wtgonline.com/country/co/gen.html, 1998.

Colombia A country in the extreme north-west of the South American continent, the only South American country with coasts on both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, separated by the isthmus of Panama. To the east is Venezuela, and to the south Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador.

Physical

The northern end of the Andes occupies the north-western half of the country, breaking into three great cordilleras which enclose high, cool plateaux. Running from them are several large rivers to water the hot northern coastal plains. South-east of the Andes, plains of rich pasture stretch away to the east and to the south, where the land falls in forested terraces towards the headstreams of the Amazon.

Economy

Colombia has a wide range of agricultural crops and is virtually self-sufficient in food production. About 5% of Colombia's total area is arable, while 30% is permanent pasture land. Colombia has large reserves of crude oil (another major oilfield was discovered in 1991), coal, natural gas, gold, precious stones, platinum, bauxite, and copper. Coffee accounts for half of exports, and industrial products such as textiles, iron, chemicals, and petroleum products are also exported. Political instability has deterred much-needed foreign investment, and disrupted agriculture. Cannabis and coca are cultivated illicitly on a vast scale for the manufacture of illegal drugs.

History

Colombia was occupied by the Chibcha Indians before the Spanish conquest. The first permanent European settlements were made on the Caribbean coast, Santa Marta being founded in 1525 and Cartagena eight years later. Colonization of the interior was led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, who defeated the Chibchas and founded the city of Bogotá in 1538. The region was initially part of the viceroyalty of Peru, but a different political status came with the establishment of the viceroyalty of New Granada in the first half of the 18th century. The viceroy sitting in Bogotá was given jurisdiction over Colombia, but also over Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. Colombia remained a viceroyalty of Spain until the battle of Boyacá (1819) during the SPANISH-SOUTH AMERICAN WARS OF INDEPENDENCE, when, joined with Venezuela, it was named by Simón BOLÍVAR the United States of Colombia. In 1822 under his leadership New Granada, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador were united as the Republic of Gran Colombia, which collapsed in 1830. In 1832 a constitution for New Granada was promulgated by Francisco Santander, which was amended in 1858 to allow a confederation of nine states within the central republic, which is now known as the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the country was renamed the United States of Colombia. The constitution of 1886 abolished the sovereignty of the states and the presidential system of the newly named Republic of Colombia was established. The War of the Thousand Days (1899–1902), encouraged by the USA, led to the separation of Panama from Colombia (1903). Violence broke out again in 1948 and moved from urban to rural areas, precipitating a military government between 1953 and 1958. A semi-representative democracy was restored that achieved a degree of political stability, and Colombia's economy has recovered from the setbacks of the early 1970s as diversification of production and foreign investment have increased. Agriculture is the chief source of income in Colombia, but it is estimated that the country's illegal drugs trade supplies some 80% of the world's cocaine market. During the 1980s Colombia achieved sustained economic growth and a successful record of external debt management, but the drug trade increasingly dominated both internal affairs and its relations with the USA. At the same time numerous extremist guerrilla groups, of both Left and Right, resorted to violence, including assassinations. In 1990 the ruling Liberal Party convened a Constitutional Assembly, which produced a new constitution, followed by an agreement by some guerrillas (most notably the notorious M-19) to demobilize and take part in the political process, while several drug traffickers surrendered. However, violence has continued to be a major problem. Further attempts to establish a dialogue between the government and the guerrillas were made in 1999.

COLOMBIA

The history of the Colombian Psychoanalytic Society and Institute has been influenced by the scientific cultural currents of the rest of the world, especially France, England, the United States, Argentina, and Chile.

Between 1922 and 1940, some physicians and other non-physicians traveled to Europe and around Latin America, getting direct contact with Freud or being psychoanalyzed. After the Second World War, three physicians arrived from France and Chile: Drs. José Francisco Socarras (1906-1995), Arturo Lizarazo (1915-1992), and (from Venezuela) Herman Quijada, born in 1915.

By that time eight more physicians had gone to Argentina to be trained in psychoanalysis, while others went to the United States and France. The three immigrants begun to conduct studies of Freud, Numberg, and Klein, beginning analytical supervisions that differed from personal analysis.

Between 1948 and 1950, a prestigious Argentine analyst, Dr. Arnaldo Rascovsky, visited Bogotá and edited the bylaws to be followed for the formation of a Study Group recognized by the IPA. On May 6, 1956, the Study Group was officially founded and was recognized by the IPA a year later, being sponsored by France and Chile.

In 1959, an Associate Member of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, Dr. Carlos Plata, arrived to Bogotá who elaborated the Group bylaws. In 1960, Angel and Betty Garma visited Colombia and held a series of seminars as well as individual and collective supervisions, and later in 1961 the Society was recognized by the IPA.

In 1962 a conflict arose between the two pioneers of psychoanalysis in Colombia, which appeared to be political-ideological and ended with the resignation of Arturo Lizarazo, but he left the Colombian Psychoanalytic Association to found his own Study Group, now recognized by by the IPA, which is led by M. Gonzalez, J.A. Marquez and R. De Zubiría. Also the "Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Group I.P.A." is led by G. Arcila and B. Alvarez.

In Colombia there are other psychoanalytic Groups in Cali, Medellin, and Bogotá, with some leaders (O. Espinosa, A. Villar) trained at the Colombian Psychoanalytic Society, but the groups are not recognized by the IPA.

Since 1976, the Review of the Colombian Psychoanalytic Society (Revista de la Sociedad Colombiana de Psicoanálisis ) has appeared, with 21 volumes, four numbers each year, and there is also a "Boletin" published monthly. As of 2002, the Society had four honorary members, 33 full members, 57 associate members. The Institute has 15 training analysts, 10 professors, 14 candidates; there have been 19 graduating classes from 1959-1996. The Institute requires eight semesters (four years training) with two hours daily and two individual supervisions weekly. Freud is the main author studied, but others are reviewed, especially from France, England, the United States, and Argentina, with a multi-theoretical frame of reference. There are members of the Society working in the cities of Cali and Buoaramanga.

Various members of the Colombian Psychoanalytic Society have participated in the COPAL, FEPAL, and IPA boards.

Several theoretical and technical contributions have been published, mainly in the Journal and in books. The practice has increased daily, and some analysts are professors at different universities. Psychoanalysis has been admitted at the National Academy of Medicine and is generally well accepted by Colombian society, as well as in scientific reviews and daily journals. Among other well-known contemporary analysts are G. Ballesteros, E. Gómez, E. Laverde, A. Sánchez, I. Villarreal, and L. Yamín.

GUillermo SÁnchez Medina

Bibliography

Brainsky, Simon. (1984). Manual de psicologia y psicopatologia dinámica fundamentos de psicoanálisis. Bogotá: Ed. Pluma.

Carvajal, Guillermo. (1993). Adolecer: La aventura de una metamorfosis. Una visión psicoanalitica de la adolescencia Bogotá: Printing Service Network.

González Velásquez, Mario. (1993). La cohesión del self. Bogotá: Ed. Guadalupe Ltda.

Plata Mújica, Carlos. (1989), Metapsicologia y Técnica Psicoanalitica. Bogotá: Ed. Tercer Mundo Editores.

Sánchez Medina, Guillermo. (1994). Técnica y clinica psicoanalitica. Bogotá: Ed. Centro Profesional Gráico Ltda.

——. (1991). Psicoanálisis, ayer, hoy y mariana. Bogotá: Ed. Gaviota.

Colombia A Latin American country characterized by relative institutional and economic stability coexisting with fundamental social conflicts, lawlessness, and periodic civil war. Its Constitution of 1885 ended bitter struggles between centralists and federalists by establishing a central presidential system, which the Conservatives sought to strengthen whilst in power, 1886–1930. Nevertheless, they were unable to stop the US-assisted breakaway of Panama as an independent country in 1904. During the period of Conservative rule, foreign investment was encouraged, and coffee became the main export commodity. The Liberals (1930–46) continued the policy of industrial expansion, but also introduced social welfare legislation. Their tolerant stance towards opposition groups on the left threatened the hegemony of the traditional Liberal and Conservative elites. When the Conservatives came to power in 1946 they dissolved Congress and banned the left-wing opposition parties while marginalizing the Liberals.

In an increasingly volatile atmosphere, the murder of the populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán sparked off the bogotazo of 9–10 April 1948, one of the most destructive riots in Latin American history. The bogotazo in turn triggered off widespread violence in the countryside, which became known as ‘la violencia’. This ten-year conflict was one of the most bitter civil wars in the twentieth century, cost the lives of over 200,000 people and displaced around 800,000. Despite the institution of a military dictatorship under Rojas Pinilla (1953–7), ‘la violencia’ only ended in 1958, when Conservatives and Liberals agreed on a system of power-sharing in all levels of government and administration, with the President coming from each party in turn.

This hegemony was increasingly challenged by the rise of new opposition parties, the formation of left-wing guerrilla movements, and the establishment of free presidential elections in 1974. Nevertheless, the political system continued to be dominated by the Conservative and Liberal elites. Since the presidency of the Conservative B. Betancur (1982–6), the state has successfully made peace with most guerrilla movements by integrating them into the system. This was a necessary precondition for attacking the power of the drug barons, who controlled extensive areas of the country and whose illegal exports of drugs yielded more capital than the export of coffee. In 1991, a new Constitution was passed which gave more power to the state and legal institutions to help them in the battle against the drug cartels, which had already cost the lives of more than 80,000 people, 1986–90. On 19 June 1994, the Liberal Ernesto Samper Pizano was elected President. While he was successful in arresting further drug barons, there was increasing evidence of state corruption and public officials accepting bribes from the drug barons. Samper himself was charged with corruption on 14 February 1996, though he remained in office. In this atmosphere, Colombia became the country with the highest incidence of murder in the world, with homicide being the single greatest cause of death among male adults (on average more than 100 per day in 1995).

Samper was succeeded by Andreas Pastrana of the Social Conservative Party. Responding to US pressure, he sought to realize ‘Plan Colombia’ to fight the drug cartels by destroying coca and opium fields with pesticides from the air and through improved international cooperation. Despite these attempts, cocoa and opium production increased by over 20 per cent in 1999 alone, with production capacity increasing to 7.5 tonnes of heroin and 75 tonnes of metric opium. The high stakes in the drug war fuelled the civil war. Peace negotiations between the government and a number of left-and right-wing guerrilla groups which between them controlled about one third of the country's territory showed only modest success through the re-establishment, in 2000, of a ‘neutral zone’ between government troops and the Fuercas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). At the 2002 presidential elections, voters ran out of patience with the established parties' efforts to deal with the civil war, and elected the hardline independent, Alvaro Uribe, with an absolute majority in the first round.

Colombia

Climate and Vegetation

Colombia's climate and vegetation vary greatly according to altitude. The Pacific lowlands have a tropical, rainy climate, but Bogotá has mild annual temperatures. The Caribbean lowlands and the Magdalena valley have dry seasons.

Vegetation varies from dense rainforest in the se to the tundra of the snow-capped Andean peaks. Coffee plantations line the w slopes of the e Cordillera. The ancient forests of the Caribbean lowlands have been largely cleared. Savanna (llanos) covers the ne plains.

History and Politics

The pre-Colombian Chibcha civilization lived undisturbed in the e cordillera for thousands of years. In 1525 the Spanish established the first European settlement at Santa Marta. By 1538 the conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada conquered the Chibcha and established the city of Bogotá. Colombia became part of the New Kingdom of Granada, whose territory also included Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela.

In 1819 Simón Bolívar defeated the Spanish at Boyacá, and established Greater Colombia. Bolívar became president. In 1830, Ecuador and Venezuela gained independence. In 1885, the Republic of Colombia was formed. Differences between republican and federalist factions proved irreconcilable and the first civil war (1899–1902) killed nearly 100,000 people. In 1903, aided by the United States, Panama gained independence. The second civil war La Violencia (1949–57) was even more bloody.

In 1957 Liberal and Conservative parties formed a National Front Coalition, which held power until 1974. Throughout the 1970s, Colombia's illegal trade in cocaine grew steadily, creating wealthy drug barons. In the 1980s, armed cartels (such as the Cali) destabilized Colombia with frequent assassinations of political and media figures. A new constitution (1991) protected human rights. Social Conservative Party (PSC) leader Andrés Pastrana Arango won the 1998 presidential elections and, in an effort to end the 30-year guerrilla war, negotiated with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Pastrana granted FARC a safe haven in se Colombia. In 1999, the worst earthquake in Colombia's history killed more than 1000 people and left thousands homeless. In 2002 Pastrana declared war on FARC, sending the army into FARC's ‘safe haven’. Alvaro Uribe defeated Pastrana in 2002 presidential elections. Uribe declared a state of emergency following the killing of 20 people in a bomb attack on Bogotá on the day of his inauguration.

Economy

Colombia is a lower-middle income developing country (2000 GDP per capita, US$6200). It is the world's second-largest coffee producer. Other crops include bananas, cocoa, and maize. Colombia also exports coal, oil, emeralds, and gold. In 1997 a collapse in the world coffee and banana markets led to a budget deficit. In 1998 Colombia devalued the peso, triggering the longest strike (20 days) in Colombia's history.

Political map

Physical map

Websites

http://www.colombiaemb.org

Colombia The Republic of Colombia (República de Colombia) since 1886. Previously the United States of Colombia (1863–86); New Granada (1830–63); part of the Republic of Gran Colombia (1819–30) (which also included Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela); part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (1740), and the Audiencia of Santa Fé de Bogotá (1549). The first Spaniard set foot on what is now Colombia in 1499. Independence from Spain was achieved in 1819, although 20 July 1810 is celebrated as independence day, the day of the uprising in Bogotá. The name New Granada was chosen by Spanish settlers after the Granada in Spain. The present name, adopted in 1863, honours Christopher Columbus^†.

Colombia

Culture Name

Colombian

Orientation

Identification. Since declaring independence on 20 July 1810 and achieving it in 1819, Colombia has changed its name seven times. Regional cultural traditions are diverse, with a broad range of distinct groups that have unique customs, accents, social patterns, and cultural adaptations. These groups are classified into three cultures: those in the interior, the countryside, and the coastal regions. Only during elections, sporting events, and beauty pageants do the regional cultures unite for a common goal.

Location and Geography. Covering about 440,000 square miles (1.14 million square kilometers), Colombia has coast on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Lowland coastal areas give way to rain forest, the Andes, and the Inland Ilanos (plains).

Colombia is connected to Central America by the Isthmus of Panama. It contains several small islands in the Atlantic, including San Andrea and Providencia, and in the Pacific, the Malpelo and Gorgona islands have been set aside as natural wildlife reserves. Colombia borders Ecuador and Peru to the south, Brazil and Venezuela to the east, and Panama to the northwest.

The Atlantic or Caribbean coastal lowlands receive less rainfall than the area along the Pacific. Many industries are located within this area, along with 20 percent of the population. The fertile land supports banana and sugarcane plantations along with cattle ranches. Lush rain forest and swamps characterize the Pacific lowlands. Because of the abundant rainfall and poor soil quality, few people inhabit this region.

The three Andean Cordilleras (mountain ranges) running the entire length of the country from the north to the south, occupy only 30 percent of the landmass. Most of the population lives in the inland Andean region, which begins along the Caribbean coast near Venezuela. Climatic effects are accentuated on the high elevations of these mountain ranges. The hot zone is marked by heavy annual rainfall along the Pacific coast. The temperate zone, in which 40 percent of the population lives, has moderate rainfall and moderate temperatures.

The treeless regions adjacent to the cold zone usually are referred to as paramos (high plains), above which begin the nevados (snowcapped peaks). The cold zone receives heavy rainfall during the wet seasons from April to June and September to December. The northern end of this range is characterized by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Despite the tectonic activity, almost 80 percent of the population lives in the Andeanregion.The highlands to the east of the Magdalena Valley include Cundinamarca, where Bogota, the capital, is located. Set in the central range to the west of the Magdalena are two of the most important cities: Medellín (the second largest city) and Manizales. Farther to the south in the Cauca Valley is Cali, the third largest city, which has some of the richest farmland. This area contains some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, including gold and emeralds. Coffee plantations are plentiful in the mild climate, which also supports banana, cassava, and coca.

To the east of the Andes is the broad expanse of the Ilanos, which contains more than 60 percent of the land area. The high plateau is striped with tributaries of the Amazon River and rain forest to the south. While few crops are grown in this hot, flat region, the grassland provides ample space to graze cattle.

Colombia has great biodiversity with 1,550 species of birds and over 13,000 species of plants.

Demography. With a population of 42.3 million (30 June 2000), Colombia is a nation of mixed race. It is estimated that about 75 percent of the population is of mixed heritage, with 55 percent of this group being mestizos, 16 percent mulattoes, and 4 percent zambos. The other 20 percent of the population is of European, African, or Indian ancestry.

Caucasians, mainly descendants of Spaniards, constitute about 20 percent of the population. Antioquia and the coffee region are considered "white" departments or states because of the reluctance of European settlers to mix with blacks or Indians. Black people represent about 4 percent of the total population and live primarily on the Caribbean coast, the historical center of the slave trade. The Indian population, which is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2 million people in the pre-conquest period, numbers between 300,000 and 400,000. There are over fifty Indian groups, many of which live in relative isolation.

Linguistic Affiliation. The official language is Spanish, which was imposed during the colonial period. All Colombians speak it except some of the indigenous populations in the Amazonian basin. In major cities, English is used, particularly by the upper class, but it is not commonly understood or spoken. Outside urban areas, Spanish is virtually the only medium of communication. Colombia takes great care to preserve the linguistic "purity" of Castilian Spanish. The Colombian Academy of Language was founded in 1871 by a commission from the Spanish Royal Academy of Language; it was the first such body established in Latin America. Colombian Spanish is marked by the presence of numerous cultural expressions. In addition to Spanish, over 200 indigenous languages and dialects are spoken.

Symbolism. Patriotic symbols represent the war of independence and the founding fathers. Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan, designed the national flag in 1806. Adapting the red and yellow of the Spanish flag, Miranda divided the two colors by a stripe of blue to symbolize the ocean separating the independent country from the motherland. The upper half of the flag is yellow, symbolizing the natural riches of the country, while the lower half is divided into two equal parts of blue and red, with the red symbolizing the blood shed in the war for independence. In 1834, the national shield, Arms of the Republic, was added to the flag to represent the defensive armament used in early battles. Another important national symbol is the condor, which signifies liberty and sovereignty.

History and Ethnic Relations

Emergence of the Nation. The discovery of the country's coastal lands in 1499, followed by Spanish occupation for the next 300 years, indicates the integral role Spain played in the region's cultural, religious, and political development. In the early part of the 1500s, Spain attempted to control the Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, establishing Santa Marta in 1525 and Cartagena de Indias in 1533. In that year, the conquest of the Incas in Peru gave the Spaniards strategic positions in the north and south for the subjugation and colonization of Colombia. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards had established a major foothold in the Americas.

During this period, the Andes were occupied by a number of indigenous groups that ranged from stratified agricultural chiefdoms to tropical farm villages and nomadic hunter-gatherer groups. The social structures of these groups were destroyed during the conquest, as Indians were forced into slavery to exploit the natural riches of the country. As the number of casualties in the Indian population increased due to starvation and disease brought by the conquistadors and to the intense labor of slavery, Spain imported slaves from Africa for gold and silver mining on the Pacific coast. The tri-ethnic composition of the population during this period led to the ethnic terminology still used today. Spaniards were referred to as Peninsulars, while their South-American-born descendants were called criollos (Creoles). Miscegenation produced people of mixed race known to the Spaniards as the castas (castes). These were mestizos from the intermarriage of whites and natives, mulattoes from that of blacks and whites, and zambos from that of blacks and Indians.

Unfair practices and decrees by the Spaniards created a desire for independence. Most traumatic was the practice of encomiendas, an institutionalized system in which Indians were "entrusted" to the care of Spaniards called Encomienderos.These "caretakers" provided the Indians with religious instruction and a livelihood in exchange for their labor. In practice, this system amounted to enslavement.

In 1781, 20,000 Indians and mestizos attempted to march on the capital in what became known as the Comuneros revolt, but the revolt was crushed and its leaders were executed. There was little or no support from the Creole population, but some Creoles were appalled by the brutality of the Spaniards and began to spread the rebellious sentiment. The call for vengeance spread to other provinces, as government officials excluded Creoles from high governmental positions. After several minor uprisings, Colombia achieved independence after the decisive battle of Boyacá on 9 August 1819 under Simon Bolivar, a Creole who joined the patriotic movement in 1810.

National Identity. There is not a unique national culture separate from the cultural influence of colonial Spain. Instead of resisting Spanish cultural influences, most indigenous groups embraced them. Rather than having a common culture, Colombia is a country with many distinct regional cultures.

Ethnic Relations. Past relations with other regional cultures were based on the hierarchical society imposed by Spain, in which the upper echelon of "white" Spaniards enjoyed wealth, power, and prestige while blacks and Indians were at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy. After independence, Creoles quickly replaced Spaniards in the upper echelons of the new society. Qualified mestizos and mulattoes also ascended to high positions, but their inclusion was based on their level of education, wealth, and "whiteness." Colombians continue to identify themselves according to their regional heritage, physical appearance, and socioeconomic status.

Urbanism,Architecture, and the Use of Space

The nation's architecture reflects seventeenth century Spanish colonial origins. Regional differences derive from those in Spain. Thus, hints of Moorish and Castilian architecture are evident in many cities. Many areas have had difficulty maintaining older structures, and the climate has destroyed many Baroque buildings. Some of the architectural gems are the many churches that dot the landscape. The detailed interiors of the country's churches are reflective of the Medieval and Renaissance churches in Spain. Newer buildings in larger cities utilize modern styles with adaptations of the Baroque style supplemented with wood and wrought-iron elements.

In the nineteenth century, a new form of architecture began to develop from the efforts of artisans who incorporated elements of Greek, Roman, and Renaissance art. This style, known as republicano, represented the independence of Colombian art. This movement incorporated cement and steel building materials. Many government buildings follow the republicano architectural style.

In the 1930s, Colombia began to embrace modern architecture. The new Liberal Party government tore down many older buildings to reject the conservative past. In their place, it constructed modern buildings with an international flavor.

Republicano homes are typically built on a single level with an A-frame roof. Houses in the more crowded cities often have two or more stories and reflect a European influence. Most people lived in single-family dwellings until the migration to urban centers in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The need for adequate housing persuaded the government to invest in high-density public housing projects during the early 1950s. In the poorer areas, large families live in small houses constructed from cinder blocks and covered with an adobe made of clay, cow manure, and hay.

Park space is limited to larger towns and cities that were founded by the Spanish. Parks have areas where social activity is encouraged; long benches are placed close together so that people can have space around them without restricting communication. Few formal parks exist outside the cities, although people congregate around churches or other local monuments.

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life. Most middle-class families eat elaborate meals that reflect Spanish and indigenous traditions. A typical meal is identified by size rather than content, such as a light breakfast, a substantive midday lunch, and a lighter meal in the early evening. Dinner consists of fresh fruit, homemade soup, and a main dish with meat or fish accompanied by rice and/or potatoes. Lower-income people eat a more carbohydrate-rich diet. Meals usually end with a very sweet dessert, frequently made from panela, a type of brown sugar.

There are regional differences in foods. In the interior rural regions, a hearty breakfast consists of a strip of pork, rice and beans, sweet plantains, and a large steak with fried eggs. Dinner is similar, except for the eggs. In the coastal region, the emphasis is on seafood. In Cartagena, the typical lunch consists of rice with coconut, fried plantains, and shrimp. Colombians enjoy a variety of national and international cuisines.

Specialty dishes are eaten during holidays. A dish associated with the capital is ajiaco, a stew with three types of potato, chicken, and corn, that is served with capers, cream, and avocado. Another dish served during religious holidays is pasteles, while along the coast, people eat sancocho, a fish or chicken stew. Colombians consume large quantities of beer and coffee and relatively little milk or wine. Aguardiente combines local rum and a corn of sugar brandy.

Basic Economy. The economy is dependent on manufacturing and agricultural exports, but this domestic production relies on expensive imports such as tractors, power generators, and industrial machinery. Commercial agriculture stresses bananas, cut flowers, sugar, and coffee. In the world's second leading exporter of coffee, the economy is sensitive to fluctuations in the market price. Manufacturing exports include textiles, garments, chemicals, and metal products. Despite rich mineral deposits, Colombia derives less than 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) from mining.

Economic progress has resulted from the government's efforts to make the economy more specialized and productive by encouraging trade, deregulation, and financial investment. While the executive and legislative branches can intervene in economic matters, the hands-off policy of the government has resulted in a 3 percent annual growth of the economy since the ending of government subsidies.

Land Tenure and Property. Most of the productive agricultural land forests are privately owned. The structure of owner-operator relationships varies: coffee is grown on small plots by sharecroppers, whereas plantation agriculture and forestry involve multinational joint ownership using local labor. Land containing valuable minerals and hydrocarbons generally reverts to the government, which arranges contracts between domestic and foreign corporations. Public land includes 43 national parks. The government has designated special lands for the indigenous groups. Land distribution has been a difficult issue, and deforestation is being examined in the context of management practices and trade policies.

Commercial Activities. Fifty-one percent of the GDP comes from the commercial sector, which includes utilities, transportation, communications, wholesale commerce, real estate, retail banking, and stock exchanges. While these business sectors operate domestically, many have an international presence, including investment banking, insurance, commercial real estate, hotels, and advertising.

Major Industries. The primary industries are in the manufacturing sector, which employs over 35 percent of the workforce. The largest industries in this sector are textile, garment, furniture, and corrugated box manufacturing. Heavy industries also make a significant contribution to the GDP, including oil production, coal mining, chemical and resin-producing plants, and forestry. Although tourism is a major industry, the growth of this sector has been hindered by instability in the Andean and forested regions.

Trade. Exports include coffee, cut flowers, emeralds, and leather goods—most of which go to the United States and Europe. Other significant exports are oil, coal, and bananas. A free-market economy has allowed the country to benefit from foreign trade and foreign investment. After the North American Free Trade Agreement, Colombia established a similar trade pact between itself and several Latin American nations. Colombia is seeking similar trade pacts with it neighbors to the north, including the United States.

Division of Labor. The labor force consists of manual and semi-skilled, highly skilled, managerial, and professional segments. In the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, manual or semi-skilled labor is physically demanding and wages are low. Workers who are classified as highly skilled include artisans and carpenters and supervisors in industrial plants and farms. Managers and professionals include highly educated individuals who occupy the top decision-making or policy-making roles in industries, universities, and the government.

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. The massive urban migration that began in the 1950s saw a middle class emerge, resulting in a three-class system: upper, middle, and lower. The upper class, which includes 20 percent of the population, accounts for about 75 to 80 percent of the gross national product. This group tends to be made up of individuals of unmixed European ancestry. Within this class, there is an elite referred to as the "oligarchy" that enjoys wealth and financial security, political power, and education. This group may be considered a caste, since membership is largely due to birthright, not to individual ability. A wide gap separates the elite from the masses. Unlike the elite, this group has few opportunities for social mobility. Social inequality is evident in the lower class, whose members are often malnourished, poorly housed, disease-ridden, and illiterate.

White people continue to dominate the upper class, while mestizos and mulattoes constitute the middle and lower classes. Blacks and Indians make up a significant portion of the lower class. Historically, blacks felt socially superior to Indians despite the fact that Indians occupied an officially higher position in society.

Symbols of Social Stratification. White or light skin is associated with being Spanish. Today, people may not be aware of this association, but they still equate being white with being wealthy.

The style of clothing preferred by urban professionals and the middle and upper classes is similar to that in the United States. White, mestizo, and mulatto men and women prefer conservative dark suits. Individuals from rural areas often wear the same clothes in the fields and at home. Men usually wear loose-fitting pants, while women wear loose-fitting skirts. Cloaks are worn by both sexes in the cold, rural highlands.

All three classes in the interior, especially in Bogotá, speak a deliberate and grammatically correct Spanish, whereas coastal speech patterns have a rapid tempo. People from the interior are more proper and ceremonial in social interactions, while coastal inhabitants are usually more trusting and carefree.

Political Life

Government. The government has an executive branch led by an elected president, a bicameral (House of Representatives and Senate) legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The president is elected to a four-year term by popular vote and may not be reelected. The president runs for office with his vice president, and names the cabinet, which consists of ministers with administrative powers. The president's duties include enforcing laws, conducting foreign affairs, supervising public finances, maintaining public order, and serving as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

In the Congress, senators are elected by national vote, while representatives are elected by the people in their districts. Members of both houses may be re-elected to an unlimited number of terms. Congress meets only twice a year but may be called for additional sessions by the president. The House of Representatives appoints an attorney general. The responsibilities of the Senate include approving military promotions, declaring war, permitting foreign troops to enter the national territory, litigating impeachment proceedings against the president, and electing supreme court justices.

Under the constitution of 1991, the Constitutional Court and Council of State were added to the Supreme Court, which is the court of final appeals for ordinary legal matters, annulments, and contractual disputes. It also tries public officials for misconduct in office. The Council of State hears cases involving administrative issues and proposes laws regarding administrative practices, while the Constitutional Court is charged with reviewing laws, treaties, and other public policies to ensure that they do not violate the constitution.

Leadership and Political Officials. One of the most important informal decision-making groups among the upper class is referred to as roscas, a term that symbolizes the interconnecting networks in the political system. These groups have a membership structure that parallels the society of colonial Spain. These informal groups are found in the political, social, economic, and financial sectors. Roscas have been successful in monitoring and controlling some social, political, and economic changes. At this level, most political decisions are made and many careers are determined. Roscas link influential individuals and institutions so that universities, banks, industries, and agricultural interests may be coordinated and controlled by a few people. Inclusion in these such groups is limited to members of the upper-middle and upper classes. Another informal custom is the palanca ("leverage"), in which an influential friend or relative tries to help an individual gain a position. Allegiance to political parties and family ties are the source of most palancas.

After independence, the founding fathers formed the Centralist and Federalist parties, which later became the Conservative and Liberal parties. The Liberal Party advocates the separation of church and state, free enterprise, free commerce, no taxes on exportation, no intervention in matters of state by foreign nations, a free press, political liberty, decentralization of government, universal suffrage, and equal justice for all. The Conservative Party defends moral values, supports good customs, maintains close ties between church and state, protects traditional values, maintains a central government and central bank, favors tariffs, maintains the status quo and federal support of education, and calls for equal justice for all.

Social Problems and Control. The modern National Police, a branch of the armed forces, was created in 1891 to enforce federal laws. With the escalation of violence during the 1980s, the size of the national force increased. However, the National Police lack a presence in many municipalities. In a country racked by violence, some judges wear masks to hide their faces in order to avoid reprisal. These "judges without faces" demonstrate the inability of the judicial system to protect its members and the general public.

Over 50 years ago, many politicians tried to reform a corrupt political system that acted in favor of the privileged few. However, after the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948, old-line politicians fell into disfavor. Elected to many political positions, including his appointment as mayor of Bogotá, Gaitán had captivated the country with his dynamic oratory and articulation of social problems. The elite feared that Gaitán's popularity would ensure his election to the presidency. Gaitán's death resulted in an escalation of violence, especially in the countryside. The period between 1946 and 1956 is known as La Violencia; over 350,000 people died in an armed uprising against social and political injustice. After Gaitán's assassination, the guerrilla movements began to organize into large centralized groups.

Today the two major guerilla organizations— the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Army of National Liberation (ELN)—have attempted to disrupt the government and the national economy to bring about reform and social justice. They have generally targeted government buildings, military positions, and police stations, but also have attacked energy distribution and communication networks, and engaged in extortion, kidnapping, and assassination.

Drug trafficking is a major economic and social problem that has enriched the drug cartels and financed the guerrillas. To counter the effects of the drug trade, informal social control systems have risen to combat crime, including paramilitary organizations. Many people take the law upon themselves, and many crimes are committed in the context of personal or group retaliation.

Military Activity. Numbering 150,000, the military is divided into an army, a navy, and an air force. Mandated with protecting the country's borders and territorial waters, the military has been involved in internal conflicts such as fighting against guerrillas.

Social Welfare and Change Programs

The social security system developed in 1843 applied only to military personnel. Other social security programs have been slow to develop. While many programs available to the average laborer are relatively new, they provide health, pension, social security, and death benefits. Individual benefits in the public sector exceed those in the private sector. The social welfare system has been expensive and inequitably applied, with only 16 percent of the population currently covered by social insurance. The poorest segment of the population is not covered by any program. These groups rely on nongovernmental organizations to supplement the limited support provided by the government.

Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been involved in agricultural, educational, and health programs. With the backing of the government and community leaders, organizations such as the Magdalena Medio Project have influenced public affairs. Among the priorities of NGOs are land reform projects to redistribute farmland in favor of family farming and the poor, human capital development in education to give communities control over local education, and public sector efficiency. Groups such as the Pasto Education Project and the Rural Education Project have advocated better-equipped public schools and teacher training.

In 1982, with help from the World Bank, the Women's World Bank was established to provide very small, low-interest loans to women micro-entrepreneurs in rural and remote regions. The Carvajal Foundation paved the way for other institutions promoting micro-enterprise, such as the Women's World Bank and the Solidarios Financial Cooperative. Other NGOs focus on diverse aspects of the nation's economy, education, and people. The Colombian Indigenist Institute, is an advocate for many native groups. The first national labor organization, the Confederation of Colombian Workers (CTC), promotes labor reform. Having lost much of its influence, the CTC was supplanted by the Union of Colombian Workers backed by the Catholic Church and then by the Unified Central of Workers.

Gender Roles and Statuses

The Relative Status of Women and Men. Gender roles have changed with the migration from rural to urban areas, but family and household organization is still marked by sexual segregation and a difference between male and female goals and aspirations. As a result of colonial influence, Colombian society adopted a culture in which men occupy a dominant role within the household as breadwinner and disciplinarian and assume responsibility for maintaining family pride and position within the community. The role of machismo is an important characteristic of public life. Machismo is not synonymous with strict male dominance—it applies to the public personification of the male family head. Machismo requires separate male and female roles in economic life and consumption, the reliance of women on men, and distinct sets of life goals for men and women. With more women holding higher-paying jobs and occupying prominent positions in society, the role of machismo is now less dominant in urban centers but is still evident in rural regions.

Machismo defines a woman's role as a mother in addition to her conjugal role. The traditional male-female relationship assumes that the woman puts her husband's wishes before her own. She is responsible for the care of the children and household, but the husband makes decisions about the household's basic necessities.

While male familial roles are relatively consistent across economic groups, female roles vary as a result of the modern economy. In upper class and some middle class families, women avoid working outside the home in order to preserve family status, honor, and virtue. Women from lower class and lower-middle class families often hold jobs outside the home or work in the fields to contribute to the family's subsistence, giving them a greater degree of equality. Many couples farm fields owned through the wife's family, and in this case it is difficult for a husband living with his wife's family to exercise control over the wife.

Women have assumed visible and important roles in society. Upper class and middle class women dedicate themselves not only to the family but also to social issues and the church. Women from these groups hold a number of prominent public positions and are considered among the most politically active in Latin America.

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage. Arranged marriages are no longer common, especially among the upper-middle and upper classes, but the members of these groups are encouraged to marry within their own class. While men and women can date whomever they wish, they must be accompanied by a chaperone. Before marrying, couples usually court for at least a year.

Members of the lower and middle classes strive to marry someone outside of their class; mestizos, mulattoes, and blacks prefer to marry into white families. However, when intermarriage takes place, it is generally white males who marry Indians or blacks.

Most people, especially in urban centers, are married in the Catholic Church. Upper class people use this religious rite to create powerful family unions. Church weddings are expensive and allow families to demonstrate their financial and social status. Because of the expense, members of the lower middle class may opt for a civil marriage. Others choose a consensual marriage. Divorce for civil marriages was not permitted until 1970.

Domestic Unit. The nuclear family consisting of a father, a mother, and their children is the basic household unit. Upper class families usually have many children. The father is the head of the household, while the mother is responsible for child rearing, homemaking, and the basic education of the children. Lower class and some middle class wives work in the city or next to kin in the fields.

Inheritance. Parents bequeath property to their children in equal shares. In rural families, sons and daughters may inherit property with the condition that they will continue to work the land. In urban centers, parents may leave a family business to their children to share and run.

Kin Groups. Large upper class families have an extended kin group in which the oldest member receives the most wealth and prestige. Family and kin group members interact regularly and generally live close to each other in urban areas or on the same land or estate in rural locations. Family members participate in social activities to expand the family's wealth. In times of severe financial difficulties, families lacking a socioeconomic network, may be displaced into a lower class.

Socialization

Infant Care. Mothers from the upper class prefer to give birth in clinical settings, while those in the lower class usually have babies at home, sometimes with the help of a midwife. Upper class families use cribs and playpens. The sleeping quarters of the child are usually separate from those of the parents. In poorer families, a child usually sleeps in the same bed as the mother or next to the mother on the floor.

Parents encourage a child to behave properly. From birth to adolescence, parents nurture children very carefully, inculcating moral values and raising them to respect themselves and their elders. Children are taught right from wrong, encouraged to be obedient, and informed about the need for higher education. Obedience to adults, conformity to social expectations, and religious devotion are important qualities in a "good" child.

The only ceremonial initiations rural and urban children receive are the religious rites of the Catholic Church. Within the first year, a baby is baptized. Families often use the rite of baptism to achieve upward social mobility. Choosing distinguished godparents brings prestige to the parents and offers the child social and economic networks.

At age four or five, children enroll in elementary school where they learn to read, write, and do simple math as well as study geography and history. Completion of secondary school leads to a diploma that qualifies a student for college.

Higher Education. The Catholic Church established the first universities before 1700; the first public universities were founded much later. Today there are over 40 universities. National universities receive funding from the government, which in the 1958 constitution was mandated to spend at least 10 percent of the national budget on education.

Higher education is considered necessary to achieve professional goals and to contribute to the progress and prosperity of the country. However, the university system reinforces social stratification. Higher education is coveted by all, but only the middle and upper classes can afford to attend a university.

Etiquette

Social interaction in the upper class is generally formal and respectful. The members of lower socioeconomic groups from the interior pride themselves on their good manners. Unlike their coastal counterparts, lower class individuals in the interior express mutual respect for each other and their elders; women are treated respectfully and given special attention.

Personal space is highly regarded, so conversations take place at arm's length. The violation of this space even in crowded stores and museums is considered disrespectful and hostile. Exceptions occur in crowded bus stations and on buses. Formal greetings among strangers are mandated, whereas salutations among acquaintances are informal.

Religion

Religious Beliefs. Ninety-five percent of the people consider themselves members of the Roman Catholic Church and attach great importance to Catholic sacraments. More than 85 percent of Catholics in urban parishes attend mass regularly.

People in rural areas are said to be more devout than those in the cities, but their Catholicism is different from that of the urban upper and middle classes. In the countryside, Catholic practices and beliefs have been combined with indigenous, African, and sixteenth-century Spanish customs. People pray to a patron saint, who is considered to be more accessible than God. Rural villages have a patron saint who is honored each year with a fiesta. Traces of rural folk religion also are found in urban lower class communities, particularly those with many rural migrants.

Although the 1991 constitution established religious freedom and does not mention the Church by name, the Catholic Church continues to have significant influence. A Protestant movement has attracted more than 260,000 people. Protestants are a minority on the mainland but a majority on San Andres and Providencia islands. There are also small contingents of Muslims and Jews.

The Spanish began a process of conversion among the Indians in the sixteenth century, and the institutionalization of the Catholic Church was a high priority for the colonial government. That church destroyed most of the indigenous rituals and religious customs. The Inquisition had the authority to summon and interrogate, often using torture, any subject accused of heresy and had the power to confiscate the property of convicted persons.

Religious Practitioners. Local priests are often the primary authority figures in small communities. Most priests and bishops were born in the country. Like most elites, priests have gravitated toward urban areas, leaving a void of religious leadership in some areas. Colombia supports more than 30 monasteries and 80 convents.

Rituals and Holy Places. Priests in churches perform most Catholic sacraments. The rite of baptism is the sacramental entry into Christian life, and communion is a memorial of Christ's death and resurrection.

Death and the Afterlife. Christian dogma holds that the spirit lives on after the body has died. A divine judgment of the person's life determines the well-being of the spirit after death. An elaborate ceremony involving the preparation of the deceased for burial by relatives is accompanied by prayer and followed by a period of mourning.

Medicine and Health Care

Health care has improved dramatically over the last 30 years, but this has occurred mostly in upper class and middle class urban areas. The urban poor and people in remote regions have limited access to food, housing, and medical treatment. There has been a reduction in the infant mortality rate and an increase in life expectancy over the last decade.

In rural areas, women must contend with cultural and legal restrictions on health care. Twenty percent to thirty percent of maternal deaths in those areas are due to induced abortions, which usually are performed outside of medical facilities.

Sangre muertes "blood deaths," are violent criminal attacks and murders related to activity by drug cartels that primarily affect men under age forty-five. The increase in guerilla activities also has resulted in many deaths, especially in remote areas.

Malaria affects approximately 15 percent of the population, although the prevalence of AIDS is low. The health care system has taken an aggressive role in controlling the spread of AIDS by giving patients free access to therapy. Colombians have been exposed to a number of endemic tropical diseases, including dengue and yellow fever, and a variety of tropical parasitic infections.

Traditional remedies are commonly used, particularly in rural and remote areas. Many forms of traditional medicine rely on indigenous plants. Traditional healers called Taitas from the yagé culture have tried to maintain their indigenous medical practices. In recognition of the importance of the plants used in traditional medicine, those healers have attempted to preserve the forest in the Amazonian region.

Secular Celebrations

Numerous national holidays celebrate the country and its culture, and many religious holidays are celebrated as national holidays. Important church holidays include the Epiphany (6 January); Holy Week, which includes Easter (March or April); All Saints Day (1 November); the Immaculate Conception (8 December); and Christmas (25 December). Colombia also celebrates the feast days of various saints on both a national and a local level.

Feminine beauty is considered very important, and the country celebrates it each November with the crowning of Miss Colombia. Apart from soccer, the Reinado de Belleza is the most popular sports event.

Other important national holidays are Independence Day (20 July), which celebrates the declaration of independence in 1810, and 7 August, which commemorates the Battle of Bocayá, where Bolívar defeated the Spanish. Other holidays center on regional and local cultures, such as the Carnaval of Barranquilla, the Cartagena International Caribbean Music Festival, the Medellín flower fair, and the Festival of the Devil in Rio Sucio.

The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. Art is considered one of the defining features of Colombian culture. The arts are supported through private individuals and foundations such as the Telefonica Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce of Medellín, the Tobacco Company of Colombia, Federation of Coffee Producers, and the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, which supports the world renowned Museum of Gold. The government, through the Ministries of the Interior and Education, also provides substantial support for numerous museums, theaters, and libraries throughout the country. Among the government supported institutes are the National Museum of Colombia, and the Colombian Institute of Culture, both of which support artists while striving to preserve Colombia's rich history. In addition to these traditional institutes, local governments and private transportation companies support local artists by hiring them to colorfully decorate city and town buses.

Literature. Colombia did not begin to develop a literary tradition until the arrival of the Spanish, and its literature still shows a strong European influence. After independence, writers began to develop their own styles, and wrote about national themes instead of European ones. Early writers such as Jorge Isaacs and José Eustacio Rivera addressed the values of rural peasants and their struggle for existence. These and other stories about the regional populations influenced the development of distinct regional literary styles. One of the writers whose style grew out of the artistic influences of the Caribbean coast is Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1982. As a member of JoséFélix Fuenmayor's Group of Barranquilla, García Márquez became known for his juxtaposition of myths, dreams, and reality ("magic realism"). García Márquez and other writers are influencing a group of writers who embrace modern and post-modern themes.

Graphic Arts. Over 2,000 years ago, native peoples in the Andes produced intricate artwork. After colonization, native artistic influences were abandoned in favor of European styles. However, Colombia is attempting to carve a niche in the international art world with the production of works by painters such as Fernando Botero and Alejandro Obregón and the sculptor Edgar Negret.

One of the leaders of national art was Pedro Nel Gómez, whose murals featured social criticism. Other artists followed the nationalistic and indigenous themes of the movement, although their technique was more traditional. Colombia takes pride in its artists, many of whom still use nationalistic and indigenous themes while incorporating international elements.

Performance Arts. The diversity of Colombia's music is intimately linked to its many distinct regional differences. Vallenato, a type of Colombian music and dance, originated on the Atlantic coast and is enjoyed throughout the country. Currulao, a type of music from the Pacific coast, uses the sea, rain, and rivers as its central themes and employs mostly ordinary wooden instruments. In the interior of the country, the two traditional types of music played throughout the Andean region are the Bambuco and the Guabina. Both types of music have considerable mestizo influence, often using as their undercurrents themes that emphasize the earth, mountains, and lakes. Joropo is considered to be "fierce" or Plains' music because it is played in the Llanos Orientales, or Eastern Plains, and reflects the cattle ranch workers' arduous way of life. Cumbia music and dance are considered Colombian national treasures whose rhythmic cadence and melodies echo the mulatto and indigenous flavor; it has become the flagship of Colombia's musical genres. Special mention should be paid to the "musical city" of Ibagué, which has contributed to the enrichment and dissemination of Colombian music.

The State of the Physical and Social Sciences

The country has produced important work in biology, medicine, geology, mathematics, physics, genetics, psychology, and anthropology. As the home of several pre-Colombian archaeological sites, Colombia has become the source of much of what is known about Latin America before European settlement.

Colombia also has been at the forefront of studies of volcanology and seismology. Medical research in the country is considered among the best in Latin America. Individuals who have made important contributions to the field include José Ignacio Barraquer, Rodolfo R. Llinás, and Manuel Patarroyo. Research in the physical and social sciences is funded largely by the government, although numerous private organizations also provide assistance.

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—Samuel MÁrquez and Douglas C. Broadfield

Colombia

The people of Colombia are called Colombians. About 50 percent of the population is mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian or native people). An estimated 25 percent of are white, 20 percent are mulatto (mixed black and white) or zambo (mixed black and Amerindian), 4 percent are black, and 1.5 percent are pure Amerindian (native people). Among the Amerindians in Colombia are the Páez, profiled in this chapter after the article on the Columbians.

Colombia took a pro-Allied stance from December 1941 by severing diplomatic relations with the main Axis powers—war was declared on Germany in November 1943 after a number of Colombian ships had been sunk—and signed the United Nations Declaration in January 1944. See also Caribbean at war.

Colombia

SeeLatin America

Colombia •Gambia, Zambia •Arabia, labia, Swabia •Libya, Namibia, tibia •euphorbia •agoraphobia, claustrophobia, homophobia, hydrophobia, phobia, technophobia, xenophobia, Zenobia •Nubia • rootbeer • cumbia •Colombia, Columbia •exurbia, Serbia, suburbia •Wiltshire • Flintshire •gaillardia, Nadia, tachycardia •steadier • compendia •Acadia, Arcadia, nadir, stadia •reindeer •acedia, encyclopedia, media, multimedia •Lydia, Numidia •India • belvedere • Claudia •Cambodia, odea, plasmodia, podia, roe-deer •Mafia, raffia, tafia •Philadelphia • hemisphere •planisphere • Montgolfier • Sofia •ecosphere • biosphere • atmosphere •thermosphere • ionosphere •stratosphere • headgear • switchgear •logia • nemesia • menhir