HTransportation and Communications The irregular terrain of Colombia makes the construction of roads and railroads costly. Colombia has approximately 1800 km (about 1100 mi) of operated railroad track. Most of the national railroads are feeder lines to the Magdalena River, the main transport artery of the country, which with the Cauca River is navigable for about 1500 km (about 900 mi). Colombia has no regular passenger rail service. Roads total about 107,000 km (about 66,500 mi), including a part of the Sim?n Bol?var Highway, linking Caracas, Venezuela, through Bogot? and other Colombian towns, with Quito, Ecuador. Air transport was begun in Colombia in 1919, and the country is now served by domestic and international airlines. In 1946 Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador agreed to establish the Great Colombia Merchant Marine; Venezuela withdrew in 1953. The main seaports are Buenaventura, Tumaco, Santa Marta, Barranquilla, and Cartagena.
ILabor The labor force of Colombia numbers about 16 million; some 27 percent is engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, 23 percent in industry and mining, and most of the remainder in service industries. More than 1.6 million people are in organized trade unions, mainly the National Union of Colombian Workers (1.2 million members) and the Colombian Confederation of Workers (400,000 members). The right to strike is constitutionally guaranteed to all employees who are not engaged in public utilities.
VGOVERNMENT Colombia’s 1991 constitution, which replaced a charter dating from 1886, provides for a highly centralized republican form of government.
AExecutive National executive power in Colombia is vested in a president who is elected by direct popular vote to a single four-year term. Suffrage is universal for all citizens 18 years of age or older. The president appoints a cabinet, subject to congressional approval. Under the 1991 constitution, the departmental governors are directly elected.
BLegislature Legislative power in Colombia is vested in a bicameral Congress composed of a House of Representatives of 161 members and a Senate of 102 members. Members are elected to four-year terms. The 1991 constitution provides penalties for absenteeism and bars members of Congress from simultaneously holding any other public office.
CJudiciary The 1991 constitution provides for three high courts: the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and the State Council. Its 24 justices are elected for life, half by the Senate and half by the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court is the highest court on all matters of criminal law. The Constitutional Court, elected by the Senate to eight-year terms, rules on the constitutionality of legislation and also hears all cases concerning the constitution. The State Council is the highest court for cases concerning the administration of the government. The judicial system also includes superior and lower district courts and provincial and municipal judges. The 1991 constitution bans extradition and establishes an independent system of prosecution. Capital punishment is outlawed.
DPolitical Parties Colombia has a relatively free and open political system in which a number of parties participate. The two major parties have traditionally been the Conservative Party (now known as the Colombian Social Conservative Party), favoring strong central government and close relations with the Roman Catholic church, and the Liberal Party, favoring stronger local governments and separation of church and state. Between 1958 and 1974 the Liberals and Conservatives were the only legal political parties in Colombia, owing to a 1957 constitutional amendment intended to defuse the explosive antagonisms between them. Under this arrangement, called the National Front, each party held exactly half the number of seats in each legislative house and in the cabinet and other agencies, and the presidency alternated between leaders of the parties. During the 1980s the Liberals held majorities in both houses of Congress. In the 1990 presidential election, the former guerrilla group M-19 emerged as the third leading political party. In the 1994 elections the Liberal Party retained its majority in both houses. The M-19 group lost most of the seats it had won in 1990.
EHealth and Welfare Public health standards are improving, although physicians are still in short supply. Most of the country’s physicians work in the larger cities. In 1990 Colombia had one hospital bed for every 732 people. Malaria and yellow fever are still endemic in some parts of the country. A social insurance system provides maternity and dental benefits, accident insurance, workers’ compensation and disability, and retirement and survivors’ insurance to most of the industrial labor force. The system is financed by contributions from employers, workers, and the government.
FDefense From one to two years of military service are required of all male citizens in Colombia aged 18 and older. Some 146,300 people served in the Colombian armed forces in 1996.
VIHISTORY Relics of one of the most fascinating but little-studied civilizations in the western hemisphere have been found at San August?n, near the source of the Magdalena River in the Colombian Andes. Little is known about the people who made these stone statues, relief carvings, sepulchral chambers, and shrines, or when their culture flourished. Present estimates date the beginnings of San August?n to the last five centuries BC.
The stone statues are generally anthropomorphic figures, many with grotesque expressions. They have been found in caves and on mounds, where their presence seems to have had a ritual significance. Frequently, one figure is placed astride the shoulders and back of another. One particularly striking statue, a bird holding a serpent in its beak and thought to be a fertility symbol, is similar in imagery to the emblem of the Aztecs.
ASpanish Conquest In 1502, on his last voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus explored a part of the Caribbean coast of the empire of the Chibcha people, now the northern coast of Colombia. He was followed by a number of Spanish conquistadores, who conquered the Chibcha and established the first permanent settlement of Europeans on the American mainland, on the site of Dari?n in 1510, and the settlements of Santa Marta in 1525 and Santa Fe de Bogot? in 1538. In 1549 the former Chibcha Empire was included in the Audiencia of New Granada. Between 1717 and 1739 the Audiencia of New Granada and the territories that later became Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama were included in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Lack of economic progress and social and political discrimination against native-born New Granadans caused intense hostility to Spanish rule. Inspired by the successful American and French revolutions of the late 18th century, the people of New Granada joined the revolutionary movement for independence that swept over Spain’s western empire in the early 19th century.
BIndependence from Spain In the wars that followed, the South American leader Sim?n Bol?var was the outstanding revolutionary and military figure. His decisive victory over the Spanish royalists at the Battle of Boyac? on August 7, 1819, resulted in the liberation of the former Audiencia of New Granada. The Congress of Angostura, which followed on December 17, 1819, proclaimed the formation of the State of Great Colombia, to comprise the former Audiencia of New Granada, present-day Panama, and, on their liberation, Venezuela and Ecuador. Following the liberation of Venezuela in 1821, the Congress of C?cuta, on August 30, 1821, adopted a constitution for Great Colombia, providing for a republican form of government, and elected Bol?var as its first president. The new republic was short-lived; in 1831 New Granada (including Panama) became a separate state.
The history of the country since then is largely a record of the struggle, frequently violent, of liberal and conservative elements to determine government policy. Political and social issues were frequently complicated by bitter controversies involving the property, legal status, and privileges of the Roman Catholic church.
CConstitutional Changes Slavery was abolished in New Granada in 1851 and 1852. A new constitution, adopted in 1853, provided for trial by jury, freedom of the press, and other civil rights. In 1853 church and state were separated. Five years later the provinces became federal states, and the name of the republic was changed to Granadine Confederation. Civil war broke out in 1861 between liberal elements, favoring greater sovereignty for the states constituting the republic, and conservative elements, fighting for a strong central government. Following the victory of the liberals a new constitution was adopted in 1863 providing for a union of sovereign states named the United States of Colombia.
From 1880 to 1930, conservative policies predominated. A revolt of liberal elements was suppressed in 1885. A new constitution was proclaimed in 1886, and the present name of the country, the republic of Colombia, was chosen. The new constitution abolished the sovereign states created by the constitution of 1863 and established the present basic structure of the country. The Roman Catholic church was made the official church. Between 1899 and 1902 the country descended into civil war. This war, known as the War of a Thousand Days, claimed 60,000 to 130,000 lives.
DLoss of Panama In 1903 the Colombian Senate refused to ratify the Hay-Herr?n Treaty, which provided for the lease of a strip of territory across the Isthmus of Panama to the United States for the purpose of building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. A revolt broke out in Panama; U.S. armed forces intervened to prevent Colombian troops from suppressing the uprising, and the United States recognized Panama as an independent state. The resulting strained relations between Colombia and the United States were resolved by the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty, ratified in 1921.
The return to power of liberal elements, which took place in the election of 1930, resulted, in 1936, in constitutional amendments giving the government power to regulate privately owned property in the national interest; establishing the right of workers to strike, subject to legal regulation; disestablishing the Roman Catholic church; and secularizing public education. A new labor code adopted in 1944 provided for minimum wage scales, paid vacations and holidays, accident and sickness benefits, and the right to organize.
EWorld War II and the Postwar Era During World War II (1939-1945) Colombia severed diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany, and Italy in 1941, and in 1942 with the Vichy government of France. In 1943 the Colombian Senate declared a state of belligerency with Germany, and the republic signed the charter of the United Nations in June 1945, becoming one of the 51 original members.
The postwar era was one of severe political crisis, a direct result of the deepening antagonism between Liberal and Conservative factions. The assassination of Liberal Party leader Jorge Eli?cer Gait?n in Bogot? on April 9, 1948, sparked a nationwide uprising against the Conservative government; some 1500 were killed and more than 20,000 injured. The rebellion disrupted the Ninth International Conference of American States, then in session in Bogot?. The conference succeeded, however, in completing the draft of the charter of the Organization of American States, of which Colombia became a signatory on April 30. With the aid of the loyal army the rebellion was brought under control by the government, which was reorganized to include an equal number of Liberal and Conservative cabinet ministers. Nevertheless, tension and violence mounted steadily during the following months. Liberal members withdrew from the government after a government decree was issued banning meetings and parades, and the Liberal Party withdrew its candidate from the presidential elections of 1949, charging the government with election law violations. As a result the Conservative candidate, Laureano G?mez, a political leader and newspaper editor, won the November elections without opposition. He was inaugurated in August 1950.
FAn Era of Violence Between G?mez’s election and inauguration, the political struggle had entered a new phase. Armed guerrilla bands were in action in many outlying areas of the country. In response, the government declared a state of siege and suspended the 1950 session of Congress. Shortly after the inauguration of G?mez a Liberal Party convention declared the government illegal, charging it with suppressing freedom of speech, the press, and assembly, and vowed to continue its boycott of elections. In February 1953 the Conservative Party proposed a new constitution, the provisions of which would have imposed on Colombia a totalitarian regime modeled after that of Spain under Francisco Franco. Liberals and moderate Conservatives bitterly opposed the constitution, and in June, when a military junta deposed the G?mez government, both factions gave their approval to the coup d’?tat. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was named provisional president, and in August 1954 he was elected to a four-year term by the constitutional convention. The convention did not meet again until October 1956, during which time the government ruled by decree. When the convention reopened, a number of delegates openly denounced the restrictive policies of Rojas Pinilla. A wave of antigovernment violence followed. However, Congress reelected Rojas Pinilla in May 1957. This inflamed public opinion, and a new military coup deposed him a few days later. The Liberal and Conservative parties then arrived at an agreement to share all government offices equally for 12 years. This plan was approved in a plebiscite on December 1, 1957, and early in 1958 it was extended to 16 years.
GThe National Front and After Later in 1958 the Liberal candidate, Alberto Lleras Camargo, a former president, was reelected to the presidency. The Liberal-Conservative coalition, called the National Front, brought a measure of stability to Colombia in the 1960s. The coalition retained a majority in both houses of Congress but could seldom win the two-thirds majority required in both houses for the passage of legislation. As a result the government frequently fell into periods of near-paralysis. President Guillermo Le?n Valencia, the Conservative candidate elected to office in 1964, declared a state of siege the following year in order to overcome the political stalemate. Rule by decree was continued under President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who was elected on the Liberal ticket and succeeded Valencia in 1966. In the elections of 1970 the National Front defeated a challenge by former dictator Rojas Pinilla, electing Misael Pastrana Borrero as president.
When the National Front coalition came to an end in 1974, Alfonso L?pez Michelsen, a Liberal, was elected president. The Conservatives were granted certain cabinet posts. High unemployment persisted, and incidents of labor and student unrest occurred, as well as isolated guerrilla activity. In 1978, in an election marked by low voter turnout, another Liberal, Julio Turbay Ayala, was elected president by a slim margin; he consequently took five Conservatives into his cabinet.
Leftist insurgents became bolder in 1979 as the army failed to subdue them. In 1980 a guerrilla band occupied the Dominican embassy in Bogot? for 61 days, holding many foreign diplomats as hostages. Presidential elections in 1982 were won by the Conservative candidate, Belisario Betancur Cuartas, a former minister of labor. Under an amnesty issued by Betancur, about 400 guerrillas were pardoned; a truce between the government and rebel groups was announced in May 1984. The same month, Betancur launched a crackdown on Colombia’s flourishing drug traffic. Through 1985, however, the guerrillas regained strength, and the antidrug crackdown lost momentum as the drug traffickers and rebels joined forces in some regions. In November government troops and guerrillas engaged in violent combat after the guerrillas seized the Palace of Justice in Bogot? and took dozens of hostages. By the end of the siege, 100 were dead, including the president of the supreme court and 10 other justices. Later that month a volcanic mudslide resulted in 25,000 dead or missing.
In the 1986 elections, the Liberals took parliament, and Virgilio Barco Vargas, their leader, became president on August 7. In August 1989, responding to a wave of killings in which Colombia’s cocaine cartels were implicated, the government arrested more than 10,000 people and confiscated the property of suspected drug traffickers.
After a campaign during which three presidential candidates were assassinated, the Liberal Party nominee, C?sar Gaviria Trujillo, was elected in May 1990. He supported a new constitution that took effect in July 1991 and, among other provisions, prohibited extradition of Colombian citizens. Gaviria also lifted the state of siege and offered amnesty to drug traffickers who turned themselves in. Some did so, but the cocaine trade, along with guerrilla activity, continued to disrupt the country. In December 1993, Pablo Escobar, head of the Medell?n cocaine cartel, was killed by government security forces when a gunfight ensued after they attempted to capture him.
HSamper’s Presidency In June 1994 Ernesto Samper Pizano of the Liberal Party was elected president. During 1994 the government and two guerrilla groups made progress towards peace, agreeing to talks aimed at the disarmament of and legislative representation for the guerrillas. Other groups stepped up attacks around the country, causing both damage and loss of life.