Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 7,678,800 (2005); mobile cellular: 21.85 million
(2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 454, FM 34, shortwave 27
(1999). Television broadcast stations: 60 (includes seven
low-power stations) (1997). Internet hosts: 581,877 (2006).
Internet users: 4.739 million (2005).
Transportation: Railways: total: 3,304 km
(2004). Highways: total: 112,998 km; paved: 26,000 km; unpaved:
84,000 km (2000). Waterways: 9,187 km (2004). Ports and
harbors: Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Muelles El Bosque,
Puerto Bolivar, Santa Marta, Turbo. Airports: 984 (2006
est.).
International disputes:
Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against Colombia
in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary involving 50,000 sq
km in the Caribbean Sea, including the Archipelago de San Andres y
Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; dispute with Venezuela over maritime
boundary and Los Monjes Islands near the Gulf of Venezuela;
Colombian-organized illegal narcotics, guerrilla, and paramilitary
activities penetrate all of its neighbors' borders and have created a
serious refugee crisis with over 300,000 persons having fled the
country, mostly into neighboring states.
Colombia is bordered on the northwest by Panama, on the east by
Venezuela and Brazil, and on the southwest by Peru and Ecuador. Through
the western half of the country, three Andean ranges run north and south.
The eastern half is a low, jungle-covered plain, drained by spurs of the
Amazon and Orinoco Rivers, inhabited mostly by isolated tropical-forest
Indian tribes. The fertile plateau and valley of the eastern range are the
most densely populated parts of the country.
Government
Republic.
History
Little is known about the various Indian tribes who inhabited Colombia
before the Spanish arrived. In 1510 Spaniards founded Darien, the first
permanent European settlement on the American mainland. In 1538 they
established the colony of New Granada, the area's name until 1861.
After a 14-year struggle, during which time Simón Bolívar's Venezuelan
troops won the battle of Boyacá in Colombia on Aug. 7, 1819, independence
was attained in 1824. Bolívar united Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and
Ecuador in the Republic of Greater Colombia (1819–1830), but he lost
Venezuela and Ecuador to separatists. Two political parties dominated the
region: the Conservatives believed in a strong central government and a
powerful church; the Liberals believed in a decentralized government,
strong regional power, and a less influential role for the church. Bolívar
was himself a Conservative, while his vice president, Francisco de Paula
Santander, was the founder of the Liberal Party.
Santander served as president between 1832 and 1836, a period of
relative stability, but by 1840 civil war erupted. Other periods of
Liberal dominance (1849–1857 and 1861–1880), which sought to disestablish
the Roman Catholic Church, were marked by insurrection. Nine different
governments followed, each rewriting the constitution. In 1861 the country
was called the United States of New Granada; in 1863 it became the United
States of Colombia; and in 1885, it was named the Republic of
Colombia.
In 1899 a brutal civil war broke out, the War of a Thousand Days, that
lasted until 1902. The following year, Colombia lost its claims to Panama
because it refused to ratify the lease to the U.S. of the Canal Zone.
Panama declared its independence in 1903.
The Conservatives held power until 1930, when revolutionary pressure
put the Liberals back in power. The Liberal administrations of Enrique
Olaya Herrera and Alfonso López (1930–1938) were marked by social reforms
that failed to solve the country's problems, and in 1946, a period of
insurrection and banditry broke out, referred to as La Violencia, which
claimed hundreds of thousands of lives by 1958. Laureano Gómez
(1950–1953); the army chief of staff, Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
(1953–1956); and a military junta (1956–1957) sought to curb disorder by
repression.
Marxist guerrilla groups organized in the 1960s and 1970s, most notably
the May 19th Movement (M-19), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), plunging the country into
violence and instability. In the 1970s and 1980s, Colombia became one of
the international centers for illegal drug production and trafficking, and
at times the drug cartels (the Medillin and Cali cartels were the most
notorious) virtually controlled the country. Colombia provides 75% of the
world's illegal cocaine. In the 1990s, numerous right-wing paramilitary
groups also formed, made up of drug traffickers and landowners. The
umbrella group for these paramilitaries is the United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia (AUC).
Belisario Betancur Cuartas, a Conservative who assumed the presidency
in 1982, unsuccessfully attempted to stem the guerrilla violence. In an
official war against drug trafficking, Colombia became a public
battleground with bombs, killings, and kidnappings. By 1989, homicide had
become the leading cause of death in the nation. Elected president in
1990, César Gaviria Trujillo proposed lenient punishment in exchange for
surrender by the leading drug dealers. Ernesto Samper of the Liberal Party
became president in 1994. In 1996 he was accused of accepting campaign
contributions from drug traffickers, but the House of Representatives
absolved him of the charges.
Andrés Pastrana Arango was elected president in 1998, pledging to clean
up corruption. In Dec. 1999 the Colombian military announced that 2,787
people were kidnapped that year—the largest number in the world—and blamed
rebels. The murder rate soared in 1999, with some 23,000 people reported
killed by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers,
and common criminals. The violence has created more than 100,000 refugees,
while 2 million Colombians have fled the country in recent years.
In Aug. 2000, the U.S. government approved “Plan Colombia,” pledging
$1.3 billion to fight drug trafficking. Pastrana used the plan to undercut
drug production and prevent guerrilla groups from benefiting from drug
sales. In Aug. 2001, Pastrana signed “war legislation,” which expanded the
rights of the military in dealing with rebels.
Alvaro Uribe of the Liberal Party easily won the presidential election
in May 2002. He took office in August, pledging to get tough on the rebels
and drug traffickers by increasing military spending and seeking U.S.
military cooperation. An upsurge in violence accompanied his inauguration,
and Uribe declared a state of emergency within a week. In his first year,
Uribe beefed up Colombia's security forces with the help of U.S. special
forces, launched an aggressive campaign against the drug trade, and passed
several economic reform bills.
In May 2004, the UN announced that Colombia's 39-year-long drug war had
created the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere. More than
2 million people have been forced to leave their homes and several Indian
tribes are close to extinction. Colombia now houses the third-largest
displaced population in the world, with only Sudan and the Congo having
more. Uribe has produced some impressive results in fixing his country's
ills, however. According to his defense minister, during 2003 more than
16,000 suspected leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary vigilantes
either surrendered, were apprehended, or were killed. Since 2003, the
right-wing paramilitary group AUC has been involved in peace talks with
the government, but despite demobilizing 4,000 troops, the vigilante group
seemed as vigorous as ever in 2005. Although the two other major armed
groups, left-wing FARC and ELN, continue to finance themselves through
kidnapping and drug trafficking, governmental efforts have been successful
in significantly reducing the kidnapping rate.
By 2006, the United States had invested $4 billion into Plan Colombia,
the joint U.S.-Colombia coca antinarcotics plan begun in 2000. While
officials say the program has eradicated more than a million acres of coca
plants, Colombian drug traffickers are still managing to supply 90% of the
cocaine used in the U.S. and 50% of the heroin—the same percentages
supplied five years ago, when the program began. In 2006, a U.S.
government survey acknowledged that coca production in the country had in
fact increased by 26%, and that aerial spraying of the illegal crops—the
primary strategy of Plan Colombia—was failing.
On May 28, 2006, President Uribe was reelected with 62% of the vote.
Economic growth and a reduction in paramilitary violence were believed to
be responsible for his landslide reelection. A controversy surrounding
suspected ties between members of Uribe's government and paramilitary
leaders dogged Uribe in late 2006 and into 2007.
In November 2007, the Colombian army captured FARC rebels who were
carrying videos, photographs, and letters of about 15 hostages, some who
have been held in jungle camps by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, for nearly ten years. The Marxist-inspired FARC—the
largest rebel group in Latin America—has been waging guerilla wars against
the Colombian government for 40 years. Hostages included three American
military contractors and Ingrid Betancourt, former Colombian presidential
candidate. Also in November, Uribe withdrew his support of Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez’s attempts to negotiate with the FARC, escalating
tension between the two countries. Chavez subsequently withdrew the
Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia.
Months of negotiations between Chavez and FARC rebels over the release
of three hostages came to an end on December 31, 2007, when the FARC
refused to hand them over, saying the promised security conditions had not
been met. The failed mission is Chavez's second defeat in the last month
after the loss of his referendum. On January 10, 2008, however, FARC
rebels freed two hostages, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzᬥz de Perdomo, in
Guaviare, in southern Colombia. Rojas, a Colombian politician captured in
2002, and Perdomo, a Colombian law-maker captured in 2001, were escorted
out of the jungle by several guerillas. The release of the hostages was a
triumph for Chavez, who coordinated the operation.
On February 28, 2008, FARC rebels released four more hostages, all
former members of Congress held in captivity for six years, after
negotiations with President Chavez of Venezuela. The freed prisoners,
three men and one woman, include Luis Eladio Perez, Orlando Beltran, Jorge
Gechem, and Gloria Polanco de Losada.
On March 1, 2008, Colombian forces crossed into Ecuadorean territory
and killed FARC rebel leader, Raúl Reyes, and 23 other rebels. In
response, Venezuela and Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with
Colombia and sent troops to the Colombian borders, although both countries
denied any ties to FARC. In an attempt to help cool the diplomatic tension
between the three countries, the Organization of American States approved
a resolution, which declared that the Colombian raid into Ecuador was a
violation of sovereignty. On March 6, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic
relations with Colombia to demonstrate unity with President Rafael Correa
of Ecuador.
On March 7, 2008, during a summit meeting in the Dominican Republic,
the leaders of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Nicaragua ended their
diplomatic dispute over Colombia's raid into Ecaudor that occurred on
March 1, 2008.
