Colombia

COLOMBIA

ESPANOL

1. Geographical Location.

       Situated in South America (betweeen 4º south latitude and 12º north latitude, and between 67º and 79º west longitude), Colombia is in the northern Andes region with coastlines on the Pacific and the Caribbean. The country has maritime boundaries to the northwest with Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and with Costa Rica and Guatemala to both the east and west. The territorial borders are: with Panama to the north and Ecuador to the south, with Brazil to the southeast, and with Venezuela to the west.   This is the only South American country with coasts on both the Atlantic and the Pacific. The nation’s territory extends through an area of 1,138.910 square kilometers and it is the 4th largest country in Latin America.

      The land mass is divided into the following geographic regions: the highly-mountainous Andes region which crosses the country, starting from the equator in the southwest and ending in the northwest on the border with Venezuela. Within the national territory and at the height of the Colombian massif, the Andes mountain ranges are divided into Western, Central and Eastern ranges. These mountain chains form the valleys of the Magdalena and of the Cauca which are watered by rivers of the same name.

 The  Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta is the tallest mountain at 5,775 meters above sea level and is located in the Caribbean rather than the Andean region.

     The highest rainfall levels in Colombia - and in the world - can be found in the Pacific region where, in the forested coasts of the Chocó, the highest rainfall occurs, along with the highest level of atmospheric humidity. Thus, these lower zones have had an average annual rainfall of 12,000 mm., with the highest average of 13,300 mm. in the city of Lloró.

     The territories of the Amazon to the south and the Orinoco to the north comprise the Eastern region. Its boundaries include more than half the nation's land mass. This area consists of savannahs and tropical forests that are shaped by the slopes of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.  

      Colombia possesses an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea, which is comprised of the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

      The country is in the equatorial zone but differs from other equatorial regions, for here in the Andes mountain system there exists a varied topography, ranging from rain forests, to tropical plains to snow-capped fells. Climactic variations are caused by the altitude not by the changing seasons. [The temperature drops by about 6 degrees centigrade for each 1,000 meters of altitude, but at sea level the temperature approaches 30 degrees centigrade.] Seasonal changes are not noticeable and the climate of each region remains relatively stable, although there are slight variations depending on the season (dry season or a rainy season). The rainy season is from December to January and from July to August, while the dry season is from April to May and from October to November - although with some variations.

     2. Historical Background.

     Around the year 10,000 A.D. indigenous peoples in the continental region now occupied by Colombia, especially los Músicas (the Musicians), developed a system of “chiefdoms” (the leader was an cacique or chief) with a pyramidal power structure. After the Incas the Músicas, had the most developed political system in South America.

     During the period around 1500 AD, the Caribbean region was explored by the Spaniards under the direction of Rodrigo de Bastidas. In 1502 Christopher Columbus sailed the Caribbean coast to the west of the Chocó. In 1508, Vasco Núñez de Balboa  began his conquests with the region of  Urabá, today the Department of Chocó. In 1525 Santa María la Antigua del Darién was founded as the first European city on the American continent.  The Chabcha and Carib cultures, representing the majority of the people, and were conquered by the Spanish in war. This conquest left a proliferation of illnesses, and resulted in the subjugation and exploitation of the native population. These conditions exterminated a large part of local pre-Columbian civilizations and later in the 16th Century the Europeans began to introduce the slave trade from Africa.

     During the period of conquest and colonization from the 16^th to the early 19^th Centuries, several rebel movements against the Spanish regime arose, but all of them were defeated or weakened without effecting any change in the situation of colonial dominance. The final insurgency movement began in 1810 and ended in 1819 with the achievement of independence from the Spanish crown.  [Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander were the leaders of this successful rebellion.] At the end of this uprising the Viceroyalty of New Granada became, for a very short time (10 years) the Great Republic of Colombia, with territory that included all of the present-day areas of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panamá.  The name was given to the territory by the revolutionary, Francisco de Miranda, as a reference to the new world discovered by Christopher Columbus.  This new republic ended in 1830 when Venezuela and Ecuador both separated and the region of Cundinamarca became a new nation, the Republic of New Granada. In 1863 New Granada adopted the name United States of Colombia and in 1886 this was changed again to its present name, the Republic of Colombia. At the instigation and through the interference of the United States of America, Panama became independent from Colombia in 1903.

       3. Population and Social Structure.

     With more than 42 million inhabitants, Colombia is the third most populous country in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico. It has the third largest number of people of African descent among countries in the Western Hemisphere, after Brazil and the United States.

     Migration of the rural population to the cities was especially strong and constant during the middle of the 20th century after which it began to decrease. Urban population increased from 31% of the total population in 1936 to 57% in 1951 and to 70% by 1990. It is now [2008] around 77%. Thirty cities have more than 100,000 inhabitants. The nine departments located in the lowlands constitute 54% of the territory of Colombia but hold less than 3% of the population. These departments have a population density of less than one person per square kilometer. 

     Aboriginal peoples of the American continent, African slaves and European immigrants are part of the amalgamation that makes up the demographic composition of the country. A large part of the indigenous peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population,  but the 700,000 surviving indigenasrepresent approximately 85 different cultures. The European immigrants were primarily the Spanish colonizers, but many Europeans entered the country during the period of Second World War and the Cold War. The Africans were introduced into the population as slaves especially in the coastal areas beginning in 17th Century, a process which continued until the beginning of the 19th Century . After the abolition of slavery in 1842, an ideology of “mixing” prevailed which encouraged the combination of indigenous and negro races and promoted the identity of a mestizo ethnic group. Other small immigrations included Asians, Middle Easterners (particularly Arabs), Chinese and Japanese.

     87% of the population is Roman Catholic. Another 9% are divided among Protestants, Mormons, Jews and Muslims. 3% of the population does not practice any religion and the remaining 1% of Colombians practice indigenous religions. (1) 

     In 2006, Colombia has approximately 3 million internally displaced people, the largest number in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world after Sudan.

      4. Political Background.

     After independence from Spain and throughout the 19th Century, Colombia was shaken by seven wars which sought to define the new nation.  In these wars the “liberals” confronted the “conservatives”, beginning with conflicts between the generals who had led the revolution. The conservatives, following along the lines proposed by General Simón Bolívar, promoted a strong central government with an almost absolute dependence on the Catholic Church. On the other side, the liberals advocated a more secular state, constructed along federalist principles, with free trade and a system of a national government divided into different states. The confrontation between the two parties increased in severity and lasted for many years, while at the same time conservatives and liberals took turns holding national power. Each political party, in turn, cancelled the projects and initiatives begun by the previous party while it was in power. This condition contributed to intensifying the conflict even more, although the competition among aristocratic elites was for political affiliation and patronage, rather than because they had a clear political platform. This situation created a lasting structural formation of political parties and reinforced a strong and lasting party identity that lasted until the end of the 1940’s. At this time, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán emerged as a strong liberal leader with the support of a bipartisan movement, opposed to what he called “the union of enemies of the Colombian people”.

     5. La Violencia and Beyond.

     Gaitán was assassinated in 1948, and this fueled a blood bath as part of  a confrontation between the aristocratic leaders of the liberal and conservative parties.      This period of harsh civil war ended when the conservative party took power after the deployment of a violent crackdown that enabled them to control members of the liberal party, the communist party and other leftist organizations. 

     During this same period, an unknown number of liberals and leftists formed guerilla groups to oppose the central state. This formation of groups grew in strength when it was discovered that elite members of the liberal party had been complicit in the death of  Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. Approximately two hundred and fifty thousand persons died in the decade of fighting between 1948 and 1958 - the period that came to be know as La Violencia. An agreement signed in 1958 included the provision that the warring liberal and conservative parties would take turns in holding the office of President. At the same time the liberal rebel groups were offered an amnesty if they disarmed.

     However, the conflict was by no means resolved and open guerrilla warfare continued in many rural areas. The conflict returned to the cities in the 1970’s. This permanent armed conflict led to three out of every four years being declared a “state of siege” by the relevant administration. This measure made it illegal for civil society organizations to stage protests and otherwise curtailed the civil rights of the citizens. Two of the largest guerrilla groups were established in this era, the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (Ejercito de Liberación Nacional or National Liberation Army). This dynamic of conflict continued until the end of the 1980’s without bringing about any significant change. At the end of the 1950’s, groups of hired gunmen (los pájaros or “the birds”) were created and were supported by the United States. These groups of specialized mercenaries had, as their principle objective, the destruction of the guerrilla leaders in an effort to stop the growth and strengthening of leftist organizations.

     Drug trafficking centered the world’s attention on Colombia during the 1970’s and 1980’s adding another problematic dimension to the conflict. Powerful cartels of narco-traffickers came to control, under their own rules, large parts of the national territory especially after they had acquired large extensions of their property in the 1990’s. The heads of the cartels used armed groups of criminals to defend their business and also to prevent kidnappings by the guerrillas. Among these groups were the MAS (Muerte a Secuestradores or “death to kidnappers”) which would, among other factors, serve as the embryo for the rise of armed groups of the right, known today as “paramilitaries”. These groups of criminals increasingly gained control of large sections of the major cities of the country and, until the 1980’s, the government supported and orchestrated the strengthening of groups of paramilitaries.   Later, the government declared these groupings illegal, but in spite of this late decision, the paramilitaries continued to pursue criminal activities. Among their activities, they emphasised the targeting of civilians suspected of collaborating with leftist guerrillas. Strong cooperative links between the paramilitaries and the military forces of the state were established and continued until the first decade of the 21^st Century. The paramilitaries continued to use the same violent tactics in spite of the disarmament and reintegration program of the government of President Alvo Uribe [2002-2010]. Rather than providing a solution to the conflict itself, all of these changes simply increased the danger to the civil population.

      In 1991 a new Political Constitution of Colombia was drafted which replaced the constitution of 1886. This new document was created by a National Constituent Assembly created by popular vote. The new Constitution recognized liberal political principles and ethnic peoples’ human and religious rights, but its implementation was stalled by controversy, uneven development, and political setbacks. 

     Although poverty and social inequality can be considered among the causes of the violence, they can not be viewed as the only cause because Colombia is not the poorest nation in Latin America nor does it show the largest number of indicators of social inequality. The numerous civil wars and the resulting antagonisms, spreading throughout the history of the country, are important factors in the conflict. Nonetheless, it is only in recent years that the conflict has reached its highest levels of violence. In the 1970’s Colombia had the same crime indices as Brazil but by 1990 these levels had multiplied by three although the actual population of Brazil is much larger. [ Brazil has 188 million people whereas Colomiba has 42 million.]

     Currently, the country is undergoing a profound “crisis of the state” that goes beyond a political crisis. For reasons both historical and political, the elites have lost confidence in the security of the state. Landowners, merchants, ranchers and local politicians have decided to hire groups of armed men to defend their interests. The general population has little faith in the judicial system, but with good reason they perceive the difficulties facing an arrested criminal. According to government figures, in 1990 only 5% of crimes were investigated and only 1% resulted in convictions. These figures can be compared with a 5% rate of conviction in the 1970’s and a 20% rate in the 1960’s.

     Although the cultivation and traffic of drugs is not the principle cause of the crisis, it is a factor that has contributed to the deepening of the conflict. During the 1970’s and the 1980’s successive governments ignored the drug trade and, more likely, benefited from its earnings. This situation permitted the cartels gradually to corrupt the judicial system and to penetrate the state apparatus. The cartels followed to the letter their policy of “silver or lead” to intimidate the legal system’s professionals. Forty judges and lawyers were assassinated every year between 1979 and 1991 and many others left the country abandoning their work, silencing their voice, or, in other cases, accepting money in exchange for silence. Many police officials became corrupted and others were assassinated.  Thus, the rule of law has been mortally wounded in Colombia. The situation of violence and drug trafficking has also led to the creation and proliferation of criminal gangs well armed and  with well trained “hit men”. These are known as bands of sicarios.

6. Origins of the Peace Communities.

     The original idea of establishing peace “zones” or peace “communities” may have been imported into Colombia via members of the Catholic Church who had had some experience of local peace building in the Philippines, especially amid indigenous communities in northern Luzon.

     However, there was a clear need for local communities to have some alternative to being fought over, expelled to become IDPs or made targets for all of the combatants, who regarded localcampesinos either as helping the enemy or in some cases as obstacles to “development.”. At the end of the 1990’s and each facing its own crisis, three experiencias independently served as pioneering initiatives and models for the growth of local peace communities throughout the country and these were developed with help from church leaders, Colombian NGO’s and universities, foreign embassies and international NGO’s such as Pax Christi.

     The corregemiento of La India in Medio Magdalena was probably the first of these local communities to declare themselves “neutral” in the on-going conflict and off limits to violence. In Uraba, the local community of San Jose de Apartado pioneered the development of local peace communities, while Mogotes in Santander, under the leadership of Fr. Joachim Mayorga, developed and spread its own model of community activism to other parts of the country. 

    At the end of the 1990’s, the Bogota based NGO, REDEPAZ, began the process of linking, supporting and consolidating many of these local initiatives, with its initial project of 100 Municipios de Paz, while such religious organisations as CINEP and Justicia y Paz played a major role, especially in remote regions of the north of Colombia.

    The accompanying data set surveys each of these peace communities - and later associations of communities – and attempts to record details of their problems and progress during the opening years of the 21^st Century.       

(1) See: Livingstone, Grace. Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy and War. [2000; Rutgers University Press.] p. 176.