Language: Spanish
Currency: Peso (COP)
Calling Code: +57
Colombia is located in the northwest of South America, between the
Pacific and Caribbean Seas, the Amazon rainforest and the Andes.
Neighboring countries are Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Panama.
The main tourist destinations are the cities with their ancient colonial
centers and the beaches. However, the country is not ideal for nature
and ecotourism - the tensions between the government and the
paramilitaries, which are far from being resolved, mean that the natural
attractions are still little developed apart from the main destinations
and visiting them remains a dangerous adventure.
Pre-colonial
era: Before the arrival of European explorers and conquerors, the area
of present-day Colombia was inhabited by indigenous peoples, including
the Muisca, Quimbaya, Tairona and Zenú. These peoples had highly
developed societies and cultures.
Spanish colonial rule:
Christopher Columbus reached the Colombian coast in 1498, followed by
other explorers and conquerors. The Spanish founded the city of Santa Fe
de Bogotá in 1538, which later became the capital of Colombia. Colombia
was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until it became part of the
Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717.
Independence movement: In the
early 19th century, independence movements began against Spanish
colonial rule. On July 20, 1810, the process of independence began in
Bogotá, which eventually led to the formation of the Republic of Gran
Colombia, which also included Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. However,
the republic later disintegrated into individual states.
Civil
wars and political instability: Colombia experienced a period of
political unrest and civil wars in the 19th century. The
conservative-liberal divide shaped the country's political landscape for
many years.
Recent history: Colombia experienced political
instability, social injustice, and violence in the 20th century. In
particular, the emergence of guerrilla groups such as the FARC
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation
Army) and the formation of paramilitary groups contributed to the
escalation of violence.
Drug trafficking and narcoterrorism: From
the 1970s onwards, drug trafficking in Colombia gained importance,
especially cocaine trafficking. Pablo Escobar, the leader of the
Medellín cartel, became internationally known. Drug trafficking led to a
link between organized crime and political violence.
Peace
process: From the 2000s onwards, efforts began to end the armed
conflict. Negotiations between the Colombian government and various
guerrilla groups led to the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC
in 2016. This resulted in a historic disarmament of the FARC and a
remarkable step towards peace.
Economic development: Colombia has
developed economically, especially in the areas of mining, petroleum
production and agriculture. The tourism sector has also gained
importance as the country offers a diverse geographical landscape and
cultural attractions.
The Colombian government is a close ally of
the USA, which has financed a significant part of the security forces
for decades in its “war on drugs” and has armed Colombia as a front
state for coup attempts in neighboring Venezuela.
The Colombian territory is divided into five well-defined major
regions:
Región Caribe
The Caribbean region stretches along the
northern coast of Colombia and includes cities such as Cartagena,
Barranquilla and Santa Marta. This region is known for its beautiful
beaches, lively music and dance culture (e.g. cumbia) and its colonial
architecture.
Región Andina
This region stretches along the
Andes mountain range and includes cities such as Bogotá, Medellín and
Cali. It is the political and economic center of the country and is
known for its cultural diversity, historic cities, impressive landscapes
and pleasant climate.
Amazon
The Amazon region occupies the
southeast, is sparsely populated and tropically hot. It is one of the
most biologically diverse areas in the world and is home to enormous
biodiversity, including many endemic species. It is also home to
indigenous peoples such as the Ticuna, Yagua and Huitoto. Due to its
remoteness and difficult access, the Amazon region of Colombia has
remained largely untouched by civilization. However, it is also an area
affected by illegal activities such as illegal deforestation, mining and
drug trafficking, which endanger the environment and indigenous
populations.
Región de la Orinoquía
Located in eastern
Colombia, this region includes the Orinoco Plain. It is characterized by
vast plains, rivers and savannas and is an important agricultural area
of the country.The Orinoco Region is located in the northeast and is
also known as the Llanos Orientales. Here you will find a vast humid
savanna that is very sparsely populated.
Región Pacífica
The
Pacific Region stretches along Colombia's Pacific coast and includes
areas such as Chocó and Valle del Cauca. This region is known for its
rich Afro-Colombian culture, lush rainforests, exotic wildlife and
impressive flora. The west of the country is one of the rainiest areas
in the world.
Insular Region
The Colombian Caribbean islands.
The archipelago known as San Andrés and Providencia is particularly
worth mentioning here.
1 Santa Marta . This coastal city is a popular base for visiting
Tayrona National Park and other beautiful beaches.
2 Barranquilla . A
port city on the Pacific with no real attractions. Barranquilla is known
as one of the world's largest carnival strongholds.
3 Mompox (Centro
histórico de Santa Cruz de Mompox; .) . Founded in 1540 by Juan de Santa
Cruz, the historic center features residential and religious
architecture that has retained its colonial character.
4 Bogotá . The
capital of Colombia is a mix of modern architecture and historic
neighborhoods. The historic Candelaria neighborhood is a highlight.
5
Cartagena de Indias. This historic city on the Caribbean coast is known
for its well-preserved colonial buildings, fortified city walls, and
picturesque alleyways. The old town center is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
6 Medellín. Once considered a dangerous drug-related crime
capital, Medellín has evolved into a modern city with innovative urban
planning, parks, and a thriving cultural scene.
7 Cali (Santiago de
Cali) . Known as the salsa capital of the world, Cali offers vibrant
music, delicious food, and a lively atmosphere.
8 Barichara . A
picturesque colonial town with cobbled streets, white buildings, and
stunning views of the surrounding hills.
9 Leticia . Located along
the Amazon River in the rainforest.
10 Popayán . Known as the White
City, Popayán is famous for its well-preserved colonial architecture and
religious festivals.
11 Manizales . A city in the heart of Colombia's
coffee zone, surrounded by green hills and coffee farms.
12 Villa de
Leyva . This city boasts historic charm, cobblestone streets, and one of
the largest public squares in Latin America.
Tayrona National Park (Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona) . National
park on the Caribbean coast.
Desierto de la Tatacoa . Desert area
between 2 mountain ranges.
Los Katíos National Park (Parque
nacional natural Los Katíos) . The importance of Los Katíos lies in
its high biodiversity and the protection of species that only occur
in the Darién region.
Chiribiquete National Park (Parque nacional
natural Sierra de Chiribiquete) protects endemic and endangered
animal and plant species as well as evidence of the world view of
the first inhabitants of the Amazon region.
Malpelo Nature
Reserve (Santuario de fauna y flora de Malpelo). is an important
habitat for many marine species that are threatened with extinction
worldwide and offers a high level of biodiversity.
Colombia's coffee culture landscape (Eje cafetero) . It is a vast,
hilly, evergreen landscape dotted with coffee plantations and is
made up of three departments: Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío.
Capitals are Manizales, Pereira and Armenia.
Tierradentro
National Park (Parque Arqueológico Nacional de Tierradentro; Sierras
de la cordillera central hasta el Valle de San Agustín (Alto
Magdalena). Altos de San Andrés. Alto de Segovia. El Duende. El
Tablón) .
Ciudad Perdida. Abandoned town of the Tairona Indians
located in the rainforest.
San Augustin (Parque Arqueológico de
San Agustín; Sierras de la Cordillera Central hasta el Valle de San
Agustín (Alto Magdalena)) . The park contains the largest collection
of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America
and is considered the largest necropolis in the world.
Amacayacu National Park is a nature reserve situated in the Amazonas Department in the Southern Colombia. It covers a total area of 2,935 sq km.
Cueva de los Guácharos is an underground system situated in Huila and Caqueta Provinces. It is protected by Cueva de los Guácharos National Park.
Los Estoraques Unique Natural Area is a protected area with natural geologic formations in the Cordillera Oriental mountain range.
Los Nevados National Park is a nature reserve situated in the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes in the Quindío and Tolima departments.
Serranía de la Macarena or Macarena mountains are covered by virgin forest is protected by La Macarena National Park.
Sumapaz Paramo or Páramo de Sumapaz is an unique biosphere located in a Altiplano Cundiboyacense mountain range in the Cundinamarca Department.
Entry requirements
Tourists from Europe receive a visa-free residence
permit for 90 days upon entry. This can be extended for a maximum of
another 90 days at any Migración Colombia branch. The small fee (around
€20) can be paid by card on site or into the account of the nearest
Banco de Occidente. “Case number” means “trámite.” The paperwork takes
half a day in smaller towns, but in the big cities you can wait a week.
It helps if you arrive early to take your number; in Bogotá it opens at
7:30 a.m. Since October 2021 it has been possible to extend a tourist
residence permit online (Spanish only). The corresponding point is
“Permiso Temporal de Permanencia para Prorrogar Permanencia.” This
procedure is free for citizens of the Schengen states.
Since the
reform of the long-term visa categories on December 15, 2017, there are
around thirty types of residence permit with or without a work permit.
Anyone who goes overboard pays a fine that amounts to at least half the
legal monthly minimum wage.
A customs form must be filled out
upon arrival by plane. This also applies if the baggage has been checked
through for a connecting flight.
Duty free quantities
200
cigarettes or 50 cigars or 50 grams of tobacco.
2 bottles of alcohol.
There is a duty-free shop in the arrivals area of Bogotá Airport. The
prices there are not very attractive for Central Europeans.
Airplane
The only direct flight from German-speaking countries is
offered by Lufthansa from Frankfurt. In 2022, cheaper connections will
be offered by Air France/KLM with a change in Paris or Amsterdam or
Iberia or AirEuropa via Madrid. If you use US companies, the flight time
is significantly extended by changing in the USA. In addition, you have
to endure the harassment of Homeland Security, as there are no transit
areas in the USA.
Colombians and foreigners who have been in the
country for more than 60 days pay an airport tax of US$ 32 (Apr. 2022)
for international flights, which is not included in the ticket price.
Train
There is no train connection to Colombia or within the
country.
Car/motorcycle/bicycle
Panama
The Transamericana,
a road supposedly leading from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, is
interrupted between the two countries. There is no road crossing.
However, travelers often cross the border between Puerto Obaldía (PAN)
and Capurganá (KOL) on foot. The Panamanian border police, near the port
in Puerto Obaldía, keep a photocopy of the passport (which you must
bring with you). Compared to multi-day jungle trails through the Darién
National Park (PAN) and Los Katíos National Park, this is a
comparatively safe and less difficult route. The footpath goes over the
hills behind La Miél (PAN) to Sapzurro (KOL). There is a police station
there, but it does not carry out any border clearance. To do this you
have to go to Capurgana, which is about 3km away.
There are also
small motor boats that travel between these places and also land in
Playa Blanca (PAN near La Miel) and Sapzurro (KOL).
Ecuador
Between Ipiales (KOL) and Tulcán (ECU) is the Puente Internacional de
Rumichaca. This is the most important transition between the two
countries.
A little more remote is the Puente Internacional, which
leads over the Rio San Miguel in General Farfán - the place is called
that in both countries. The next larger towns are Nueva Loja (= Lago
Agrio; ECU) and San Miguel in Putumayo (KOL).
Venezuela
Paraguachon in La Guajira. Between Maicao (KOL) and Paraguaipoa (VEN),
continue to Maracaibo.
Between Cúcuta (KOL) and Ureña (VEN):
Heavy
traffic is not allowed to cross the Puente Francisco de Paula Santander.
A few kilometers south is the Puente Internacional de Tienditas.
Completed in 2019, it was initially only opened to pedestrians in 2021.
Important for trucks, connecting the Venezuelan N1 to San Cristóbal, is
the Puente Internacional Simón Bolívar bridge between the municipalities
of Villa Rosario (KOL) and San Antonio del Táchira (VEN).
This border
area, which is secured on the Colombian side by thousands of soldiers in
the surrounding area, has been repeatedly closed for more or less long
periods since the beginning of the crisis in Venezuela in 2015, or the
opening times are severely limited. There were still reports of violent
acts by (uniformed) armed people in 2022.
In Arauca (KOL) is the
Puente José Antonio Páez. The security situation in this area can be
precarious.
Brazil and Peru
In the border triangle of
Peru-Colombia-Brazil you can cross the land border in
Tabatinga/Laetitia. You have to cross to Peru by boat. This place can be
reached by boat from Iquitos or Manaus. There are no land connections in
Colombia, only flights.
Ship
There are no regular ferry
connections to neighboring countries (anymore). Cruise ships mainly dock
in Cartagena.
Sailboats operate fairly regularly on the Cartagena
– San Blas Islands (PAN,
Colombia is actually divided into three areas: in the northwest the
coast with a flat hinterland, from southwest to northeast the three
Cordilleras (mountain ranges up to 5750m high) and in the southeast
virtually unpopulated flatland. Most cities are in the Cordilleras -
which are not particularly suitable for building highways and railway
lines. Most of the roads are winding mountain pass roads - including the
connections between the big cities.
Some towns in the Amazon
region, such as the Leticia border post or Puerto Nariño, can only be
reached by air or by river boat.
By bus
In Colombia you can go
anywhere by bus. Every larger city has a central long-distance bus
station (terminal de pasajeros), although it is rare to find one in the
city center. They usually run hourly between larger cities. Hmm, not
much rarer anywhere else. Most of the time you can just drive to the bus
terminal and find the right bus there and then you don't have to wait
long for it to leave. You actually only need to make a reservation
around Christmas/New Year and Holy Week. Some buses simply run when they
are full. Taking the bus is pretty cheap, especially if you bargain. If
you get on on the way, you pay the Ayudante.
Medellín -
Barranquilla: ~8 hours
Medellín - Cali: ~7 hours
Medellín -
Pereira: ~4 hours
Medellín - Santa Fe de Antioquia (just on the other
side of the mountain): ~3 hours
Bogotá - Pereira: ~9 hours (~38 km/h)
Bogotá - Medellín: 9 hours (~49km / h)
Bogotá - Barranquilla: 20
hours (~50 km/h)
Bogotá - Cali: 12 hours (~40 km/h)
Bogotá -
Ipiales: 24 hours (~40 km/h)
Bogotá - Manizales: 8 hours (~37 km/h)
Bogotá - Tunja: 3 hours (~50 km/h)
So it fundamentally depends on
how many and high mountains there are between the start and destination.
Bus companies: Rápido Ochoa, Expreso Brasilia, Empresa Arauca and
thousands more.
As in Southeast Asia, on long-distance routes the
air conditioning is set to “ice cold” and there is also loud music or
television. Don't forget a blanket, pillow and earplugs. WiFi is often
touted, but whether it works is another question. If the bus is too slow
or too dangerous for you, take the plane.
Colectivos are
minibuses that are as uncomfortable and cramped as the Marshrutki of the
successor states of the Soviet Union. Busetas are small buses used in
cities and on routes with a journey time of less than four hours.
Air-conditioned, normal buses travel long distances. If there are ones
with “business class” you have a little more space.
On the street
There is right-hand traffic. Gasoline costs about a third of the German
price. Gas stations sometimes charge in gallons, which is the US
standard of 3.8 liters.
Maximum speeds: in built-up areas 30
km/h, in inner cities 60 km/h, country roads 80 km/h, motorways 100
km/h. Many highways require tolls. Outside town you can also drive with
lights on during the day. Wearing a seatbelt and using hands-free
systems is mandatory. Likewise helmets on motorcycles.
Even
Colombians who own a car usually only drive within a 100km radius of
their city. Everything else is usually done by bus or plane. Of course
you can also go by car. The road quality is okay. There are almost
exclusively country roads - which can be quite winding in the Andes due
to their nature. The bus drivers have a very sporty driving style, so
you won't be much faster by car. Guarded, paid parking spaces are called
“parqueaderos.”
Car rental companies require a minimum age of 23.
An international driving license under the Geneva Convention is required
in addition to the home driving license.
Taxis
Note: You
should request a taxi from the hotel reception, especially at night or
in unsafe areas. This will then tell you the license plate number of the
car you are expecting. There are many “fake” taxis. “Paseo Millonario”
is the name given to the practice of crooks who kidnap a passenger at
short notice, force them to withdraw money or otherwise exploit them by
threatening violence.
Municipalities set taxi prices annually.
You should find out more about these on the internet. It doesn't hurt to
have the route shown on Google Maps. The driver's license must be
clearly visible on the back of the passenger seat. Since there are
hardly any taxi meters except in Bogotá (which you use in conjunction
with a tariff table), you still have to negotiate the costs in advance.
Anyone who can speak Spanish has a clear advantage here. Luggage is
included, the price is per car, not passenger. Small surcharges for
telephone orders, (working) air conditioning, night trips from 8 p.m./9
p.m. to 5 a.m. are normal. There is also a surcharge for airport taxis.
Large bills cause problems with change. Usually you round up to the
nearest full thousand.
By plane
If the bus is too slow for
you, you can take the plane - but that is usually really expensive (at
least for Colombian standards).
For those with a slightly smaller
travel budget, there are also low-cost airlines such as Viva Air
Colombia and Wingo. However, you should be careful when booking as there
are hidden costs. Booking is not as regulated as in the EU.
But
you can actually fly anywhere that has an airport. Since June 1, 2020,
flights to Puerto Carreño will be charged a tourist tax of COP$36000
upon check-in.
Airlines: Avianca, Copa Airlines, LAN, Satena, the
low-cost airlines Viva Air Colombia and Wingo (both also to nearby
countries) and many smaller ones that only offer short routes.
Spanish. If you have acquired your knowledge in Spain, you should note that the use of "Sie" (Usted/Ustedes + 3rd person) is much more common throughout South America. It is particularly appropriate when dealing with officials on duty. University graduates usually have some level of English. However, experience shows that everyone is pretty nice, patient and helpful - even if the Spanish is a bit stumped at times.
The Black and White Festival (Carnaval de Negros y Blancos) in Pasto is
one of the most important cultural events in the country.
The
Carnival in Barranquilla. The carnival is celebrated here on the four
days before Ash Wednesday. It is an oral world heritage site of the
United Nations, the largest folk festival in Colombia and one of the
five most important carnivals in the world.
One euro was worth 4,430 Colombian pesos (COP$) in July 2022, a drop in
value of 15% since the previous year. As everywhere in Latin America,
the dollar sign ($) stands for peso.
Images of valid banknotes and
coins at the National Bank.
When changing cash in exchange
offices (“casas de cambio”) you only get a reasonable rate for US$.
The maximum amounts that can be withdrawn from ATMs are
comparatively small. 300,000 or 400,000 is the norm, plus the local fees
and COP$ 10-15,000 for the local bank. Only BBVA and Davivienda do
without it. The latter also has machines that pay out up to COP$800,000.
In order to avoid having to immediately get rid of the money you have
withdrawn with a gun held in your neck, it is advisable not to use ATMs
on the street, but only in shopping centers or similar. If necessary,
you can also withdraw credit cards at the counter (with a PIN). Banks
open 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You always need your passport and a thumbprint
is also often taken.
Those who pay by credit card are sometimes
asked: “¿En cuantas cuotas?” d. H. “in how many installments?” which is
possible for Colombians up to 24. As a foreigner you answer “una”
(“one”).
Cigarettes are significantly cheaper than in Europe,
2019 COP$ 2500-3500. A quarter of the market is even cheaper contraband.
The metric system is in use, although fresh food is also sold by the
pound (libras).
VAT refund
Anyone who as a tourist has
collected receipts for tourist services or clothing, leather,
handicrafts, etc. (but not food and drinks) over a certain minimum
amount can have the 19% VAT refunded at the airports, which requires a
certain amount of paperwork and a passport copy. Details on the customs
website (DIAN). The minimum rate corresponds to 10 “tax units” (UVT) and
is set annually. In 2018 it was COP$330,000 (approx. €80), the upper
limit is 100 UVT. When it comes to accommodation costs, you have to book
from abroad or complain directly to the hotel so that you don't have to
pay the tax. Another catch is that only services paid for with a card
issued abroad will be reimbursed.
Inexpensive lunch menus are called plato del diá or comida corriente. In
better restaurants, the waiter asks when paying if there is a service
charge, which is ten percent. If you were dissatisfied, you can refuse
with “sin servicio, por favor”. Then it is not uncommon for the boss to
come and ask what was wrong.
51% of Colombia is covered by
rainforest. This allows for a very large variety of animal species,
which in turn is reflected in Colombian cuisine. Colombian cuisine is
very regional and has many differences. Extraordinary specialties such
as roasted ants or guinea pig are considered delicacies in some regions
- but in other regions, such as Germany, they elicit the same
head-shaking. But soups and sauces based on aji amarillo (a type of
pepper) are also common. Beef, whether steamed or fried, and chicken are
popular dishes. Fish is also offered in the regions around the sea. This
is usually prepared in coconut milk and served with coconut rice.
The range of fresh fruit is overwhelming: In the supermarket there
are five different types of mango (very small and green with lemon and
salt as a snack, small for juice, up to the size of a shoe), six
different types of banana (small, large, sweet, for cooking, for frying,
also sorted by ripeness (green, yellow, black)) and seven different
types of potato (yellow, pink, the size of a ping pong ball and also
like ours). And there are also a bunch of fruits that I have never seen
in Germany. Fresh fruit juices are then made from all of these fruits -
either with water or with milk. Delicious!
The most important
foods are the arepas that are popular in Antioquia (made from corn flour
with water, topped with cheese, sweet or not, with egg in it, yellow or
white, fried or baked, etc.) and rice (which is served as a side dish
with almost everything). Ajiaco is a creamy chicken soup that originated
in the Andes. Bandeja paisa is a plate full of sausages, beans, rice and
egg. Llapingachos, potato pancakes, originate from Ecuador and are often
served with salsa de maní, made from peanuts.
In the World, people tend to associate Colombia with coffee, and the
Colombians themselves tell you that the coffee they drink in Colombia
isn't that good because all the good coffee is exported. The character
of the coffee farmer “Juan Valdez” is an advertising character invented
in 1958 by the Colombian coffee producers, perhaps corresponding to Ms.
Antje. The note “Juan Valdez” indicates that only coffee grown in
Colombia is in the package. A brand of the same name, launched in 2002,
is also widespread in Central America and the USA. In fact, Colombia
imports 80-90% of the coffee consumed in the country, as the country's
high-quality Arabica beans are expensive to export.
Local
breweries include Club Colombia, Pilsen, Aguila, Apostol and Costeña. A
beer in the store costs less than in Europe.
Michelada is a mixed
beer drink. The rim of a glass is dipped in lime juice, then salt. Some
lime juice goes into the glass and is topped up with beer.
If
there is wine, it is often imported from Chile and California, although
there are also some smaller wine-growing regions in the country.
Schnapps, especially rum and Aquardiente, are comparatively expensive
starting at €10 per bottle.
Larger cities all have a zona rosa, the nightlife district. But there
are also red light districts because prostitution is not prohibited and
is necessary due to economic hardship, especially among refugees from
Venezuela. Colombia's neoliberal economic system provides only very
limited social security.
In better nightclubs, a drink can cost
COP$13,000.
There are hardly any campsites.
The international network of
youth hostels has some houses in large cities. Otherwise, when it comes
to private “hostels” (with dormitories), it is important to pay
attention to the difference from the Spanish “hostal”, which is more of
a simple hotel or guesthouse. Other names for simpler accommodations are
residencia, hospedaje or posada. They are often concentrated in areas
around the markets.
Lower middle class hotels in particular are
rare in the country; the upper segment is the rule for hotels. Anyone
who books better hotels or resorts from abroad has been exempt from the
19% VAT since 2016. freed. If necessary, this regulation must be pointed
out.
A nice economics minister once decided that all Christian holidays
(except Christmas) would always be postponed to the following Monday.
After Christmas, Semana Santa (Holy Week, the week before Easter) is
the most important and in many companies it is completely, or at least
largely, free. As a predominantly Catholic country, most of the
festivals of this sect are celebrated, but as mentioned on the following
Monday. That's how it was, for example. B. Epiphany (January 6th) in
2022 on January 10th there will be no work. The same applies to Josephi
(Monday after March 19th), Corpus Christi, Monday after June 8th, 2023,
Peter and Paul (Monday after June 19th), May 29th, 2023, Ascension Day,
Monday after May 18th, 2023, Conception of the Virgin Mary (Monday after
December 8th).
Secular holidays are New Year on January 1st,
Labor Day on May 1st, Independence Day on July 20th, anniversary of the
Battle of Boyacá 1819 on August 7th, “Día de la Raza” (“Racial Day”
celebrating the cultural Diversity) on October 17th and “Independencia
de Cartagena” (Independence of Cartagena in 1811) on November 14th.
Like everywhere in South America, Carnival is taken seriously and celebrated. There are also numerous regional festivals and festivals that are listed in the respective articles.
In general, the situation in Colombia is that there are normal, nice
people, police and paramilitaries. The last two now make a living from
protection rackets, kidnappings and drugs. Drug cartels (Cali Cartel,
Pablo Escobar) no longer exist. The normal nice people are clearly in
the majority :-)
The situation has improved dramatically since the
beginning of President Álvaro Uribe's term in office. The social
revolutionary guerrilla FARC-EP has made peace and entered parliament as
a party Comunes. Right-wing paramilitaries, often protection troops for
drug producers, still exist.
Fines are calculated by a factor (or
a range) that is multiplied by the annual monthly minimum wage (2022: 1
million pesos).
However, there are still areas you shouldn't go
to. Wandering through the forests or following any mountain paths is not
advisable - because that's exactly where the paramilitaries live and
plant their coca. If you want to travel outside of a city, you should
plan carefully where you want to go. If possible, travel with a reliable
local.
Requisas are military roadblocks. Buses are particularly
popular here at night and ID cards are often checked for weapons.
Extremely annoying when you are woken up for the fifth time in one
night.
In Colombia's cities, you should be well behaved and take
a few common precautions. In the centers of most cities it is fairly
rare to have potential problems, but it is very important to be careful
in the outer parts of a city. There are areas in the big cities where
you have no business being a tourist; armed robberies also occur in
broad daylight. Don't expect help from spectators. However, compared to
most other Latin American countries, normal street crime is not that
high. If you want to order a taxi, you should politely ask for a
telephone, it costs the same and a call will be answered immediately.
As a tourist you should actually pay attention to three things:
Some areas are dangerous.
Jungle near Leticia: If on a boat trip at
night one of the crew strolls over the boat with a machine gun to ward
off bad people, then that doesn't indicate a particularly high level of
security.
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: There are supposedly
beautiful old Indian houses here, but also a particularly high chance of
being kidnapped. Germans have also been kidnapped here (all the
Colombians the author of this section asked about the security of this
region strongly advised him against it).
Area between Cali and
Popayan: Was considered very unsafe for a long time because the main
guerrilla settlement area was nearby. But it should have improved. You
should ask people about the current situation. In any case, it is
definitely not the safest region in Colombia.
Bad people block
the road.
Occasionally the paramilitaries block the road somewhere
and stop buses and cars. The most promising of the inmates are kidnapped
or have to leave their money or their car behind. Foreigners (who are
almost non-existent in Colombia) are not necessarily at the top of the
list, because Colombians already know how to deal with ransoms, etc.,
speak Spanish and are generally much less complicated. Well, but a
foreigner can of course be a pretty big catch.
It has already
happened to the author of this section twice that his intercity bus took
a different route because the shortest route was blocked by
paramilitaries.
There is also a rumor that the more expensive bus
companies pay money to the guerrillas and paramilitaries in order to be
spared.
General caution!
well, the typical thing: don't strap your
camera to your chest, put your wallet in your front trouser pocket,
leave your valuables at home, stay away from bad people, don't walk
around alone at night
Drugs: Most of the cocaine consumed in the
US and Europe used to come from Colombia, but today production has
fallen sharply and a lot is smuggled from Venezuela. Local consumption
is low, so you won't be offered drugs there, nor will you see all sorts
of drugs there unless you're looking for them. Colombians are so
offended by jokes about drugs outside the country, especially from
Europeans and Americans. Drugs and the mafia have spread a bad image,
but now the police and the armed army are making vigorous efforts to
combat them. All Colombian governments have had commitments to combat
drug production. President Alvaro Uribe Velez, with major aid from the
US government, has pursued a policy of massively destroying drug
plantations using chemical defoliation.
The possession, not
trafficking, of small quantities for personal use (1 gram of cocaine, 20
g of marijuana) has been decriminalized, but this does not protect
against unpleasant, lengthy encounters with the often corrupt police.
In summary, Colombia is quite dangerous compared to Europe. But it's
not so bad that you can't go there at all.
Malaria risk areas are the Amazon region and the 50 km wide coastal
strip from Covenas to the Ecuador border. In short, all regions below
1700 m. The major cities of Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena,
Medellín and Santa Marta are malaria-free. About half of the infections
are caused by Plasmodium falciparum (i.e. Malaria tropica),
multi-resistant forms of which occur nationwide. In the lower regions,
all-day mosquito protection is recommended, as Zika, dengue and
chikungunya fever also occur.
Travelers coming from Brazil must
provide proof of yellow fever vaccination. Domestically, it is required
for travel to the Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the
Parque Tayrona and the various reserves of the Amazon.
In acute
life-threatening cases, hospitals are legally obliged to provide initial
treatment to patients regardless of existing insurance or ability to
pay. Nevertheless, travel health insurance makes sense.
Smoking
is prohibited in virtually all publicly accessible indoor spaces,
including bars and restaurants.
Colombia offers palm-lined Caribbean beaches, 5,800 meter high mountains
with glaciers on top and everything in between. Due to its location on
the equator, the weather and day length are actually almost the same all
year round. It rains a little more often in the rainy season and a
little less often in the dry season.
Like in Germany, it rains
for two weeks in a row and then it's nice for another two weeks or
something like that doesn't happen in Colombia. There are no seasons
either: instead, Colombians speak of winter when they are cold. (So if
it's a bit cool in the morning at 20°C, the Colombian says "Such a
winter today!", but that doesn't stop him from complaining about the
heat at midday (32°C).)
Much more serious than any season is the
difference where you are.
Barranquilla + Cartagena (on the
coast): 25-38°C, always sunny, thunderstorms every few days (which then
flood the streets)
Medellín (in a valley surrounded by 3500 m
mountains, 1500 m above sea level): 17–32°C, like midsummer in Germany,
thunderstorms every few days (which only slightly flood the streets)
Cali: a bit warmer than Medellín
Bogotá (in a wide high valley, 2800m
above sea level): 10-25°C, about like autumn in Germany, rain four times
a day is not uncommon, some people walk around with scarves and gloves
(well, if you come from the coast it's pretty fresh here). Dry season is
December to March.
The post office until 2006 as Adpostal was privatized under the name
4-72. 6-digit postal codes were introduced (search). When sending
parcels abroad, ID is required.
Mobile communications and
internet
The Vive Digital plan led to a massive expansion of the
Internet in 2010-8, particularly in small towns and rural regions. WiFi
access can often be found in the local library, cultural center or city
park.
The largest mobile phone provider is Claro, a branch of the
Mexican América Móvil. Movistar is owned by the Spanish Telefónica,
whose network is also used to make calls to Virgin Mobile. Another
company is Tigo. These usually have their branches in shopping centers.
SIM cards (“prepago”) are available for COP$ 5,000. Data packages
usually cost COP $ 10,000 for 2GB in 2022, but have comparatively short
terms of 7, 10 or 15 days, depending on the operator.
Calls
within a provider's network are cheaper than between operators. For
international calls, the first two offer (different) Latin American
country packages in which a cheaper tariff applies. For calls to Europe,
the price per minute is just under €2.
You can see them being
advertised minutely at kiosks or as street vendors. The relevant people
rent telephones in order to make calls to a specific network more
cheaply than between operators.
Tourist information (Punto Información Turística, PIT) can usually be
found in the main square of the city. They are marked with a sign with a
red I.
There are hardly any public toilets (“baño”) outside of
museums or bus stations. You can use a nearby café or similar. You
should bring your own paper to be on the safe side.
The power
supply is 120 volts at 60 hertz. American plugs (types A and B) are
common.
Most cities were laid out with streets running at right
angles to each other. The streets running north-south are usually
numbered as Carreras. Abbreviated as: Cra, Cr or K. Streets running
east-west are numbered as Calles, abbreviated to Cll, Cl or C (the “C/”
common in Spain is not used). This principle is often broken, either due
to the landscape or other reasons. There are therefore also Diagonales
or Transversales. Important main roads often have names as Avenida.
Street names are only common in Cartagena and Medellín.
A typical
address such as “Calle 8 № 12-40” indicates a house on Calle 8, which is
40 meters from the corner of Carretera 12. So it is not an actual house
number. The № is increasingly being replaced by #.
The name of the country comes from the name of the famous
traveler-navigator Christopher Columbus, who discovered America for
Europeans. It was used by the Venezuelan revolutionary, fighter for the
independence of South America, Francisco de Miranda, in relation to the
entire New World, but especially to the lands under the rule of Spain
and Portugal. After the name was proposed by Simon Bolivar in "Letter
from Jamaica" (Spanish: Carta de Jamaica). It was adopted at the
formation of the Federal Republic of Colombia in 1819, which included
the territories of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (the territories of
present-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and northwestern
Brazil). However, later, after the separation of Ecuador and Venezuela,
the country became known as New Granada. Since 1858, the country became
known as the Granada Confederation, since 1863 - the United States of
Colombia. Since 1886, the current name has been established - the
Republic of Colombia. It was disputed by the governments of Ecuador and
Venezuela, as it infringed on the common heritage of these countries,
but for the moment these disputes are suspended.
The origin of
the country's name is reflected in the anthem of the republic:
Washed
with the blood of heroes, the land of Columbus
(Spanish: Se baña en
sangre de héroes la tierra de Colón)
Rafael Nunez
Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, there were already indigenous civilizations in the area of what is now Colombia that traded with each other and, in particular, mastered the art of goldsmithing at the highest level and worked clay into figures and objects from around 4000 BC to around 1600. However, due to the diverse ecological and landscape conditions, a unified state structure such as the Inca Empire in Peru never developed in pre-colonial Colombia. Among the numerous indigenous peoples that settled in Colombia, the following are particularly noteworthy: the Muisca, who lived on the plateaus of the Eastern Cordillera; the Tairona, who built one of the earliest cities on the South American continent with the so-called Ciudad Perdida in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; the Sinú, who populated the area along the river of the same name; the Quimbaya in the area of today's coffee zone on the western slope of the Central Cordillera; and last but not least the mysterious cultures of San Agustín with their stone sculptures and Tierradentro with their painted burial chambers, which reached their peak long before the arrival of the Spaniards.
Colombia was discovered for Europe in 1499 by Alonso de Ojeda and
Amerigo Vespucci. Christopher Columbus, however, in whose honour the
country was named "Colombia", never set foot in the country. The first
two discoverers of Colombia first reached the peninsula "La Guajira",
which they initially named "Isla de Coquivacoa" in the belief that it
was an island. In 1508 Vasco Núñez de Balboa led an expedition to the
area of the Gulf of Urabá. In 1510 the first stable settlement on the
continent was founded with the city of Santa María la Antigua del
Darién. Other parts of the country were later colonised, including by
the Cartagena region. discovered, explored and often plundered by
Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa. Early colonial bases were Santa
Marta (founded 1525) and Cartagena de Indias (founded 1533) on the
Colombian Caribbean coast.
Attracted by gold and emeralds, the
conquistadors occupied the country. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
penetrated the Andean region in 1537, subjugated the Chibcha and founded
Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1538. Coming from the south, from what is now
Ecuador, Sebastián de Belalcázar conquered the south of Colombia. Coming
from the east, the Ulm merchant Nikolaus Federmann reached Bogotá in
1539 to advance the colonization of the country on behalf of the
Welsers. The Spanish built settlements that replaced the former Indian
trading centers, such as Santa Fé de Bogotá (founded 1538) and Tunja
(founded 1539).
Due to its central importance for the Spanish
possessions in northern South America, Colombia was elevated to its own
province "New Granada" within the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1547, and
Bogotá became the seat of a Real Audiencia. Cartagena de Indias gained
paramount importance as a port of call for the fleets from Spain and
developed into one of the most important - and best protected - ports in
the New World during the colonial period. The country's wealth led to
pirate attacks on Cartagena in 1544, 1560 and 1586, including by Francis
Drake. In the 17th century, 80 percent of the world's gold production
came from Colombia. Indians worked in the gold mines, many of whom died
of weakness and diseases brought by the Europeans. After that, the work
was mostly done by African slaves who could be bought in the port of
Cartagena.
In 1717, the north of South America (today's Colombia,
Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador) was constituted as the Viceroyalty of New
Granada with Bogotá as its capital. In 1741, Cartagena was attacked by
an English armada with 186 warships and defended by Spanish troops under
Don Blas de Lezo.
The conflict that led to independence from Spain took place in Colombia
between 1810 and 1819. It began on July 20, 1810, when a group of
Creoles went to the Spaniard José González Llorente in Bogotá,
ostensibly to borrow a flower vase from him. When Llorente refused, a
fight broke out (known as "el grito"). The term "El Florero de Llorente"
("Llorente's flower vase") is also common.
The increasing
emergence of a self-confident upper class in the colonies, combined with
the weakening of Spain during the Napoleonic era, favored the formation
of an independence movement. After the successful struggle for
independence in Venezuela, Simón Bolívar united the two countries after
numerous battles (including Pantano de Vargas, Puente de Boyacá) to form
an independent Gran Colombia in 1819. Ecuador then joined the newly
founded state in 1825.
In 1821, Simon Bolivar was elected
president. During his term in office, he tried unsuccessfully to achieve
the complete abolition of slavery. The power of the large landowners was
too great to abolish slavery by law. It was not until the 1850s that the
large landowners permitted the abolition of slavery. The motive,
however, was that "free" labor employed at very low wages was even
cheaper in the long term.
In 1830, after Bolívar's death, the
federation collapsed, partly because Bolívar's attempts to win Peru and
Bolivia had failed. Ecuador and Venezuela declared themselves
independent. Panama and Colombia formed New Granada. In addition, there
were political conflicts between liberals and conservatives that
resembled civil wars. The liberals wanted a federal state and were
recruited from the middle classes of the trading cities. The
conservatives wanted a strong central state and came from the class of
large landowners. In 1863, the liberals pushed through a constitution
and called the federal state the United States of Colombia. In 1886, the
conservatives issued a constitution in which Colombia again formed a
central state, today's "Republic of Colombia". Colombia was the first
democracy in Latin America and the second in the Americas after the USA.
It was not until 1886 that Colombia was united in a centrally run
republic. This republic was put to the test again in 1898, when the
ongoing internal conflicts erupted in the "War of the Thousand Days".
Between 1899 and 1902, the opposition liberals fought against the
conservative central government, without either side being able to
achieve a clear victory. The devastating conflict (over 100,000 dead)
was finally defused by a peace treaty that was intended to ensure the
liberals' future participation in government. Nevertheless, the
"conservative hegemony" (since 1886) remained until 1930. Far more
serious than the material losses of the war, however, were its foreign
policy consequences. In 1903, for example, the USA exploited Colombia's
weakness to assert its geostrategic and economic interests in Central
America. For US President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1908), the
construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was a military
imperative. Another factor that favored secession was that the isthmus
was poorly integrated into the Colombian central state and the merchant
oligarchy based there felt patronized and ignored by Bogotá. The
Colombian Senate had previously rejected the construction of the Panama
Canal, which was being pushed by the USA, citing the threat of a loss of
sovereignty. The United States then used military intervention in
agreement with the Panamanian separatist movement to force the secession
and the subsequent constitution of the Isthmus Department as an
independent and autonomous state. Colombia emerged from the "War of a
Thousand Days" so weakened that it had to reluctantly accept the
secession of Panama, which was made possible by military intervention by
the USA.
In the first half of the 20th century, Colombia
experienced an economic boom. In the 1920s, coffee accounted for up to
90 percent of Colombian exports and enabled the country to invest in
expanding transport infrastructure and strengthening state institutions.
The dark side of this boom was increasing social tensions between a
wealthier oligarchy and an impoverished rural population. Until 1929,
the economy thrived with annual growth rates that were unprecedented at
the time. After "Black Friday" in 1929, a crisis occurred and in 1930 a
change of government took place. The liberals brought land reform and
industrialization to the country. The assassination of the left-wing
populist presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948 in
Bogotá was the spark that caused the powder keg to explode. The civil
war (La Violencia), which had been raging in rural areas between
liberals and conservatives since 1946, was now also carried into the
cities.
Between 1948 and 1953, the so-called La Violencia (literally "The
Violence") entered its toughest phase. The conservative president
Mariano Ospina Pérez (1946-50) sought to have the Liberals participate
in the government and relied on moderation. However, Pérez's successor,
Laureano Gómez, who was also conservative, took a radical course from
1950 onwards. Although he had to be temporarily represented by Roberto
Urdaneta due to his poor health, Gómez remained the dominant man in the
background until 1953. During his almost three-year government, around
80,000 people died in the political conflict. La Violencia, which lasted
until around 1963, claimed a total of more than 200,000 civilian lives.
After the formation of the so-called "National Front" (1958), peace did
not return despite a comprehensive amnesty under President Alberto
Lleras Camargo (1958–62). The pact within the elite between the leaders
of the conservatives (group around Laureano Gómez) and the liberals
(faction around Alberto Lleras) resulted in a parity government system
in which the two traditional parties took turns in power every four
years; all offices in the state administration were also filled on a
parity basis according to party affiliation. The system, which formally
existed until 1974 but whose effects were still felt into the 1980s,
reinforced the already existing political exclusivism. Left-wing
political actors in particular (FARC, ELN, M-19, Quintín Lame, EPL,
etc.) therefore saw themselves as being challenged to use force to
create a truly participatory political system. Of the guerrilla groups
that emerged during the 1960s and 1980s, only the FARC, which emerged
from the liberal peasant self-defense groups (repúblicas
independientes), had direct roots in the period of violencia.
After the brief – and atypical for Colombia – interlude of a military
dictatorship under Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953–1957), who was supported
by part of the political elite, the traditional civilian
“pseudo-democratic rule” continued. However, comprehensive social
reforms were still not implemented. Certain structural features of the
political system, such as the strong predominance of the executive or
the exclusion of “radical” political parties, thus solidified over time.
The formally oldest democracy in South America thus took on the
character of a cartel-like consensus democracy.
The
constitutional reform adopted by referendum (on December 10, 1957)
enshrined women's active and passive right to vote, a right that had
already been granted in Acto Legislativo Número 3 of August 25, 1954 by
the Constituent Assembly under the government of General Rojas Pinilla,
but which, like all resolutions of Congress, was declared null and void
after his fall; but the military junta's Decree 247 of 1957 also called
women to a referendum. Women voted for the first time in 1957.
After the liberal election victories of Alfonso López Michelsen
(1974–1978) and Julio César Turbay Ayala (1978–1982), corruption and
mismanagement increased. The dependence of the police and judiciary on
political parties and the government encouraged the erosion of the rule
of law and the suppression of the opposition. Paramilitary groups
occupied parts of the country on behalf of the military and large
landowners.
The drug mafia, which was simultaneously gaining
economic power, felt threatened by the US's intervention in the local
drug war from the early 1980s. After the large Cali Cartel and Medellín
Cartel networks were broken up in the drug war, small decentralized
networks gained in importance (as of 2008), which mostly distributed the
drugs in the USA.
The armed conflict, which began in the 1960s,
lasted for over 50 years. After another wave of violence and terror,
President Álvaro Uribe Vélez declared a state of emergency for 90 days
on August 12, 2002. The demobilization of the paramilitary groups that
Uribe had begun in 2003 threatened to fail. The demobilization process
sparked a controversy over the impunity of people who have committed
serious crimes. There has also been criticism that drug traffickers who
want to avoid extradition to the USA officially claim to be former
paramilitaries and thus benefit from amnesty. Uribe subsequently took
extremely tough action against the left-wing extremist guerrilla groups,
which made him very popular among the population, but also drew
criticism for the human rights violations committed by government
troops.
Without income from the drug trade, the non-state armed
actors in Colombia would not have been able to finance themselves. A
successful operation by the industrialized countries against illegal
drug imports would therefore harm the insurgents. In 2007, the area
under coca cultivation reached around 100,000 hectares. However, it
decreased in size over the next few years, as did the area of fields
destroyed by herbicides, especially by spraying glyphosate from the air.
In November 2011, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos considered a
limited legalization of cocaine and marijuana as a possible contribution
to resolving the military conflict in Colombia, which was bitterly
opposed by the USA. In 2014, according to various estimates, the area
under cultivation rose again by 20 to 39 percent to 60,000 to 70,000
hectares. In 2015, President Santos decided to stop the chemical
destruction of coca plants altogether because of the health
consequences. The US embassy has since given up its opposition to this.
Observers also consider the president's decision to be a gesture of
peace towards the FARC.
The country is marked by its decades-long armed conflict. On June 22,
2016, both sides agreed to a final ceasefire. Both sides had already
agreed on transitional justice, agricultural development programs in the
rebel strongholds, and the future political participation of the
guerrillas. On September 26, the FARC and the government signed the
peace agreement. On October 2, a (non-binding) referendum was held in
which, contrary to forecasts, voters rejected the peace agreement with
just over 50 percent of the vote. Contrary to previous announcements,
both sides gave hope that the ceasefire would be maintained. One problem
seemed to be the question of how long the FARC could be maintained
financially without having to resume its criminal activity. The
rejection was due to the following reasons: 60 percent of those eligible
to vote did not participate in the vote. Among the 40 percent who
participated, there were obviously many people with strong motives to
vote yes or no. One reason for the rejection, especially among
supporters of the conservative party, was the assumption that the FARC
was already so weakened after serious military defeats that the ultimate
blow of destruction could now be dealt to it. A leader of the No
movement admitted after the plebiscite that fear had been systematically
created among supporters from the middle and upper classes by raising
the dangers of impunity for FARC members. In the lower classes, the lie
had been spread that subsidies would have to be provided by the people
after a peace agreement had been concluded. Since the agreement was
almost 300 pages long, many voters relied on the messages of their
leaders. It was only when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President
Juan Manuel Santos that a different perception of the peace process
within Colombia and an unprecedented mobilization of students and young
people was created. In this respect, the Nobel Prize acted like a
"salvavidas" (lifebuoy) for Santos.
In November 2016, a new peace
treaty was signed in Havana with concessions from the FARC, which was
approved by both houses of Congress on November 30, 2016 without a
dissenting vote. The opponents boycotted the vote and the bill was no
longer put to the people for a vote.
In order to safeguard the
peace process, the United Nations set up a political, i.e. purely
civilian, peace mission called the UN Mission in Colombia at the
beginning of 2016. Its goal is to monitor the peace agreement, the
ceasefire and the disarmament of the FARC guerrillas. In July 2017, the
UN Security Council decided to carry out a second political mission in
Colombia. The "verification mission", which begins in September 2017,
aims to verify the reintegration of the FARC rebels and the
reconstruction of civilian institutions in affected areas. The state was
also unable to gain complete control over all former FARC areas due to a
lack of infrastructure. The resulting power vacuum in these peripheral
areas was filled by armed groups, including paramilitary groups,
criminal drug trafficking organizations and renegade FARC guerrillas.
In 2018, Colombia was the country with the highest number of
internally displaced people in the world due to the guerrilla wars. In
addition, there was the burden of refugees from Venezuela during the
supply crisis there. Parts of Colombia are still affected by active
landmines from the FARC, drug cartels and militias and are causing mine
casualties, especially among the rural population.
On February 7,
2017, talks began in Ecuador between the government and the second
largest rebel organization, the ELN, with the aim of disarmament.
However, the peace talks were quickly ended under right-wing President
Ivan Duque. They were only resumed in 2022 with the election of
left-wing President Gustavo Petro. In the summer of 2023, he concluded a
ceasefire with ELN commander Antonio Garcia for an initial period of 180
days.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia, coca cultivation
was often the last option for farmers in rural areas to earn money. In
2021, the area used to produce cocaine increased by 43 percent.
According to UN experts, more cocaine is being produced in Colombia in
2022 than ever before in the country's history. The following year, the
police destroyed 60% fewer coca fields than in the previous year, 2022.
In 1989, the Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent
Countries was adopted as part of the constitution. Between 1986 and
1990, the government recognized over 200,000 km² of rainforest in the
Amazon region as collective indigenous territories (resguardos). In
addition, a separate commission for Indian affairs and one for
environmental affairs were set up.
Since 1986, Martín von
Hildebrand was chairman of the Indigenous Authority and advisor to
President Virgilio Barco Vargas. He founded a network of
non-governmental organizations, a foundation called Fundación Gaia
Amazonas. He launched the COAMA program, which strives to find new ways
of protecting the environment in cooperation with indigenous groups. The
cross-border initiative CANOA is now active in Colombia, Brazil and
Venezuela.
Colombia is located in the northwest of South America and borders both
the Atlantic (1,626 km coastline) and the Pacific Ocean (1,448 km). In
the southwest, Colombia borders the neighboring countries Ecuador (590
km border line) and Peru (1,626 km), in the southeast Brazil (1,645 km),
in the northeast Venezuela (2,050 km) and in the northwest Panama, which
has been separated from Colombia since 1903 (225 km).
The total
length of the Colombian border is 6,136 kilometers.
The earth's
equator runs through Colombia (see also states, islands and cities on
the equator).
Colombia is divided into six different major regions. They are the
Región Caribe, which borders the Caribbean Sea, the Región insular,
which includes the islands in the Caribbean (San Andrés and Providencia)
and in the Pacific Ocean (Malpelo and Gorgona), the Región del Pacífico,
which borders the Pacific Ocean, the Región Andina (Andean region) with
the Andes, dominated by the Central Cordillera, the Región de la
Orinoquía, a part of the Llanos plains, mainly in the river basin of the
Río Orinoco along the border with Venezuela, and the Región Amazónica
with the Amazon rainforest.
The western half of Colombia is
shaped by the Andes, the Central Cordillera is particularly important.
The highest mountain range is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta at 5775
m. The Río Magdalena and the Río Cauca flow between the Andes, both of
which drain into the Caribbean Sea. The west of Colombia drains largely
into the Caribbean via the Río Atrato and into the Pacific via the Río
San Juan and Río Baudó rivers.
The largely flat Caribbean coastal
lowlands of Colombia are, apart from the coastal strip, relatively
sparsely populated and characterized by large swamp areas. The Pacific
coastal lowlands in the west of Colombia are also sparsely populated,
apart from a few port cities. It is characterized by a constantly humid,
hot climate with high rainfall and is covered with tropical rainforest.
The southeast of Colombia includes the Colombian part of the Amazon.
This region is also almost completely covered by dense rainforest. Due
to drainage, the area can be divided into two parts (Orinoco and
Amazon), the draining rivers flow into the Orinoco or the Amazon.
Since the equator runs through Colombia, the country is in the tropical
climate zone. The north, i.e. the Caribbean coast, is significantly
drier than the rest of the country. Depending on the altitude, four
climate regions are distinguished. In the lowlands (Llanos) there is a
tropical climate above 24 °C, between 1000 and 2000 m there is a
temperate tropical climate (17–30 °C), between 2000 and 3000 m there is
a cold tropical climate (12–17 °C) and in the mountain regions (Páramos)
from 3000 m above sea level there is a high alpine glacier climate
(below 12 °C).
The capital Bogotá is at an altitude of 2600 m
above sea level and has an annual average of 14 °C. There are two rainy
seasons (April and October) and two dry seasons each year, but these are
not extreme.
The greatest amount of precipitation falls on the
western edge of the Andes. In the southern part of the country, around
3000 mm of rainfall is measured per year, in the north up to 10,000 mm.
Some places with a rainfall volume of up to 16,000 mm per year are among
the rainiest areas on earth.
In the eastern parts of the country,
it rains less heavily. The amount of precipitation in the high valleys
and high basins is around 1000 mm due to the rain shadow side. Parts of
the Caribbean coast have very little rain due to the trade winds (less
than 400 mm annual precipitation).
The first months of the dry or
rainy season are December and January and May to July. However, the
tourist resorts are also regularly visited by Colombians at this time of
year. Towards the end of the dry season, the land is parched and at the
end of the rainy season, tropical storms rage. Floods are not uncommon.
In the highlands it can get cold at night.
In terms of biodiversity, Colombia ranks second in South America: ten
percent of the world's species are found on Colombian soil. With an
enormously high level of biodiversity and due to the large number of
endemic species, genera and families as well as diverse ecosystems,
Colombia is one of the megadiversity countries in the world and is home
to the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena ecoregion on the western slopes of the
Andes (extending to Costa Rica), the most species-rich of five global
centers of megadiversity. Due to the threat to nature, this region is
one of the international hotspots of diversity.
53.2 million
hectares of Colombia's area are covered with natural forests; 21.6
million hectares with other vegetation types of savannas, drylands and
wetlands; 1.1 million with bodies of water, snow-capped mountains, urban
settlements, at least 38.4 million hectares of Colombia's area are used
for agriculture or are developed. The most important ecosystems in
Colombia are the humid tropical forests (378,000 km²), the savannah
plains (105,000 km²), floodplains and peat forests (95,000 km²), the
Andean forest (45,000 km²) and the lowland and Amazon forests (36,000
km²).
The country's greatest natural wealth is its flora. In
total, Colombia is home to between 45,000 and 55,000 plant species,
including 3,500 orchid species alone, or 15% of all orchid species in
the world. The animal kingdom is also very diverse, with a total of
2,890 terrestrial vertebrate species: 1,721 bird species represent 20%
of all species found worldwide, and 358 mammal species represent seven
percent of the species found worldwide. The number of 819 amphibian
species is the second largest in the world after Brazil.
Colombia
has 2.1 billion m³ of water resources annually, which come from
wetlands, swamps, lagoons, rivers and other flowing waters and feed the
groundwater.
Heterogeneous soil conditions, different altitudes
and climate zones, which include the transition and contact between the
Amazon and the Andes, result in a high level of biodiversity with a high
number of endemic species. Colombia is one of the countries with the
greatest biodiversity per unit of area in the world: with only 0.7% of
the world's land mass, the country has ten percent of all animal and
plant species on its territory. Although Colombia has been promoting the
protection of its natural resources since the 1970s, in addition to
natural environmental disasters (often caused by either extreme dry or
rainy seasons), dynamic social and economic growth and military
conflicts in recent decades have caused considerable environmental
damage.
With the 1991 constitution, the country explicitly
committed itself to sustainable development; around 60 constitutional
articles refer directly or indirectly to the environment. The normative
framework for the design of these requirements is provided by Law 99 of
1993, which created a Ministry of the Environment as part of the
National Environmental System (Sistema Nacional Ambiental, or SINA for
short). In addition to the ministry, SINA includes the regional
development authorities, which are responsible for managing natural
resources and their sustainable development, urban environmental
planning authorities and systems such as DAMA in Bogotá and Ecofondo,
the association of all environmental NGOs. State environmental plans are
intended to help achieve the ambitious goals. However, the regional
development authorities have been accused of, among other things,
excessive operating costs, a lack of investment in environmental
programs and the abandonment of reforested areas. These and other
deficiencies are therefore to be remedied by means of a far-reaching
environmental sector reform. A legislative proposal was submitted for
this in March 2003; in addition, the Ministry of the Environment was
merged into the Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarollo Territorial
in April 2003. There are currently efforts to restructure the national
park administration (UAESPNN - Unidad Administrativa Especial del
Sistema de Parques), which has been in existence for decades.
During Uribe's presidency, there were often reports of setbacks,
especially as environmental and natural destruction increased from year
to year as a result of the armed conflict.
With the support of
EMPA Dübendorf, Colombia became a pioneer in the recycling of electronic
waste in South America from 2008 onwards. Up until 2018, the state
gradually introduced regulations to expand formal recycling without the
entrepreneurs objecting. Reducing the size of the informal collection
sector is proving difficult because drug traffickers used it to launder
money.
UNESCO declared a total of five areas in Colombia to be biosphere
reserves:
Parque Nacional Natural El Tuparro (since 1979) Area in ha:
548,000
Nudo de los Pastos (since 1979) Area in ha: 175,300
Parque
Nacional Natural Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (since 1979) Area in ha:
2,115,800
Santuario de fauna y flora Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta
(since 2000) Area in ha: 493,150
Parque Nacional Natural Old
Providence (since 2000) Area in ha: 5348 on Old Providence
Around 25% of Colombia's wetlands have disappeared in recent decades,
mainly as a result of mining activities, deforestation and river
pollution.
The government plans to revive the gold and copper
markets with its 2018-2022 National Development Plan. In addition, 161
new oil drilling sites are planned for 2022, four times more than the 46
existing sites in 2018. Fracking will be legalized in 2019.
Air
pollution causes at least 17,500 deaths annually in Colombia, according
to government figures. Colombia is the fifth most polluted country in
Latin America (after Mexico, Chile, Peru and Brazil), according to
Greenpeace data.
The large area of the country, the colonization by the Spanish and the geographical isolation of some regions make it impossible to speak of a uniform Colombian culture. The regions of the country have developed differently over the decades and have been influenced by immigration from Europe and Arabia as well as by slaves brought in from Africa and Arabia. Since colonization, the Christian Catholic religion can be seen as a unifying feature to a certain extent, as over 90% of the population is baptized Catholic. Many of the following characteristics of individual subcultures in Colombia are comparable to those of other South and Central American countries.
In keeping with the country's geography, Colombian cuisine is very diverse with strong regional differences. The common denominator is the importance of rice, potatoes, beans and plantains. In the coastal lowlands, fish dominates as the main dish, while in the highlands, hearty dishes such as the ajiaco stew are more prevalent.
Colombian architecture has also made significant contributions. In addition to the outstanding colonial buildings that have been preserved in cities such as Cartagena or Mompox, there are also more recent buildings. The name Rogelio Salmona stands in particular for the modern buildings that characterize the face of many Colombian cities.
The word Paisa certainly comes from the word paisano (farmer), but in
Colombia it is considered to describe a subculture of those who come
from the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, the north
of the Valle del Cauca and the northeast of Tolima.
The Paisa is
considered productive, active, thrifty and entrepreneurial, but this
could well be the result of a variety of prejudices. Due to the
geographical location, which is very mountainous, the Paisas were very
independent of the culture of the Spaniards and the neighboring areas
during the Conquest. This subculture is also characterized by its own
accent, which is characterized by the peculiarity of voseo, a different
way of addressing people in Spanish.
The Caleños come from the Cauca Valley region. They are a cheerful people whose life is dominated by salsa dancing to salsa music. The fiesta on the Salsódromo is world famous and attracts thousands of visitors. The population is known for speaking slowly and taking their time. Instead of pan (bread) they say pam. That is why the residents living there are said to be "de huevóm" in all TV imitations or radio parodies, which means something like "stupid person who everyone takes advantage of or who doesn't take advantage of an opportunity".
A person from the Caribbean coastal region of Colombia, who is usually of African descent, is called a costeño. The Costeños are characterized as a cheerful and loud people. This subculture is particularly pronounced in the areas around the cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta. The foods common in this area, bananas, coconuts, rice and fish, are characteristic of the Costeños. Their accent can be recognized by the fact that the 's' at the end of the word is not pronounced and is suppressed if a consonant follows it (example: cohta instead of costa).
The Llaneros come from the tropical savannas around the Orinoco River. Since the division of Colombia and Venezuela in 1830, the culture has remained largely the same.
Colombia has a long history of art that goes back to pre-Columbian
times. Gold figures, jewelry and pottery are well known from these
times. In the capital Bogotá, many of these pieces are on display in the
Gold Museum, whose collection of pre-Columbian gold objects is
considered the largest of its kind. However, a large proportion of the
old gold figures have disappeared since the discovery of America, first
by the explorers and then by grave robbers. The various ethnic groups
continue to produce a wide variety of art, including the hand-woven
handbags (mochilas) and hammocks of the Guajiros.
The most famous
Colombian artists of the 20th century include Ómar Rayo, Enrique Grau,
Fernando Botero and Alejandro Obregón. Other outstanding artists of the
past decades include Edgar Negret, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar, Rodrigo
Arenas Betancourt, Doris Salcedo and the German-born Guillermo Wiedemann
and Leopold Richter.
The best-known Colombian writer is the Nobel Prize winner for literature
Gabriel García Márquez, who has achieved world fame with works such as
One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Other
famous writers are Jorge Isaacs, Álvaro Mutis, Tomás Carrasquilla,
Fernando Vallejo and José Eustasio Rivera. World-famous poets are José
Asunción Silva and Guillermo Valencia. The country is represented in
children's literature by the fable writer Rafael Pombo.
Bogotá
was chosen by UNESCO as the World Book Capital in 2007.
Colombian theater is part of Latin America's avant-garde. In particular, the Iberoamericano de Teatro Festival in Bogotá, organized every two years by Fanny Mikey, has become a must-see for Latin American theater artists. Barranquilla, Pasto and Riosucio have become known for their nationally renowned carnival celebrations.
Traditional Colombian music is very diverse. The music of the Caribbean
coast, where many Afro-Colombians live, is strongly influenced by
African rhythms, as can be heard in styles such as cumbia and the
related but melodic vallenato. A new style of music that has emerged in
this region of Colombia is champeta, which is also strongly influenced
by African and Caribbean influences. An example of a music and dance
style influenced by the Spanish conquerors is joropo, which is popular
in the Llanos, a region shared by Colombia and Venezuela.
The
traditional music of the Andean region around Bogotá, on the other hand,
is completely different; it is a mixture of Spanish and pre-Columbian
stylistic elements and is therefore similar to the folk music of the
highlands of Peru and Ecuador. In the rest of the country, traditional
music is mainly influenced by Spanish and Italian.
Salsa is also
very popular in Colombia, as in the rest of South America. Famous
Colombian salsa artists include Grupo Niche, Fruko y sus Tesos and Joe
Arroyo. The most famous musicians in Colombia at the moment are the
singers Shakira and Karol G as well as the singers J Balvin and Maluma.
The pop singer Juanes and the vallenato artist Carlos Vives have also
achieved international fame.
Since the 1990s, there has been a
constantly growing modern music culture in Colombia's major cities. In
1994, the Rock al Parque festival took place for the first time and is
now the largest free rock festival in Latin America. In recent years,
hip hop has also gained more and more recognition in Colombia's major
cities. The young people, who often live in ghetto-like neighborhoods,
identify with the Afro-American subculture because they too live on the
fringes of society. The Sociedad FB7 from Medellín toured Germany in
2005.
Colombia also has a long tradition of composing classical
music with a European influence. This begins with the sacred
compositions from the 17th century at the Cathedral of Bogotá, some of
which are now preserved in the cathedral archives. Compositions from the
18th and early 19th centuries have also been handed down.
"Classical" music production experienced a boom in the late 19th and
20th centuries, comparable to the development in other South American
countries after gaining independence. Particularly noteworthy here is
the composer Adolfo Mejía, whose works are very popular in Colombia.
Colombia has several professional symphony orchestras and several
vocational training centers for music professions.
Colombian
dance is also part of the cultural heritage, which has developed in many
regional forms.
Although Colombian film is not as well known internationally as the film
industry in Brazil or Cuba, representatives such as Sergio Cabrera have
gained recognition at film festivals in Europe. In this context, we
should also mention – more shallow – Colombian TV productions, such as
the telenovela format Yo soy Betty, la Fea, which is copied around the
world.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Colombia
Unesco has so
far declared six places in Colombia as World Heritage Sites:
Cartagena's port, fortifications and colonial monuments (C/1984)
Los
Katíos National Park (N/1994)
Santa Cruz de Mompox's historic center
(C/1995)
Tierradentro Archaeological Park (C/1995)
San Agustín
Archaeological Park (C/1995)
Malpelo Nature Reserve (N/2006)
The following are recognized as masterpieces of oral and intangible
cultural heritage:
Barranquilla Carnival (2003)
San Basilio de
Palenque Cultural Space (2005)
The most widely read newspapers are El Tiempo and, until it was
converted into a weekly newspaper, El Espectador. The publications El
Nuevo Siglo, El Colombiano, El País and La República, Vanguardia
Liberal, La Patria, El Heraldo, El Nuevo Dia and El Universal are also
published. The most well-known magazines are Semana (Politics), Cambio
(Politics), Portafolio (Economy), Cromos (Variety) and SoHo (Variety).
Officially, 413 medium wave and 217 FM radio stations broadcast.
There are around 10.5 million television receivers.
Radio is a
very popular medium in Colombia. There are a large number of state and
private radio stations. Many of the private radio stations are grouped
together in Cadenas (radio chains) and so many stations from Bogotá can
be received throughout the country. A special feature in Colombia are
the so-called hostage radios such as Las voces del secuestro ("The
Voices of the Kidnapping") on the Caracol station. In these special
programs, which are usually broadcast at night, the families of the many
people kidnapped by guerrillas or paramilitaries can send a message to
their relatives.
Colombia's television world consists of around
15 channels. Some Colombian television series, including many
telenovelas and family series such as Yo soy Betty, la fea, have become
export hits due to their low production costs and high quality. Yo soy
Betty, la fea has been the model for several other television series,
such as Verliebt in Berlin in Germany.
In Colombia today, there
is a great deal of freedom of the press. As in many countries, the
individual media are owned by only a few companies and are also used for
political purposes. The Organización Ardila Lülle, for example, owns
Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN), a large radio station, and since 1995 also
its own TV station RCN Televisión (RCNTV), as well as the largest music
publisher Sonolux. Companies and investments of the Santo Domingo family
with the Valorem group are (part) owners of Radio Caracol, Caracol TV,
Bogotá City TV and the newspaper El Espectador.
Colombia is internationally known for football and cycling.
Juan
Pablo Montoya was successful in Formula 1 for several years and now
drives in the IndyCar Series. In 2005, golfer María Isabel Baena won a
title for Colombia for the first time at the Match Play Championship
held in New Jersey, USA. Meanwhile, Colombian Camilo Villegas is in
second place behind the legendary player Tiger Woods in the 2006 Ford
Golf Championship in Miami. Baena, Villegas and Jesus Armando Amaya "La
Estrellita" are the country's strongest representatives in this unusual
discipline for a Latin American country. They promise a lot for the LPGA
and PGA in the coming years. The most famous tennis players are Fabiola
Zuluaga, Miguel Tobón and Alejandro Falla. Clara Juliana Guerrero is the
world's best bowler, a sport in which siblings Paola Rocío Gómez Ardila
and Jaime Andrés Gómez Ardila also represent the country.
Boxing is particularly popular on the coasts in Colombia. However, the infrastructure to promote this sport is not a priority for the state. Most of the boxers who later became famous have made it through their own means. Famous boxers include the legendary Antonio Cervantes "Kid Pambelé", who was the WBA junior world champion in the 140-pound weight class for four years, and Miguel "Happy" Lora, who held the WBC bantamweight world title in the 118-pound weight class between 1985 and 1989. Another up-and-coming boxer who is currently one of the best in the middleweight division is Edison Miranda.
Caterine Ibargüen won the gold medal in the triple jump at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with a jump of 15.17 meters. Óscar Figueroa won the gold medal in weightlifting in the 62 kg weight class at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with a jump of 318 kg.
A football league was planned in 1924 and sealed by joining the
Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) in 1936. The national
team played in the World Cup for the first time in 1962 in Chile. They
only received one point from three games, but played a historic match
with a 4:4 draw against the USSR. In 1964, the Bundesliga "Federación de
Fútbol de Colombia (Fedebol)" was founded with the support of FIFA. In
1974, Colombia was awarded the right to host the 1986 World Cup by FIFA,
but the World Cup ultimately went to Mexico in 1981 due to disagreements
between private and state funding.
The national football team's
greatest success to date is the Copa América title won in 2001, which
was also held in Colombia. Other highlights were the qualification for
the 1962, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2014 and 2018 World Cups and the historic
5-0 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires. This game served as
qualification for the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
Baseball has been played professionally in Colombia since 1948 in the Liga Colombiana de Béisbol Profesional. The league consists of six teams. Colombia's best baseball talents play in the MLB in North America.
After football, cycling can be considered the most popular sport among
Colombians. The first stage race in South America, the Vuelta a
Colombia, took place in Colombia in 1951.
The first well-known
Colombian cyclist in the Tour de France was Martín Emilio Rodríguez, who
finished the race in 1977 in 27th place. Fabio Parra won three stages in
1988 and finished third overall. Luis "Lucho" Alberto Herrera won the
polka dot jersey of the winner of the mountain classification twice in
1985 and 1987 and took a total of five stage wins, making him a
Colombian national hero.
In 2013, after strong previous
performances, Nairo Quintana won a stage of the Tour de France, the
polka dot jersey, the junior classification and secured second place in
the overall classification, once again sparking great cycling euphoria
in Colombia.
Mariana Pajón won the gold medal twice (at the 2012
Olympic Games in London and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro)
and the silver medal once (2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo) in the BMX
competition.
In 2019, Egan Bernal became the first Colombian to
win the Tour de France.
For several years, Colombia has been one of the strongest nations in the world in this discipline. The most famous inline skater is Cecilia Baena (2001 Colombian Sportswoman of the Year), who won nine medals at the 2005 Pan American Championships. In 2004 she became three-time world champion in Italy. She also won the world's largest inline race, the Berlin Marathon with 10,000 participants. Other well-known world champions and world record holders are Diego Rosero and Jorge Andrés Botero. The national team won the world championship titles in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Tejo, a modern version of an Indian game called Turmequé, has been played in the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá for over 500 years and was declared a national sport by the Colombian Congress in June 2000. The modern version involves throwing an iron hemisphere, the tejo, into a metal circle, forcing the black powder bags, the mechas, placed at the four cardinal points, to make a loud bang. Whoever is closest to the center wins the game if none of the mechas are hit. If a mecha is hit, the individual player or the player's team wins, regardless of who is closest to the center. The games are traditionally accompanied by alcoholic drinks such as beer and aguardiente. The breweries are therefore naturally the biggest sponsors.
Special Olympics Colombia was founded before 2011 and has participated in the Special Olympics World Games several times.
Colombia had 51.9 million inhabitants in 2022, making it the most
populous country in South America after Brazil. Annual population growth
was + 0.7%. A surplus of births contributed to population growth (birth
rate: 13.9 per 1,000 inhabitants vs. death rate: 7.4 per 1,000
inhabitants). The statistical number of births per woman in 2022 was
1.7, that of the Latin America and Caribbean region was 1.8. The life
expectancy of Colombian residents from birth in 2022 was 73.7 years
(women: 77.1, men: 70.3). The median age of the population in 2021 was
30.8 years. In 2023, 21.1 percent of the population was under 15 years
old, while the proportion of people over 64 was 9.4 percent of the
population."
Due to its history, Colombia has a very diversified
population structure. 74% of the total population lives in the
metropolitan areas and cities, mainly in the valleys of the Río
Magdalena and the Río Cauca and on the Caribbean coast. About 1/6 of the
population lives in Bogotá alone, the capital and center of industry. On
average, 42 inhabitants live per square kilometer. 48.6% are men and
51.4% are women.
Colombia is characterized by a very uneven
population distribution. 39 million inhabitants in the Andean region and
the Caribbean lowlands are compared to only one million in the Amazon,
Orinoco and Chocó, i.e. around half of the country's area is very
sparsely populated (see also below on rural exodus and displacement).
More More than two-thirds of all Colombians live in cities.
In
contrast to many other countries in Latin America, Colombia is
characterized by a decentralized city system. In addition to Bogotá,
other cities with a population of over a million have developed,
including Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla. In addition, there are a
large number of regional centers with 200,000–600,000 inhabitants, such
as Bucaramanga and Cartagena, Cúcuta in the northeast and Pereira,
Manizales and Ibagué in the center, as well as Neiva, Popayán and Pasto
in the south. These cities are experiencing very dynamic growth.
The proportion of the urban population has increased from 45.3% of the
total population in 1960 to 81.4% in 2020. 30 cities have more than
100,000 inhabitants. The eastern plains of Colombia, which consist of
nine departments and make up 54% of the area, are home to only three
percent of the population, giving them a density of one person per
square kilometer.
Migration from the countryside to the city is
massive and is exacerbated by the fact that a large proportion of
internally displaced people are fleeing the armed conflict and human
rights violations to the big cities. Many settle on the outskirts of
safer regions and are repeatedly forcibly expelled by the police.
According to the international non-governmental organization CODHES,
280,000 people were displaced in Colombia in 2010 alone. This brings the
total number of internally displaced people in the country to 5,200,000.
The government puts the number of displaced people much lower, with
109,358 new displaced people in 2010 and 3,600,000 in total. The large
discrepancy between the figures provided by the non-governmental
organization CODHES and those provided by the government is due to the
fact that a significant proportion of the displaced persons are not
recorded in the state register of displaced persons (RUPD). According to
the Comisión de Seguimiento de la Sociedad Civil (CSSC), 34.3% of the
displaced persons are not registered. Of these, 72.8% had not registered
as displaced persons with the relevant authorities and 26.2% of them
were not registered even though they had registered with the relevant
authorities. The daily newspaper junge Welt reported that in the first
half of 2008 alone, an average of 1,500 people per day were displaced
from their villages or neighborhoods in Colombia. Against the backdrop
of the bitter battle for land that has been going on for centuries, the
majority of displaced persons are targeted at small farmers and rural
communities, driven by national and international commercial interests.
According to Human Rights Watch, 140,000 people were displaced in 2015
and 35,000 in 2016. Over 30% (1.3 million) of the internally displaced
are Afro-Colombians and 15% (600,000) are indigenous. 96% of
Afro-Colombians who are registered as internally displaced live below
the poverty line.
During the colonial period, the population was made up of three
different groups: the indigenous population, the European colonists,
mostly from Spain, and the imported slaves of sub-Saharan African
origin. Connections between these groups were and are widespread, so
that the country's current population consists of a mixture of these
groups.
The largest proportion of the population, at 47%, are
mestizos, whose ancestors were Europeans and indigenous people.
The light-skinned population includes the whites, descendants of the
European colonists, who make up 40% of the population. During the
colonial period, Colombia was settled by immigrants from all regions of
Spain. In the early 18th and 19th centuries, French, Italians, Germans
and Irish immigrated to Colombia. Other immigrants came from the United
Kingdom, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and other
regions of the Middle East.
6.7% of the population have black
African ancestors or are descendants of black African slaves and
Europeans. Colombians of partial or complete black African descent are
collectively referred to as Afro-Colombians. The Afro-Colombian
population lives mostly in the Caribbean and Pacific coastal regions and
their immediate hinterland. In the village of San Basilio de Palenque,
Palenquero is spoken, the only Spanish-based creole language in Latin
America. The inhabitants there are mostly descendants of escaped slaves.
The proportion of indigenous people in the total population is 4.3%,
or around one and a half million people. They are divided into 102
ethnic groups. The indigenous population lives primarily in the
highlands of the Cordilleras, especially in the southwest of the
country, as well as in the jungle areas of the Amazon, the Pacific
lowlands and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. An overview of the
indigenous peoples of South America can be found in the list of
indigenous peoples of South America.
Only 0.3% of the Colombian
population were foreigners, but three percent of Colombians live abroad,
35.3% of whom live in the United States, 23.4% in Spain and 18.5% in
Venezuela. As part of the economic crisis in the neighboring country,
over 2.3 million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia by 2021.
Since colonial times, Spanish has been the only official language in
Colombia. This makes Colombia the second largest Spanish-speaking
country after Mexico and ahead of Spain. The Spanish spoken in Colombia
is relatively close to the Castilian (castellano) of Spain, a more
courtly Spanish of the former conquistadors.
Colombian Spanish
also has regional peculiarities, for example, instead of the personal
pronoun tú, vos (voseo) is used for the 2nd person singular (Valle del
Cauca, Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío and Risaralda), while in Boyacá,
Cundinamarca and Bogotá (Altiplano-Cundiboyacense) the 2nd person
singular sumercé is used instead of usted as a special form of
politeness. As is generally the case in Latin America, the 2nd person
plural vosotros is replaced by the 3rd person plural ustedes, which is
only used as a form of politeness in European Spanish.
In
addition to the predominant Spanish, numerous minority languages
spoken by the indigenous population have survived. In 1999, linguists
Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald stated that there
were 66 living indigenous languages in the Colombian Amazon region,
spoken by around half a million people at the time.
An expression
of the gradually growing appreciation of indigenous languages in
Colombia is the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (Consejo de
Estado de Colombia) in January 2020 to have its judgments translated
into eight indigenous languages in the future, namely Ikun, Kamëntsá,
Kogui, Nasa Yuwe, Tatuyo, Uitoto, Wiwa and Wayuunaiki, the latter being
the most widely spoken indigenous language in the country, as well as
the country's two creole languages.
An English creole is spoken
on the islands of San Andrés and Providencia (Criollo sanandresano), a
Spanish creole in San Basilio de Palenque (Criollo palenquero).
In Colombia, freedom of religion is recognized as a fundamental right,
but constitutional bodies are not always able to guarantee religious
beliefs. The predominant religion is Christianity, to which around 90%
of the population belong. Of these, a good 70% are Roman Catholic.
Evangelical religious communities, which make up around 20%, have seen
an increase in membership in recent years, similar to other Latin
American countries. The Protestant minority is made up of various ethnic
groups; many of them come from the USA, but also from Great Britain,
Germany and the Netherlands. In addition to the communities that arose
from the missionary work of New Apostolics (around 6,000 church
members), Lutherans, Calvinists, Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists,
Assemblies of God, Jehovah's Witnesses (166,049), Mormons, Mennonites
and charismatic movements, there is also a diocese of the Episcopal
Church of the United States of America in Colombia. Judaism and Islam
are less represented. About one percent of the population professes
indigenous South American religions.
Since 2018, the country has
been listed by Open Doors on the World Watch List of the 50 countries in
which Christians are most persecuted. The pressure on Christians,
predominantly evangelical, free church or indigenous, increased steadily
from 2018 (49th place) to 2022 (22nd place), and the situation is
currently easing somewhat (2023 34th place). The guerrillas and other
criminal groups, who operate almost unrestrictedly in the country and
are fighting for territorial control, threaten and murder Christian
community leaders and other activists who are committed to human rights,
the environment and peace; especially in neglected regions of the
country to which state law enforcement agencies have little access.
Within indigenous communities, which are mostly characterized by
Catholicism with indigenous customs and traditions, members who abandon
the religious practices of their communities are persecuted. Open Doors
also complains of increasing "extreme" secularism. It leads to
“intolerance towards Christian viewpoints in public spaces.”
The spirit of optimism in Colombia has also affected universities and
science. The country offers high quality standards in education, a
well-developed university system and a wide range of future-oriented
research topics. It consciously relies on strategic networking and
international cooperation in science. "Scientific relations with Germany
are particularly important to Colombia," emphasizes Ambassador Juan Mayr
Maldonado. The intensive exchange that has existed for many years is
gaining new momentum in view of the positive developments in the country
and is opening up good prospects thanks to numerous funding
opportunities.
From 1936 to 1938, the school reformer Fritz
Karsen, who had emigrated from Germany, worked as an educational advisor
to the government in Colombia. In recognition of his services to the
Colombian education system, he was granted Colombian citizenship on
February 26, 1937. In Bogotá, Karsen worked with the architect Leopold
Rother, who had also fled from Germany, with whom he pushed forward the
plans for the Bogotá university campus. In the spring of 1938, Karsen
had to leave Colombia for health reasons and moved to the USA. Rother
stayed in Colombia, where he was able to complete numerous important
buildings until his death in 1978.
In Colombia, education is
divided into five levels: "educación inicial" (early childhood
education), "educación preescolar" (preschool), "educación básica"
(primary school, five years and secondary school nine years), "educación
media" (high school, eleven years) and "educación superior"
(university). The Ministerio de Educación Nacional is responsible for
education. On average, state educational institutions are cheaper for
families than private ones. In addition, non-state-recognized degrees
are also offered, mostly by private technical schools, which often aim
to make the trainee independent.
At preschool age, parents are
offered kindergartens, almost exclusively from the private sector. The
last two years before primary school are called Kinder (four to five
years) and "transición" (transition, five to six years). A child in the
Transición age group is expected to have already started learning to
read and write.
A child's schooling is limited to nine years,
five of which are in primary school and four in high school. Usually
only for families who have the necessary financial means, schools offer
two additional years of Educación Media, also called Bachillerato
(roughly equivalent to the German Abitur). Students who do the
Bachillerato usually aim to go to university.
There are 82
universities in Colombia, 32 of which are state-run and 50 private (16
of which are church-run). There are also 120 "Instituciones
Universitarias" (only Bachelor's degree), 51 "Instituciones
Tecnológicas" (technical and scientific vocational training) and 35
"Instituciones Técnicas" (technical vocational training). In total, 288
institutions are part of the higher education sector in the country.
Technical degrees are awarded after three years, graduate degrees
(comparable to Bachelor's) after four years and diplomas after five
years. Master's and doctoral degrees are also offered, the latter only
by state-recognized institutions. According to the English magazine
Times Higher Education (THE), the best Colombian university is the
Universidad de Los Andes, followed by the Universidad Nacional de
Colombia. Studying in Colombia is known in Latin America for its high
level. There are four German schools where some of the lessons are
taught in German; in Barranquilla, Bogotá, Medellín and Cali.
The
literacy rate in 2015 was 94.7% (higher in urban areas). In the 2015
PISA ranking, Colombian students ranked 62nd out of 72 countries in
mathematics, 58th in science and 55th in reading comprehension. This
puts performance well below the OECD average.
The country's health expenditure amounted to 9.0% of gross domestic
product in 2021. In 2020, 23.2 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants practiced
in Colombia. The mortality rate among children under 5 was 12.4 per
1,000 live births in 2022. The life expectancy of Colombian residents
from birth was 73.7 years in 2022.
The medical infrastructure is
not evenly distributed across the country; coastal areas and rural
regions are disadvantaged here. Due to malnutrition and poor housing
conditions, tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery and typhus are widespread
in the medically underserved areas. To remedy this situation, the
Colombian state has taken out loans from the World Bank and used
revenues from oil production to build the health system. Maternity and
dental treatment are supported by social insurance. Workers in the
industrial sector are also insured against accidents and occupational
disability, and their relatives also receive support. Social insurance
is financed by employees, employers and the state through contributions.
Colombia has been a democratic republic since 1886 with a politically
strong position of the president based on the US model. The (official)
characterization of Colombia as a democracy is based primarily on formal
criteria such as regular elections and superficial institutional
stability. In qualitative terms, however, Colombian democracy has
deficits.
The president is elected directly by the people for a
four-year term and may not run for re-election. A vice president helps
him with his official duties. The president can dissolve parliament and
force new elections.
As a presidential republic, Colombia is
constitutionally divided into executive, legislative and judicial
branches. The parliament consists of two chambers, called Congress, and
is made up of the House of Representatives (Cámara de Representantes)
with 166 seats and the Senate (Senado), which represents the 32 regions,
with 102 seats. The current constitution was passed on July 5, 1991
following a referendum and is considered one of the most progressive -
and comprehensive - in the world. Almost all offices, from the president
to the representative, are elected directly by the people. Anyone over
the age of 18 is considered an adult, and only members of the army and
prisoners are not allowed to vote. The President of the Senate and the
Senate and Congress representatives are elected for a term of four
years.
Although the executive is formally subject to the control
of the judiciary (Corte Suprema, Corte Constitucional, Consejo de
Estado, Consejo Superior de la Judicatura), the legislature and even an
ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), in political practice the president is
heavily dominant. The Congress, characterized by clientelism and the
enforcement of particular interests, has lost more and more of its
control function in recent decades.
The constitutional position
of the president vis-à-vis parliament (veto power) is unusually strong
compared to other government systems in the hemisphere. The traditional
elites still determine the distribution of goods and the exercise of
political power. The cartel-like consensus democracy that emerged during
the Frente Nacional (1958–62) has thus only undergone a superficial
change. Qualitative democratic criteria such as participation and
pluralism, on the other hand, have only been implemented to a limited
extent. The current government's policy based on massive militarization
(seguridad democráctica), coupled with the increase in the powers of the
executive (Estado comunitario), are diametrically opposed to the
development of a strong civil society and a stable constitutional state.
International organizations such as Amnesty International therefore
criticize the current government's negative human and civil rights
record.
Colombia is a member of the Organization of American
States (OAS), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
(CELAC) and the Andean Community (CAN), and was a member of the Union of
South American Nations (UNASUR) between 2008 and 2018. Within the
framework of the CAN, Colombia is seeking to conclude an association
agreement with the EU. Colombia is also a member of the World Bank, the
WTO, the IDB and the IMF, the G3 and the United Nations. Accession
negotiations to Mercosur are underway. In recent months, Colombia has
made initial efforts to agree a free trade agreement with the Central
American states of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Colombia has
concluded a bilateral free trade agreement with the USA, which is still
pending ratification by the North American Parliament in June 2007.
Colombia has working relations with the OECD. It joined the OECD on
April 28, 2020.
The Colombian national flag bears the
"Bolivarian" colors of yellow, blue and red. The national coat of arms
shows the Isthmus of Panama, the condor as the heraldic animal and the
motto "Liberty and Order". The Colombian national anthem, entitled "O
Unfading Glory", was created at the end of the 18th and beginning of the
19th century. It was written by Rafael Núñez and set to music by the
Italian Oreste Sindici. It became the country's official anthem in 1928.
Only the first verse is sung on official occasions. The first anthem of
Colombia is generally considered to be a folk song from the south of the
country, "La Guaneña".
Partido Social de Unidad Nacional (Uribist, liberal-conservative)
Partido Liberal Colombiano (social liberal, member of the Socialist
International)
Partido Conservador Colombiano (conservative)
Movimiento de Salvación Nacional (conservative)
Movimiento 19 de
Abril (former party of the guerrilla group of the same name)
Polo
Democrático Independiente
Union Democratica
Unión Patriótica
(communist)
Partido Comunista de Colombia (communist)
Movimiento
Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario
Alianza Verde (Greens)
Cambio Radical
Centro Democratico
Movimiento Independiente de
Renovación Absoluta (MIRA)
Fuerza Alternativea Revolucionaria del
Común, former FARC guerrillas, 10 guaranteed seats in Congress according
to the 2017 peace agreement, despite a voter share of less than one
percent.
One focus of Colombian foreign policy is regional integration. Colombia
has a particularly close relationship with the partner countries of the
Pacific Alliance (Chile, Peru and Mexico), which has made significant
progress in integration and deepened mutual relations in a short period
of time. Colombia is also a member of the Andean Community (CAN), the
Association of Caribbean States (AEC) and the Union of South American
States (UNASUR).
With the aim of increasing regional cooperation,
the Santos government has significantly improved relations with
neighboring countries. However, relations with Venezuela have
deteriorated considerably since mid-2015, as can be seen from the border
being closed for over a year. The land border with Venezuela was only
reopened in August 2016, although the Venezuelan government continues to
close borders sporadically. At the beginning of 2019, Venezuela finally
broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia.
The United States
is an important ally of Colombia. Colombia is one of the most
pro-American countries in Latin America and relations between the two
countries are close. Both countries signed a joint free trade agreement
in October 2011. The Asia-Pacific region is also of increasing political
and economic interest to Colombia.
An armed conflict has been simmering in Colombia for decades between
left-wing guerrilla troops, right-wing paramilitaries and the regular
Colombian army. All parties involved have committed and continue to
commit serious human rights violations. The majority of the victims are
civilians. Members of indigenous groups, Afro-Colombians and small
farmers who live in areas that are of particular strategic or economic
interest to the conflicting parties are particularly at risk. Millions
of people have been forcibly displaced from their homes during this
conflict. Human rights activists, journalists, trade unionists,
spokespeople for victims' associations and victims of paramilitary
organizations who demand the restitution of their land or compensation
are also particularly at risk.
In the case of displacement, the
state often refuses to recognize the victims as victims of displacement.
As a result, the official figures and those of non-governmental
organizations differ greatly. According to the state registry Registro
Único de Víctimas, just over 4.7 million people were displaced between
1996 and 2012, while the non-governmental organization CODHES estimates
that more than 5.7 million people were displaced between 1985 and 2012.
In 2005, the Colombian government passed a law for "justice and
peace" (justicia y paz), which was intended to lay the foundation for
the reintegration process of the demobilized and the compensation of
their victims. However, the successes have been meager.
In 2011,
the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Colombia, Christian Salazar, declared the enforced disappearance of
people to be one of the "most serious human rights crimes." Over the
past 30 years, more than 57,200 people have disappeared in Colombia, of
which only 15,600 appear on official victim lists, although the Attorney
General's Office has probably been informed of more than 26,500 cases of
disappearances.
According to a report by Global Witness, Colombia
was the country with the second highest murder rate of environmental
activists in 2018. In addition, there were attacks on leaders of
indigenous and Afro-Colombian origin, trade unionists and other human
rights activists. In the first half of 2019, more than 300 members of
social organizations were killed.
Under the right-wing
conservative President Iván Duque, corruption, police violence and
social inequality increased, leading to major nationwide protests from
2019 to 2021. With the election of the left-wing Gustavo Petro in 2022,
the situation regarding democracy and human rights improved again.
According to Human Rights Watch, both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) continued to
commit serious violations of the human rights of civilians and
international law on several occasions in 2010. The FARC in particular
is often responsible for murders, threats, forced displacement, the
recruitment of child soldiers and hostage-taking. The government
estimates the number of children recruited by the FARC, ELN and the Clan
del Golfo drug cartel between 2000 and 2020 at 14,000.
Both the
FARC and the ELN continue to use the internationally banned
anti-personnel landmines, which have killed both security forces and
numerous civilians.
Since 2003, 30,000 members of paramilitary groups are said to have been
demobilized. However, there is strong evidence that many of them were
either not paramilitaries or had not renounced armed struggle. Many
supposedly demobilized troops continued their actions under new
leadership, mostly from the former middle command, to maintain control
of numerous areas. Acts of terror against civilians are very common.
According to the Colombian police, these organizations had around 7,350
members in July 2010. However, the NGO Instituto de Estudios para el
Desarrollo y la Paz (Institute for Studies on Development and Peace)
estimated the number of armed fighters at around 6,000, spread across 29
of Colombia's 32 departments. The support of official security units is
a major reason for the resurgence of the successor organizations.
Like the former paramilitaries, their successors are responsible for
drug trafficking, forced recruitment, widespread abuses such as murders,
massacres, rape and forced displacement. According to the Colombian
government, the paramilitary heirs known as Bacrim were responsible for
47 percent of the 15,400 murders committed in Colombia in 2010.
Colombia's Supreme Court has made great progress in recent years in
investigating the links between members of Congress and paramilitaries.
In the wake of the so-called "para scandal," investigations were
launched into up to 150 members of Congress, most of them from former
President Álvaro Uribe's coalition. Ultimately, 20 charges were brought.
Uribe's government had regularly tried to sabotage such investigations,
including by publicly or personally attacking members of the Supreme
Court. The new President Santos promised to respect the independence of
the courts.
A request by the Colombian Coalition Against Torture
(CCCT) to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
was rejected by the Colombian government. Ratification would enable
independent international organizations to carry out inspections of
places of detention. The rejection was justified by the fact that the
protocol was unnecessary in Colombia because various mechanisms existed
at all levels of government to prevent torture.
The security forces are accused of murdering a total of 2,399 people between 1981 and 2012. Most of the known illegal executions took place between 2006 and 2008, when Juan Manuel Santos was Minister of Defense. Among them were the so-called "false positives" (falsos positivos), civilians who were murdered and dressed up in FARC uniforms in order to receive a bounty offered by the government for each FARC fighter killed. After the number of illegal executions by military personnel had decreased sharply in 2009, there were 58 percent more cases and 70 percent more victims in 2010 than in 2009, according to the Colombian non-governmental organization CINEP. Back then, there were seven cases with 16 victims, while in 2010 there were twelve cases with 23 victims. In contrast to the past, the victims are no longer presented as guerrilla fighters, but as criminals. Between 2001 and 2010, there were a total of 887 extrajudicial executions, as well as cases of torture, expulsion and other crimes by official police or military units. Investigations were carried out in 3,600 cases. The military justice system often obstructs such investigations by refusing to refer the cases to normal civilian courts.
The Colombian armed forces are divided into the army (Ejército Nacional
de Colombia), the navy (Armada Nacional), the air force (Fuerza Aérea
Colombiana) and the federal police (Policía Nacional de Colombia). In
Colombia, there is a general military service of 12 to 22 months for
men. Women can voluntarily choose to serve in the armed forces. In
practice, however, conscription is often circumvented (there are legal
exceptions: "bachilleres", students, only children, etc.), which is why
the armed forces are almost exclusively recruited from the lower
classes. Due to this social injustice, President Álvaro Uribe has
announced that he will introduce a professional army in the long term.
The armed forces are directly subordinate to the president, who is
the commander-in-chief. Since President Uribe took office (2002), the
number of soldiers has increased by more than half. In 2001, around
190,000 men served as soldiers, but there are currently around 250,000
soldiers serving in all areas. As part of the "democratic security"
policy, this number is to increase to around 270,000 soldiers by 2010.
In addition, there are around 150,000 police officers, some of whom
belong to the military police.
Plan Colombia legitimizes the
armed forces to also carry out police duties, especially in the “war on
drugs.”
Between 1861 and 1886, Colombia was a federal republic and consisted of
the nine states of Antioquia, Bolívar, Boyacá, Cauca, Cundinamarca,
Magdalena, Panamá, Santander and Tolima. In 1886, the states were
dissolved and replaced by 23 departments. In the early 20th century,
another four intendencias and five comisarías were set up to administer
the sparsely populated jungle areas of the Amazon. In 1991, all
intendencias and comisarías were converted into regular departments.
Colombia is politically divided into 32 departments and a capital
district (Distrito Capital). Each department has a governor (gobernador)
and a department council (asamblea departamental), who are elected by
the people every four years. The governor cannot be re-elected for an
immediately following term. The departments are further divided into
1121 municipalities (municipios) or municipality-like administrative
units (corregimientos departamentales abbreviated: C.D.), which are
governed by a popularly elected mayor (Alcalde) and a municipal council
(Consejo Municipal).
Due to their special urban structure, ten
municipalities are considered districts (Distritos); they are also
governed by a mayor and a district council (Consejo Distrital):
Bogotá is an exception as a federal district and continues to be
dependent on the Cundinamarca department.
Barranquilla officially
forms the special, industrial and port district of Barranquilla
(Distrito Especial, Industrial y Portuario de Barranquilla abbreviated:
Distrito Barranquilla).
Santa Marta (Distrito Turístico, Cultural e
Histórico de Santa Marta)
Cartagena (Distrito Turístico y Cultural de
Cartagena de Indias)
In 2007, Cúcuta, Popayán, Tunja, Buenaventura,
Turbo and Tumaco were also declared special districts.
List of
departments, their respective capitals in brackets:
Amazon (Leticia)
Antioquia (Medellin)
Arauca (Arauca)
Atlantico (Barranquilla)
Bolivar (Cartagena de Indias)
Boyacá (Tunja)
Caldas (Manizales)
Caqueta (Florence)
Casanare (Yopal)
Cauca (Popayan)
Cesar
(Valledupar)
Chocó (Quibdó)
Córdoba (Monteria)
Cundinamarca
(Bogota)
Guainía (Inírida)
Guaviare (San Jose del Guaviare)
Huila (Neiva)
La Guajira (Riohacha)
Magdalene (Santa Martha)
Meta (Villavicencio)
Narino (pasto)
Norte de Santander (Cúcuta)
Putumayo (Mocoa)
Quindio (Armenia)
Risaralda (Pereira)
San
Andrés and Providencia (San Andrés)
Santander (Bucaramanga)
Sucre
(Sincelejo)
Tolima (Ibague)
Valle del Cauca (Cali)
Vaupés
(Mitu)
Vichada (Puerto Carreno)
Bogotá – Distrito Capital
The departments can also be found in the Colombian postal codes. They
are coded in the first two of six digits.
Colombia's economy has been growing continuously since the 1990s, making
it the largest growth market in South America after Chile. Over the past
20 years, the consumer goods and basic materials industries have
expanded significantly. Today, the food and textile industries play the
largest role.
Colombia is generally considered to have great
economic potential. This is due, among other things, to advanced
industrialization and the large amount of raw materials.
In a
ranking of the most business-friendly countries in the world, compiled
by the World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation, Colombia
was ranked 37th in 2009, after St. Lucia and ahead of Azerbaijan
(Singapore was 1st), and is therefore considered a positive example of
financial stability and market reforms.
A large part of the
Colombian economy is directly or indirectly influenced by the
cultivation and production of illegal drugs. The aid organization Bread
for the World reported in 2009 that around 70% of global cocaine
production comes from Colombia. Farmers grow coca in particular, but
also opium poppies, because they expect a better income than from
producing food or coffee; and pressure from drug cartels often prevents
coca farmers from switching to legal goods.
The unemployment rate
in 2017 was 10.5%. In 2011, 17% of all workers worked in agriculture,
62% in the service sector and 21% in industry. A large proportion of
jobs are informal. The total number of employees is estimated at 25.8
million in 2017, 42.9% of whom are women.
In the Global
Competitiveness Index, which measures a country's competitiveness,
Colombia ranks 66th out of 137 countries (as of 2017-2018). In the Index
of Economic Freedom, the country ranks 37th out of 180 countries in
2017.
After days of protests, Alberto Carrasquilla - who also
sits on the board of the Banco de la República (central bank) - resigned
as Minister of Economy in early May 2021.
In Colombia, the number
of people affected by absolute poverty, i.e. those with at least five
poverty indicators, was reduced much faster in the first decade of the
21st century than in the decades before. While 49 percent of the
population were affected by serious poverty in 2003, this proportion
fell to 27 percent in 2012. Nevertheless, Colombia remained a country
with comparatively high social inequality. The Gini index of income
distribution fell only slightly from 0.57 to 0.54 between 2002 and 2012,
putting Colombia well above the OECD average. According to a study
published in 2009 by the National University of Bogotá, the Gini index
is 0.59. The head of the study, Ricardo Bonilla, stressed that Colombia
has the worst value in "this degrading category" in all of Latin
America. In recent years, the low and middle income segments of the
population in particular have been pushed into precarious employment,
and their incomes have fallen. Only a third of the country's employees
have social and health insurance. The richest 20 percent of the
population have 62 percent of the total income and are therefore
responsible for the majority of the country's consumption. The study
puts the proportion of the very poor at 18 percent. In general, life in
the city is better than in the country, with life in the capital coming
out the worst compared to all other metropolitan areas, at 19 percent
below the standard. Great progress has been made in the area of
education, with only 2.4 percent of children not attending school
regularly, compared to eight percent in 1993. The number of families
sleeping three or more to a room has also fallen from 15.4 percent to 11
percent, but families living in inadequate accommodation has only fallen
from 11.6 percent to 10.4 percent.
The unemployment rate for 2020 is estimated at 14.5% or 4.75 million workers, but in the big cities 47.1% of employees are without a contract. New jobs are often only seasonal. The most dynamic employment sectors are trade and construction. Colombia is at the bottom of the OECD in terms of work-life balance (as of 2021). Almost 27 percent of employees work at least 50 hours a week. That is more than twice the OECD average.
Colombia has signed or is negotiating free trade agreements with more
than a dozen countries; the Colombia-US Free Trade Agreement entered
into force in May 2012. The US and Colombia have benefited from the FTA,
but Colombia's ability to take full advantage of its increased access to
American markets continues to be limited by the lack of export
diversification.
The diversification of the Colombian economy is
still not satisfactory. Coffee now plays an important but minor role,
accounting for around 15% of export earnings. With the globalization of
the economy, other products have come to the fore, such as bananas, cut
flowers, emeralds, exotic fruits, sugar cane and sugar, tobacco, rice,
industrial products, fashion and designer goods, clothing, textiles,
leather goods, chemicals, food, petroleum, natural gas and petroleum
derivatives, coal and coal derivatives, gold and nickel. The most
important imports are motor vehicles, telecommunications equipment,
chemical products and intermediate products, iron and steel products,
paper and cardboard, polyethylene and agricultural products.
The
country ranks 17th in exports of agricultural products to the USA.
The most important trading partner is the USA, which accounts for
40% of total exports. The second most important trading partner is the
Andean Community countries, followed by the European Union. The
country's main trading partners in Latin America are: Venezuela, Mexico,
Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Trade with the People's Republic
of China is also becoming increasingly important. In terms of foreign
investment in Colombia, the USA ranks first, followed by Spain [2020:
$1,811 million, or 29.1% of total investment.]
In December 2012,
the European Parliament ratified a free trade agreement with Colombia
and Peru to facilitate trade between Europe and the two Latin American
countries. However, environmental organizations such as Save the
Rainforest criticize the fact that the agreement does not contain
binding environmental and human rights standards. An EU report states
that without such guidelines, the free trade agreement endangers water
quality and biodiversity in Colombia and Peru and leads to the
destruction of sensitive ecosystems. Advantages for Colombia are:
Up to 62,000 tons of sugar can be exported to the EU duty-free. This
quota will grow by 3% per year.
Products made from sugar can be
exported to the EU up to 20,000 tons. This quota will also grow by 3%
per year.
Ethanol and biodiesel, roasted coffee, palm oil and tobacco
can be exported duty-free.
Flowers can be exported in unlimited
quantities.
Fruit and vegetables can largely be sold duty-free. For
bananas, the tariff is reduced to € 148 and will continue to be reduced
to € 75 per ton by 2020.
Up to 5,600 tons of meat may be exported.
This quota is expected to grow by 10% per year.
In 2016, the national budget included expenditures of the equivalent of
84.2 billion US dollars, compared to revenues of the equivalent of 76.0
billion US dollars. This results in a budget deficit of 2.0% of GDP.
The national debt was 47.6% of GDP in 2016.
In 2020, the
share of government expenditure (in % of GDP) was in the following
areas:
Health: 9.0%
Education: 4.9%
Military: 2.9% (2023)
Since the new constitution of 1991, government investment in infrastructure has declined, while private investment has increased. As a result, private sector participation in infrastructure projects in transport, electricity and water supply has increased rapidly. Since 1994, parts of the highway network have been awarded as concessions to private companies, who to date manage 10% to 15% of the road network. These routes are financed through tolls.
Together with the 112,998 km road network, of which only around 26,000
km are paved, Colombia has one of the worst transport infrastructures in
South and Central America. At around 100 m/km², the road development is
below the Latin American average of 118 m/km².
One of the main
connecting roads is the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska to
southern Chile and connects North America with South America. However,
in the Darién jungle, in the border region between Panama and Colombia,
there is a gap, the so-called Tapón del Darién (also known by the
English name Darien Gap), which has not yet been closed - among other
things for reasons of epidemic prevention and to protect the rainforest
area there.
At the end of the 2010s, numerous major projects were
started, including several tunnels in Antioquia and Armenia under the
Central Cordillera to improve Bogotá's connection to Medellín and Cali,
as well as Medellín's connection to the Caribbean coast and Cali's
connection to the Pacific port of Buenaventura.
The country's
road traffic is considered unsafe. In 2013, there were a total of 16.8
traffic deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in Colombia. By comparison: In
Germany, there were 4.3 deaths in the same year. In total, 8,100 people
lost their lives in traffic.
The bus network is privately owned throughout the country, including in the capital, and can seem confusing. The TransMilenio system, which is based in the capital, is also privately operated, but is subject to greater state control. This is more like a subway, because the lanes are used exclusively for the TransMilenio bus service. Similar bus systems have been introduced in most large cities (e.g. Masivo Integrado de Occidente). The most common form of transport between cities and villages is the intercity bus. Various bus companies offer a variety of comfort and price classes. Bus stations are available in almost every city. In urban transport, there are hardly any bus stops outside of the TransMilenio system. The bus stops almost everywhere on request.
Colombia has a 3304 km long rail network with 914 mm gauge and a 150 km long standard gauge network for transporting coal from El Cerrejón to the port of Puerto Bolívar. Passenger rail transport is limited to three short tourist routes in the Bogotá area. The Pacific network from the port of Buenaventura via Cali to Zarzal and Armenia is currently being modernized. Medellín also has a modern subway (with overhead lines), the Metro de Medellín. In addition, a tram, the Ayacucho Tram, has been running in Medellín since 2016.
A large part of Colombia's imports and exports are handled via large seaports that have modern container terminals. Of greater importance are the ports of Barranquilla (Caribbean), Buenaventura (Pacific Ocean), Cartagena (Caribbean), Muelles El Bosque, Puerto Bolivar (Caribbean), Santa Marta (Caribbean) and Turbo (Caribbean).
The largest airport in Colombia is the Aeropuerto Internacional El Dorado in the capital, which is currently being expanded. A second, even larger airport, Eldorado II, northwest of El Dorado has been decided upon and is currently being planned or built. Currently, 20 airlines connect Colombia with 23 countries. There are also many small regional airports spread across the country; the number of airports is estimated at 980.
Colombia has the fastest growing information technology industry in the
world and has the longest fiber optic network in Latin America at 19,000
kilometers. In 2021, 73 percent of Colombians used the Internet. Of the
14 million households in Colombia, only 7 million have Internet access.
In 2019, one in 10 transactions were carried out over the Internet, but
currently (2021) it is three in 10.
There are around 26 million
landline telephones in operation. The second largest telecommunications
company in Colombia is TELECOM, the largest is ETB (Empresa de Teléfonos
de Bogotá), the largest provider of Internet and mobile services in
Colombia. COMCEL, Movistar and Tigo and other, partly local, providers
now operate an almost nationwide network for mobile telephony.
The postal service was introduced during the Spanish colonial period, and Colombian postage stamps were introduced in 1859.
According to the Unidad de Planeación Minero Energética (UPME), the installed capacity of power plants in Colombia in 2014 was 14,620 MW, of which 9,913 MW (67.8%) came from hydroelectric power plants, 3,909 MW (26.7%) from gas power plants and 701 MW (4.8%) from other thermal power plants. A total of 62.197 billion kWh were generated in 2013, of which 41.836 billion (67%) came from hydroelectric power plants and 16.839 billion (27%) from thermal power plants. In order to diversify electricity generation, Colombia is focusing on the development of wind energy. In 2011, Colombia was ranked 45th in the world in terms of generation, with 61.82 billion kWh.
12 million Colombians (22% of households) use liquefied natural gas (LNG) for cooking. The state-owned energy company Ecopetrol has a 25% market share of this second most important energy source, which is produced in Cusiana and Cupiagua. The gas is delivered to households in containers, tankers and via a distribution network. Natural gas is produced domestically primarily as a byproduct of oil production. To fill supply gaps, Colombia has an LNG terminal in Cartagena.