V. Government

Colombia's 1991 constitution, which replaced a charter dating from 1886, provides for a highly centralized republican form of government.


A. Executive


National executive power in Colombia is vested in a president who is elected by direct popular vote to a single four-year term. Suffrage is universal for all citizens 18 years of age or older. The president appoints a cabinet, subject to congressional approval. Under the 1991 constitution, the departmental governors are directly elected.


B. Legislature

Legislative power in Colombia is vested in a bicameral Congress composed of a House of Representatives of 161 members and a Senate of 102 members. Members are elected to four-year terms. The 1991 constitution provides penalties for absenteeism and bars members of Congress from simultaneously holding any other public office.


C. Judiciary

The 1991 constitution provides for three high courts: the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and the State Council. Its 24 justices are elected for life, half by the Senate and half by the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court is the highest court on all matters of criminal law. The Constitutional Court, elected by the Senate to eight-year terms, rules on the constitutionality of legislation and also hears all cases concerning the constitution. The State Council is the highest court for cases concerning the administration of the government. The judicial system also includes superior and lower district courts and provincial and municipal judges. The 1991 constitution bans extradition and establishes an independent system of prosecution. Capital punishment is outlawed.


D. Political Parties

Colombia has a relatively free and open political system in which a number of parties participate. The two major parties have traditionally been the Conservative Party (now known as the Colombian Social Conservative Party), favoring strong central government and close relations with the Roman Catholic church, and the Liberal Party, favoring stronger local governments and separation of church and state. Between 1958 and 1974 the Liberals and Conservatives were the only legal political parties in Colombia, owing to a 1957 constitutional amendment intended to defuse the explosive antagonisms between them. Under this arrangement, called the National Front, each party held exactly half the number of seats in each legislative house and in the cabinet and other agencies, and the presidency alternated between leaders of the parties. During the 1980s the Liberals held majorities in both houses of Congress.

E. Health and Welfare

Public health standards are improving, although physicians are still in short supply. Most of the country's physicians work in the larger cities. In 1990 Colombia had one hospital bed for every 761 people. Malaria and yellow fever are still endemic in some parts of the country. A social insurance system provides maternity and dental benefits, accident insurance, workers' compensation and disability, and retirement and survivors' insurance to most of the industrial labor force. The system is financed by contributions from employers, workers, and the government.


F. Defense

From one to two years of military service are required of all male citizens in Colombia aged 18 and older. Some 146,300 people served in the Colombian armed forces in 1997.

VI. History


Relics of one of the most fascinating but little-studied civilizations in the western hemisphere have been found at San Augustín, near the source of the Magdalena River in the Colombian Andes. Little is known about the people who made these stone statues, relief carvings, sepulchral chambers, and shrines, or when their culture flourished. Present estimates date the beginnings of San Augustín to the last five centuries BC.

The stone statues are generally anthropomorphic figures, many with grotesque expressions. They have been found in caves and on mounds, where their presence seems to have had a ritual significance. Frequently, one figure is placed astride the shoulders and back of another. One particularly striking statue, a bird holding a serpent in its beak and thought to be a fertility symbol, is similar in imagery to the emblem of the Aztecs.


A. Spanish Conquest

In 1502, on his last voyage to the Americas, Italian Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus explored a section of the Caribbean coast that was part of the empire of the Chibcha people. He was followed by a number of Spanish conquistadores, who conquered the Chibcha. The Spanish established the settlements of Santa Marta in 1525 and Santa Fe de Bogotá (commonly referred to as Bogotá) in 1538. In 1549 the Spanish included the former Chibcha Empire in the Audiencia of New Granada, which was ruled by a colonial governing body that served as both a judicial court and an administrative council. Between 1717 and 1739 the Audiencia of New Granada and the territories that later became Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama were included in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Under the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Spanish government appointed a viceroy, or royal governor (usually a member of a high-ranking Spanish noble family), to rule over the colony.

The Spanish conquerors and their descendants divided the best land among themselves. They set up large estates, and with the labor of Native American and mestizo agricultural workers and black slaves they practiced subsistence farming and stock raising. However, many Spaniards were primarily interested in mining salt, emeralds, and precious metals and in panning for gold from the rivers and smaller streams.

Under colonial governments, native-born New Granadans were intensely hostile to Spanish rule because the Spanish kept them from progressing economically. The Spanish also discriminated against them socially and politically. The Spanish relied upon peninsulares (those born in Spain) to fill positions of authority while barring the Creoles (those born in the Americas) from responsible posts. Because the peninsulares were committed to Spain rather than to the colonies, dissatisfaction grew among Creoles, who believed the Spanish government was ignoring their economic and political interests. Toward the end of the 18th century the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies, including New Granada, grew increasingly receptive to new political and intellectual ideas. Inspired by the success the American Revolution and the French Revolution of the late 18th century, the people of New Granada joined the revolutionary movement for independence that swept over Spain's western empire in the early 19th century. See  Latin American Independence.


B. Independence from Spain

In the wars that followed, Venezuelan independence leader Simón Bolívar became the outstanding revolutionary and military figure in South America. In 1819 forces under Bolívar's leadership defeated Spanish royalists at the Battle of Boyacá, resulting in the liberation of New Granada. The newly independent territory became part of the republic of Gran Colombia, which included present-day Colombia, Panama, and, after their liberation, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Following the liberation of Venezuela in 1821, a congress elected Bolívar as president of Gran Colombia and Francisco de Paula Santander, a leader of independence forces in New Granada, as vice president. It was Santander who ran the government while Bolívar was fighting to free Ecuador and Peru from Spain.

The new republic was short-lived. In 1828, after the South American wars for independence were over, Bolívar personally took over the executive power in Gran Colombia. His attempts to establish a centralized government with himself as dictator resulted in a quarrel and break with Santander. Bolívar resigned from office in 1830. In 1831 New Granada (including present-day Colombia and Panama) became a separate state.

In 1832 Santander was elected president. Able and progressive, he succeeded in setting up the apparatus of government. He established financial order, promoted education, and moderated the conflict between partisans of the established church and advocates of the separation of church and state. After Santander's term expired in 1837, New Granada continued to prosper, despite a civil war that raged intermittently from 1839 to 1842.

Politically, the leadership divided into two distinct factions, from which developed Colombia's two traditional political parties: the Liberals and the Conservatives. Through much of Colombia's history, these political parties struggled with each other to determine government policy. Liberals have been devoted to states' rights, universal suffrage, and separation of church and state. Conservatives have believed in centralized government, preservation of class and church privileges, and retaining close government connections with the church.


C. Constitutional Changes


In 1849 the Liberals succeeded in electing José Hilario López. Slavery was abolished in New Granada in 1851 and 1852. A new constitution, adopted in 1853, provided for trial by jury, freedom of the press, and other civil rights. Church and state were separated. In 1855 an amendment to the constitution reduced the power of the central government and turned the provinces into federal states with a high degree of internal self-rule. The name of the republic was changed to Granadine Confederation.

Civil war broke out in 1861 between Liberal elements, favoring greater sovereignty for the states within the republic, and Conservative elements, fighting for a strong central government. Following the victory of the Liberals, the government in 1863 adopted a new constitution that provided for an even more decentralized union of sovereign states named the United States of Colombia. The Liberals continued to dominate the political scene for the next 17 years.

The Liberals inadvertently brought their control to an end in 1880 by installing Rafael Núñez, a gifted lawyer and poet, as president. Long known as an extreme Liberal, he had become steadily more conservative before becoming president. Núñez instituted a new constitution in 1886 that established a number of Conservative policies. The new constitution abolished the sovereign states created by the constitution of 1863 and set up the present centralized government of the country. Catholicism was made the official state religion, although freedom of worship was guaranteed. The present name of the country, the Republic of Colombia, was adopted.

Although the constitution barred Núñez from succeeding himself as president, he remained the undisputed ruler of Colombia, serving as president on a number of occasions and at other times installing handpicked successors in office. His presidency began a period of Conservative rule during which the Conservatives controlled the military, manipulated election results, and censored the press.

When Núñez died in 1894, conflict again broke out between the Liberal and Conservative factions. Between 1899 and 1902, the country descended into civil war. This war, known as the War of a Thousand Days, claimed 60,000 to 130,000 lives.


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