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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