D. Loss of Panama
In 1903 the Colombian
Senate refused to ratify the Hay-Herrán Treaty, which provided for
the lease of a strip of territory across the Isthmus of Panama to
the United States for the purpose of building a canal linking the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans (see Panama Canal). A revolt
broke out in Panama. Armed forces from the United States intervened
to prevent Colombian troops from suppressing the uprising, and the
United States recognized Panama as an independent state. The resulting
strained relations between Colombia and the United States were not
resolved until 1921, when the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty guaranteed a
large U.S. cash reparation to Colombia.
The loss of Panama,
coming right after the bitter civil war, helped change the political
climate after 1903. Under Conservative general Rafael Reyes, president
from 1904 to 1909, the country became more stable. In the course of
his regime, Reyes improved the country's finances, expanded roads
and railroads, and encouraged increased coffee production. Large U.S.
investments and purchases of coffee and minerals contributed to Colombia's
economic growth. However, Reyes ruled as a dictator. He dissolved
the congress and replaced it with a handpicked legislature, jailed
and exiled political opponents, and declared martial law.
Five Conservative
presidents succeeded Reyes, holding the presidency for Conservatives
until 1930. Political life became more responsible with more honest
elections and a freer press. However, there was social unrest. Workers
began agitating for better conditions. In 1928 banana plantation workers
rebelled, and the government suppressed them by force. In 1929 the
price of coffee fell sharply, and Colombia began to suffer from the
worldwide depression.
The economic crisis
weakened the Conservatives, and in 1930 power was peacefully transferred
to the Liberals, who stressed economic and social reform. In 1936
constitutional amendments gave the government power to regulate privately
owned property in the national interest; established the right of
workers to strike, subject to legal regulation; removed Roman Catholicism
from its position as the official state religion; and moved control
of public education from the church to the government. A new labor
code adopted in 1944 provided for minimum wage scales, paid vacations
and holidays, accident and sickness benefits, and the right for workers
to organize.
E. World War II and the Postwar Era
During World War II
Colombia severed diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany, and Italy
in 1941. In 1942 the country severed relations with the Vichy government
of France, which was controlled by Nazi Germany. In 1943 the Colombian
Senate declared a state of belligerency with Germany, and the republic
signed the charter of the United Nations (UN) in June 1945, becoming
one of the 51 original members.
The postwar era was
one of severe political crisis for Colombia, as antagonism deepened
between Liberal and Conservative factions. During the election of
1946, the Liberals were so split that they presented two candidates,
the left-wing Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and the more conservative Gabriel
Turbay. Because of the split, victory in the presidential race went
to a moderate Conservative, Mariano Ospina Pérez. The Liberals had
a large majority in Congress, and the new president attempted to govern
with a coalition cabinet that included Liberals. However, antagonisms
grew sharper as extremists in both parties inflamed the situation.
In 1947 Pérez excluded Liberals from the cabinet, whereupon the Liberals
decided to take a united stand and support Gaitán's candidacy in the
1950 elections. Gaitán had stirred many poorer Colombians with his
vision of a transformed Colombian society.
In April 1948, while
many high-ranking foreign dignitaries were in Bogotá for the Ninth
International Conference of American States, Gaitán was assassinated.
The assassination sparked a nationwide uprising against the Conservative
government; some 1,500 people were killed, and more than 20,000 were
injured. The rebellion, known as la violencia, disrupted the
conference. However, the conference succeeded in completing the draft
of the charter of the Organization of American States, a regional
organization for nations of the western hemisphere. The government
brought the rebellion under control with the help of the army. The
government then reorganized to include an equal number of Liberal
and Conservative cabinet ministers.
Tension and violence
mounted steadily during the late 1940s. Liberal members withdrew from
the government after a decree was issued banning meetings and parades.
The Liberal Party withdrew its candidate from the presidential elections
of 1949, charging the government with election law violations. As
a result, the Conservative candidate, Laureano Gómez, a political
leader and newspaper editor, won the November elections without opposition.
He was inaugurated in August 1950.
F. An Era of Violence
Between Gómez's election
and inauguration, the political struggle entered a new phase. A number
of left-wing rebel factions emerged as a response to disillusionment
with the traditional political parties and the government's inability
to address the problems of the poor. These armed guerrilla bands were
active in many outlying areas of the country. Such groups remained
a constant challenge to the central government throughout the 20th
century.
In response, the government
declared a state of siege and suspended the 1950 session of Congress.
Shortly after the inauguration of Gómez, a Liberal Party convention
declared the government illegal, charging it with suppressing freedom
of speech, the press, and assembly. The party vowed to continue its
boycott of elections. In February 1953 the Conservative Party proposed
a new constitution, the provisions of which would have imposed a totalitarian
regime. Liberals and moderate Conservatives bitterly opposed the constitution.
In June 1953 a military junta deposed the Gómez government, and both
factions gave their approval to the coup d'état.
General Gustavo Rojas
Pinilla was named provisional president, and in August 1954 he was
elected to a four-year term by a constitutional convention. The convention
did not meet again until October 1956, and in the interim the government
ruled by decree. When the convention met again, a number of delegates
openly denounced the restrictive policies of Rojas Pinilla. A wave
of antigovernment violence followed, but Congress reelected Rojas
Pinilla in May 1957. This angered the public, and a military coup
deposed Rojas Pinilla a few days later. The Liberal and Conservative
parties then arrived at an agreement to share all government offices
equally for 12 years under a coalition known as the National Front.
This plan was approved in a plebiscite on December 1, 1957, and early
in 1958 it was extended to 16 years.
G. The National Front and After
Later in 1958 the Liberal candidate, Alberto Lleras Camargo, became
the first National Front president. The National Front coalition retained
a majority in both houses of Congress but could seldom win the two-thirds
majority required in both houses for the passage of legislation. As
a result, the government frequently fell into periods of near-paralysis.
President Guillermo León Valencia, the Conservative candidate elected
to office in 1964, declared a state of siege the following year in
order to overcome the political stalemate. President Carlos Lleras
Restrepo, who was elected on the Liberal ticket and succeeded Valencia
in 1966, also ruled by decree. In the elections of 1970, the National
Front defeated a challenge by former dictator Rojas Pinilla, electing
Misael Pastrana Borrero as president.
When the National
Front coalition came to an end in 1974, Alfonso López Michelsen, a
Liberal, was elected president. The Conservatives were granted certain
cabinet posts. High unemployment persisted, and incidents of labor
and student unrest occurred, as well as isolated guerrilla activity.
In 1978, in an election marked by low voter turnout, another Liberal,
Julio Turbay Ayala, was elected president by a slim margin; he consequently
took five Conservatives into his cabinet.
Leftist guerrillas
became bolder in 1979 as the army failed to subdue them. In 1980 a
guerrilla band occupied the Dominican embassy in Bogotá for 61 days,
holding many foreign diplomats as hostages. The Conservative candidate,
former minister of labor Belisario Betancur Cuartas, won the presidential
elections in 1982. Under an amnesty issued by Betancur, about 400
guerrillas were pardoned; a truce between the government and the rebel
groups was announced in May 1984.
During the late 1970s
and early 1980s, the growing contraband export of marijuana and cocaine
became a major source of income for the Colombian economy. The illegal
nature of this trade led to the growth of an enormously wealthy and
powerful criminal establishment. In 1984 Betancur launched a crackdown
on drug trafficking. Through 1985, however, leftist guerrillas regained
strength, and the antidrug crackdown lost momentum as the drug traffickers
and rebels joined forces in some regions. In November government troops
and guerrillas engaged in violent combat after guerrillas seized the
Palace of Justice in Bogotá and took dozens of hostages. By the end
of the siege, 100 were dead, including the president of the supreme
court and ten other justices.
In the 1986 elections,
the Liberals took parliament, and Virgilio Barco Vargas, their leader,
became president. Barco vowed to promote land reform and to bring
guerrillas into negotiations. He also wanted to combat the power of
two drug-trafficking cartels, one based in Medellín and the other
in Cali. In August 1989, responding to a wave of killings in which
Colombia's cocaine cartels were implicated, the government arrested
more than 10,000 people and confiscated the property of suspected
drug traffickers. However, despite numerous successes in intercepting
cocaine shipments and the chemicals used to refine the drug, the drug
trade remained strong.
After a campaign during
which three presidential candidates were assassinated, the Liberal
Party nominee, César Gaviria Trujillo, was elected in May 1990. He
supported a new constitution that took effect in July 1991. It prohibited
extradition of Colombian citizens because in past years a number of
Colombian drug lords had been extradited to the United States to stand
trial. Gaviria also lifted the state of siege and offered amnesty
to drug traffickers who turned themselves in. Some did, but the cocaine
trade, along with guerrilla activity, continued to disrupt the country.
In December 1993 government security forces killed Pablo Escobar,
head of the Medellín cocaine cartel, when a gunfight ensued after
they attempted to capture him.
H. Samper's Presidency
In June 1994 Ernesto
Samper Pizano of the Liberal Party was elected president. During 1994
the government and two leftist guerrilla groups made progress toward
peace, agreeing to talks aimed at the disarmament of and legislative
representation for the guerrillas. Other leftist groups, as well as
right-wing paramilitary organizations that had formed to oppose the
influence of leftist guerrillas, stepped up attacks around the country,
causing both damage and loss of life, mainly in rural areas.
Colombia entered into
an extended political crisis in 1995, after Samper was accused of
accepting almost $6 million in campaign contributions from drug traffickers
in exchange for leniency during any criminal proceedings for drug-related
crimes. Although government prosecutors later claimed to have confirmed
the contributions, Samper consistently said that he did not knowingly
receive any drug money, and he refused to step down from the presidency.
Samper declared a 90-day state of emergency in August 1995, ostensibly
to battle organized crime and terrorist violence, but many Colombians
saw the move as an attempt to divert attention from the growing political
scandal.
In January 1996 Samper's
former defense minister claimed that the president had solicited and
knowingly accepted campaign contributions from drug traffickers. Samper
convened a special session of Congress later that month to investigate
the accusations against him. Colombia's chief prosecutor formally
indicted Samper in February 1996, charging the president with the
crimes of illegal enrichment, electoral fraud, falsifying documents,
and cover-up. The indictments were seen as the initial steps in what
could have become a formal congressional impeachment of the president.
In June Congress cleared Samper of all charges of wrongdoing, but
later a Colombian court convicted two of the president's associates
of funneling drug money into Samper's campaign.
In March 1996 the
U.S. government criticized Colombia's effort in the ongoing drug war,
claiming that the country was uncooperative in international efforts
to combat drug production and distribution. The United States "decertified"
Colombia, disqualifying the country from receiving most forms of U.S.
economic assistance in 1996 and again in 1997. The U.S. government
recertified Colombia as an ally in the war on drugs in 1998.
Samper's government
also encountered difficulties controlling the armed factions within
Colombia. The nation's military was unable to contain violence perpetrated
by left-wing guerrillas or right-wing paramilitary forces. In August
1996 paramilitary forces killed two farmers and wounded 26 other people
during a protest in the southern region of Putumayo. At the end of
August left-wing rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) killed 80 soldiers and police in ten separate incidents. In
November and December right-wing paramilitary forces killed 73 people
suspected of being guerrilla sympathizers.
During 1997 leftist
guerrillas sporadically attacked remote government outposts. They
launched a campaign of violence and intimidation in October aimed
at preventing voters from participating in municipal and regional
elections. Paramilitary squads launched a countercampaign of violence,
raiding a number of villages and executing individuals suspected of
supporting guerrilla activities. In March 1998 FARC forces ambushed
elite government troops in a remote southern jungle region, killing
about 70 soldiers in the worst government defeat since guerrilla hostilities
had begun. Government sources estimated that more than 41,000 Colombians—mostly
poor farmers—fled from their rural homes to the slums of the cities
to escape the growing violence involving leftist guerrillas and right-wing
paramilitary units.
Prospects of a peaceful
settlement to the protracted violence improved in 1998. Colombia's
second largest leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army
(ELN), began the process when it opened secret negotiations with the
Samper government in early 1998. These negotiations led to an agreement
to open peace talks with the government following the 1998 presidential
election. The FARC, the country's major leftist rebel group, accused
the Samper government of being corrupt and refused to negotiate.
In June 1998 voters
elected Conservative Party candidate Andrés Pastrana as Colombia's
new president. His election marked the end of 12 years of rule by
Liberal Party presidents. Following the election, the FARC, the ELN,
and the United Self-Defense Units of Colombia, a leading right-wing
paramilitary organization, all announced their willingness to engage
in peace talks with the new government. Talks between the government
and the FARC officially opened in January 1999.
The willingness to
negotiate did not bring an end to violence, however. As a parting
shot at the Samper administration, the FARC and the ELN launched a
coordinated nationwide military strike against government installations
the week before Samper left office in August 1998, killing more than
100 soldiers and police officers. In December 1998 FARC guerrillas
destroyed the mountain headquarters of a paramilitary group, killing
about 30 civilians in the process. Paramilitary groups responded in
January 1999 by killing about 130 civilians whom they accused of being
rebel sympathizers.
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