What Sort of Place is Columbia?
Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
"In the last fifteen years, 200 bombs ( half of them as large as the one used in Oklahoma City) have blown up in Colombia's cities; an entire leftist political party was eliminated by right-wing paramilitaries.; 4 presidential candidates, 200 judges, 151 journalists, and more than 300,000 ordinary Colombians have been murdered." (4)
Even today after economic advances in the 1970s and 80s, half of Colombia's citizens live in poverty. Colombia's political system has never been responsive to the needs of poor people. The two major parties consist of the wealthiest in the country and the city. Poor people have no political access. Not until the 1970s were presidential elections reasonably clean. (5)
Colombia has been wracked by political violence for 150 years. The "Thousand Day War", at the beginning of the 20th century, between adherents of the two major political parties claimed 300,000 victims. Between 1948 and the late 1950s, Colombia again fought a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people. In the intervening periods blood feuds between supporters of the two main parties-the Liberals and the Conservatives-regularly cost many lives. A compact to share political power between the ruling groups in both political parties, brought the worst violence to an end in 1958 but effectively shut ordinary Colombians out of the political process.
During much of the last fifty years, the Colombian government has ruled under a "state of emergency" which suspended ordinary civil rights. Political participation outside the reigning Liberal and Conservative parties was foreclosed. Middle class citizens found themselves pushed into smaller guerilla groups if they wanted to have any political influence. (6)
"In the last fifteen years, 200 bombs ( half of them as large as the one used in Oklahoma City) have blown up in Colombia's cities; an entire leftist political party was eliminated by right-wing paramilitaries.; 4 presidential candidates, 200 judges, 151 journalists, and more than 300,000 ordinary Colombians have been murdered." (4)
Even today after economic advances in the 1970s and 80s, half of Colombia's citizens live in poverty. Colombia's political system has never been responsive to the needs of poor people. The two major parties consist of the wealthiest in the country and the city. Poor people have no political access. Not until the 1970s were presidential elections reasonably clean. (5)
Colombia has been wracked by political violence for 150 years. The "Thousand Day War", at the beginning of the 20th century, between adherents of the two major political parties claimed 300,000 victims. Between 1948 and the late 1950s, Colombia again fought a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people. In the intervening periods blood feuds between supporters of the two main parties-the Liberals and the Conservatives-regularly cost many lives. A compact to share political power between the ruling groups in both political parties, brought the worst violence to an end in 1958 but effectively shut ordinary Colombians out of the political process.
During much of the last fifty years, the Colombian government has ruled under a "state of emergency" which suspended ordinary civil rights. Political participation outside the reigning Liberal and Conservative parties was foreclosed. Middle class citizens found themselves pushed into smaller guerilla groups if they wanted to have any political influence. (6)
