COLOMBIA
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NAME: República de
Colombia
POPULATION: 37,500,000 (1997); 47,500,000 (2014)
ETHNIC GROUPS: Mestizo (58%); white (20%); mulatto (14%); Amerindian
(1%)
CAPITAL: Bogotá
(8,000,000); complete name: Santa Fe de Bogotá
Other cities:
LANGUAGES: Spanish (official)
RELIGION: Roman
Catholic (90%); Other (10%)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men (68); women (76)
LITERACY: 93%
GOVERNMENT: democratic republic
PRESIDENT: Juan Manuel Santos
MILITARY: 146,400
active troops
ECONOMY: textiles,
coffee, cocaine, petroleum, gas; 50% of world’s emeralds
POVERTY RATE: 49%
INTERNET TLD .co
MONEY: peso
(1,080 = $1.00 US; 1997)
GEOGRAPHY: Pacific and
HISTORY:
10,000
bce Major pre-Columbian civilization settled near present-day Bogotá:
Chibcha people of Funza and Tunja kingdoms
1498 Discovered / encountered by
1525 Pedro
de Heredia founded
1536-1538 Gonzalo
Jiménez de Quesada subdued the Chibchas and founded Bogotá
1549 Audiencia of Nueva Granada created (Gran Colombia,
Venezuela, Quito)
1740 Viceroyalty
of Nueva Granada created (
1808 Fernando
VII was proclaimed king of
1811
1813 Bolívar
virtual dictator of Nueva Granada.
1819 Bolívar
liberates Nueva Granada.
1825 Bolívar
returns to Bogotá after concluding independence for Perú, Ecuador, and Bolivia;
Bolívar leaves Colombia returning to Venezuela.
1830 Bolívar,
Venezuelan, dies in Colombia.
1831 Nueva
Granada declared a separate nation.
1837 Civil wars begins in
1846 Treaty
with
1852 Slavery
Abolished.
1861 Civil
war
1863 Country
renamed Estados Unidos de Colombia; new constitution
1861-1880
Civil war
1865-1896 José Asunción Silva (modernist poet)
1900-1903 La guerra de los mil
días (civil war).
1903
Panamá declared
independence
1928-present Gabriel García Márquez, greatest novelist of magical realism (lo real maravilloso) and the Generación
del Boom.
1948-1958 Period of
civil strife called “La violencia” (200,000 dead)
1964-2003 Guerrilla war by Popular Liberation Army
(M-19; pro-Cuban)
1967 Cien años de soledad published by García Márquez.
1977-present Shakira
(Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll), one of Latin America’s greatest popular
musicians and singers, was born and raised in Baranquilla, Colombia. She is a
world famous singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer; plus, since
starting in 1994, she has been deeply engaged in charitable work.
1978-1982 Julio César Turbay Ayala, president
1981 Pres. Ayala breaks diplomatic
ties with
1982-1986 Belisario
Betancourt, president
1985 M-19
guerrillas seize Supreme Court; 42 killed
Nevada
del Ruiz volcano erupts; 20,000 dead
1986-1990 Virgilio Barco Vargas (Liberal) president
Pope
John Paul II visits
1989 Jan. 13: Carlos Pizarro (M-19)
and government sign peace treaty
Aug.: Carlos Pizarro assassinated
Aug
18: Luis Carlos Galán, principal presidential candidate, assassinated
1990 May 27: César Gaviria elected
president (Liberal)
1992 Pablo Escobar, head of Medellín
drug cartel, escaped from prison
1993 Escobar killed by police
1994 Ernesto Samper Pizano elected
president, indicted, but allowed to remain in office
1998 Andrés
Pastrana elected president
2002 Álvaro
Uribe elected president
2006 Álvaro
Uribe re-elected president.
2007 Shakira
led other Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese artists to form ALAS, a
“loose union of Ibero-American singers … which would use the power of their
fame to mobilize fans, and the politicians fans vote for, to advance the cause
of early-childhood development” (New York Times Magazine, June 7, 2009, p. 25).
For the New York Times article, click on either of the following New York Times
photos:
2010 Juan
Manuel Santos (Social Party of National Unity) elected president
2014 Juan
Manuel Santos was re-elected president
GOVERNMENT:
MAJOR POLITICAL
PARTIES and GROUPS:
Liberal
Party (Barco, leader)
Conservative Party (Alvaro Gómez
Urtado, leader)
Partido Nacional (blancos )
Unión Patriótica (Communist Party): Bernardo Jaramillo, 1987- (Jaime Pardo,
assassinated in 1987 by right wing death squads)
Drug
Traffickers (los extraditables)
SIMON BOLIVAR (guerrilla umbrella
organization for:)
M-19 Guerrilla organization:
outside official politics (Movimiento 17 de abril)
leader: Carlos Pizarro
Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC: guerrilla organization)
Ejército de Liberación
Nacional (ELN, National Liberation Army: guerrilla organization, leader: Manuel
Pérez, Spanish priest)
Ejército Popular de Liberación
(EPL, People's Liberation Army: guerrilla
organization)
PRINCIPAL MEMBERS
OF INTELLIGENTSIA:
José Asunción
Silva, Modernist poet
Manuel
Zapata Olivella, Afro-Colombian novelist
Gabriel García Márquez, magical realist
novelist and journalist:
Cien
años de soledad (1967)
La increíble y triste historia de la cándida
Eréndira y su abuela desalmada (1972)
El otoño del patriarca (1975)
Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1985)
El amor en tiempos del cólera (1988)
El general en su laberinto (1989, Mondadori & La Oveja Negra)
Del amor y otros demonios (1994)
Noticias
de un secuestro (1996)