A beautiful balance between modern day luxury and ancient history

Busy Plaza de Santo Domingo in the walled city

Balconies in the Walled City, examples of Colonial past

Catedral Primada and Capilla de Sagrario en La Plaza de Bolivar

Chivas, typical Colombian local buses

Beaches along the coast of Colombia

Ancient stone statue at the San Agustin Archeological Park

Ancient ceramic figure in Archeological museum

Dome of Cartagena de Indias’ Cathedral and Colonial Architecture

Santuario de Nuestra Señora de las Lajas, Church built on a bridge over gorge in the Guaitara River

Plaza de Toros de Santamaria, Colombia’s largest Bullfighting arena

Fast Facts about Colombia• Population 46 million

Percentage of vote President Uribe won in the 2006 election 62.35%

• GDP growth 5.2% (2008)

• Life expectancy 69 years (men) 77 years (women)

River through El Gallineral Park, San Gil, Santander

Bottles of Petrol on the side of the road between Colombia and Brazil’s border

Crowd on horseback and stagecoach part of the New Year’s Celebration in Popayan, Cauca

Introducing Colombia

Colombia’s back. After decades of civil conflict, Colombia is now safe to visit and travelers are discovering what they’ve been missing. The diversity of the country may astonish you. Modern cities with skyscrapers and nightclubs? Check. Gorgeous Carribean beaches? Check. Jungle walks and Amazon safaris? Check. Colonial cities, archaeological ruins, high-mountain trekking, whale watching, coffee plantations, scuba diving, surfing, the list goes on.

No wonder the ‘magic realism’ style of Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez emerged from here – there is a dreamlike quality to Colombia. Here at the equator, with the sun forever overhead, the fecund earth beneath your feet, heart-stopping vistas in every direction and the warmth of the locals putting you at ease – you may find it difficult to leave. (Colombian Tourist Advertisement)Colombian culture, like the country’s weather, varies by altitude. The essence of Colombia

resides in the mountains in the alpine cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Cali, and the smaller cities of the Zona Cafetera. This is the industrial heartland of the country. Geographical isolation has kept the accent relatively unaffected by outside Influence; Spanish here is precise and easy to understand. The infrastructure in the mountain region is good, the water drinkable, the roads well maintained. In the heat of the Caribbean coast, life is slower, and the culture more laid-back. The accent is the unhurried drawl of the Caribbean basin, and the infrastructure, unfortunately, is still in need of some attention.

Colombia is the only overland gateway to South America and is assumed to have been the route pioneered by the continent's first human inhabitants, who migrated from North and Central America. Some tribes, such as the Inca, headed further south and built major civilizations, while smaller groups settled in what is now Colombia and eventually reached a high level of development. These people are little known internationally because they left few enduring monuments.

There are three main archeological sites in Colombia. They are San Agustín, Tierradentro and Ciudad Perdida. Some communities left behind artifacts – mainly gold and pottery - some of which are now in museums across the country. This art reveals a high degree of skill, and the goldwork is the continent's best, both in techniques and artistic design.

In contrast to the Aztecs or Incas, who dominated vast regions, a dozen independent Colombian groups occupied relatively small areas scattered throughout the Andean region and along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Despite trading, these cultures developed largely independently. Among the most outstanding were the Calima, Muisca, Nariño, Quimbaya, San Agustín Sinú, Tayrona, Tierradentro, Tolima and Tumaco.

Colombia is named after Christopher Columbus, even though he never set foot on Colombian soil. It was Alonso de Ojeda, one of Columbus’ companions on his second voyage, who was the first European to set foot on the land in 1499. He briefly explored the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and was astonished by the wealth of the local Indians. Their gold and their stories about fabulous treasures inland gave birth to the myth of El Dorado, a mysterious kingdom abundant in gold. In its most extreme interpretation, El Dorado was believed to be a land of gold mountains littered with emeralds.

Spanish Spanish ConquestConquest

From the moment the Spaniards arrived, their obsession with El Dorado became the principal force driving them into the interior. They did not find El Dorado, but their search resulted in rapid colonization.The legend of El Dorado became linked to the Muiscas and their famous Laguna de Guatavita. There, the expectations of the Spaniards were to some degree confirmed by the rituals of the Indians, who threw gold offerings into the sacred waters, though very little has been found despite numerous efforts; see Laguna de Guatavita.

Attracted by the presumed riches of the Indians, the shores of present-day Colombia became the target of numerous expeditions by the Spaniards. Several short-lived settlements were founded along the coast, but it was not until 1525 that Rodrigo de Bastidas laid the first stones of Santa Marta, the earliest surviving town. In 1533, Pedro de Heredia founded Cartagena, which soon became the principal center of trade.In 1536 a general advance toward the interior began independently from three different directions, under Jiménez de Quesada, Sebastián de Benalcázar (known in Colombia as Belalcázar) and Nikolaus Federmann. Although all three were drawn by the Indian treasures, none intended to reach Muisca territory, where they finally met.

Quesada set off from Santa Marta, pushed up the Valle del Magdalena, then climbed the Cordillera Oriental, arriving in Muisca territory early in 1537. At the time, the Muiscas were divided into two clans - the southern one ruled by the Zipa from Bacatá (present-day Bogotá), and the northern empire under the Zaque in Hunza (present-day Tunja). The two caciques quarreled over territory and the rivalry considerably helped Quesada conquer the Muiscas without undue difficulty. In August 1538 he founded Santa Fe de Bogotá on the site of Bacatá.Belalcázar deserted from Francisco Pizarro's army, which was conquering the Inca empire, and mounted an expedition from Ecuador.

He subdued the southern part of Colombia, founding Popayán and Cali along the way, and reached Bogotá in 1539. Federmann started from the Venezuelan coast and, after successfully crossing Los Llanos and the Andes, arrived in Bogotá shortly after Belalcázar. Thus, in a short period of time, a large part of the colony was conquered and a number of towns were founded.

The three groups then battled for supremacy, and it was not until 1550 that King Carlos V of Spain established a court of justice in Bogotá and brought the colony under the control of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

In 1564 the Crown established a new system, the Presidencia del Nuevo Reino de Granada, which had dual military and civil power and greater autonomy. Authority was in the hands of the governor, appointed by the King of Spain. The Nuevo Reino at that time comprised present-day Panama and all of Colombia, except what is today Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, which were under the jurisdiction of the Presidencia de Quito (present-day Ecuador).

The population of the colony, initially consisting of indigenous communities and the Spanish invaders, diversified with the arrival of Blacks, brought from Africa to serve as the workforce. Cartagena was granted the privilege of being the exclusive slave-trading port in which Blacks were sold as slaves and distributed throughout the colony. Most of them were set to work in mines and plantations, mainly on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. During the 16th and 17th centuries the

Spaniards shipped in so many Africans that they eventually surpassed the indigenous

population in number.The demographic picture became more complex when the three racial groups began to mix, producing Various fusions, including mestizos (people of

European-Indian blood), mulatos (of European-African ancestry) and zambos (African-Indian). However, throughout the whole of the colonial period, power was almost exclusively

in the hands of the Spaniards.

With the growth of the Spanish empire in the New World, a new territorial division was created in 1717, and Bogotá became the capital of its own viceroyalty, the Virreinato de la Nueva Granada. It comprised the territories of what are today Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela. As Spanish domination of the continent increased, so too did the discontent of the inhabitants. Slavery, and the monopoly of commerce, taxes and duties - among other factors – slowly gave rise to protests. The first open rebellion against colonial rule was the Revolución Comunera in Socorro in 1781, which broke out against tax rises levied by the Crown, before taking on more pro-independence overtones. When Napoleon put his own brother on the Spanish throne in 1808, the colonies refused to recognize the new monarch. One by one, Colombian towns declared their independence. Unfortunately, political divisions and infighting appeared almost immediately.

In 1812 Simón Bolívar, who was to become the hero of the independence struggle, appeared on the scene. He won six battles against Spanish troops, but was defeated by the next year. Spain recovered its throne from Napoleon and then set about reconquering its colonies. The 'pacifying' Spanish troops reconquered the interior and full colonial rule was reestablished by 1817.

Bolívar retreated to Jamaica after the defeat and took up arms again. He went back to Venezuela, and after assembling an army of horsemen from Los Llanos, strengthened by a British legion, he marched over the Andes into Colombia, claiming victory after victory. The last and most decisive battle took place at Boyacá on August 7, 1819. Three days later he arrived triumphantly in Bogotá. Colombia's independence was won.

With Colombia free, a revolutionary congress was held in Angostura (modern-day Ciudad Bolívar, in Venezuela) in 1819. Still euphoric with victory, the delegates proclaimed the Gran Colombia, a new state uniting Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador (although Ecuador and large parts of Venezuela were still technically under Spanish rule).

The Angostura congress was followed by another one, held in Villa del Rosario, near Cúcuta, in 1821. It was there that the two opposing tendencies, centralist and federalist, came to the fore. Bolívar, who supported a centralized republic, succeeded in imposing his will. The Gran Colombia came into being and Bolívar was elected president. Francisco de Paula Santander, who favored a federal republic of sovereign states, became vice president.

After IndependenceAfter Independence

Simon Bolivar F. de Paula Santander

From its inception, however, the vast state began to disintegrate. Bolívar was far away fighting for the independence of Ecuador and Peru, leaving effective power in Santander's hands. It soon became apparent that a central regime was incapable of governing such a vast and diverse territory. The Gran Colombia had split into three separate countries by 1830 and Bolívar's dream of a sacred union of the nations he had freed came to an end even before he died.

Thus began a new inglorious page of Colombia's history. The political currents born in the struggle for independence, centralist and federalist, were formalized in 1849 when two political parties were established: the Conservatives (with centralist tendencies) and the Liberals (with federalist leanings). Fierce rivalry between these two forces resulted in a sequence of insurrections and civil wars and throughout the 19th century, Colombia experienced no fewer than eight civil wars. Between 1863 and 1885 alone there were more than 50 antigovernment insurrections.

In 1899 a Liberal revolt turned into a full-blown civil war, the so-called War of a Thousand Days. That carnage resulted in a Conservative victory and left 100, 000 dead. In 1903 the USA took advantage of the country's internal strife and fomented a secessionist movement in Panama, then a Colombian province. By creating an independent republic, the USA was able to build a canal across the Central American isthmus under its control. It wasn't until 1921 that Colombia eventually recognized the sovereignty of Panama and settled its dispute with the USA.

Live camera images: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

Construction of the Canal locks in 1913

U.S.S. Missouri passes through canalPresent Day Canal

After a period of relative peace, the struggle between Liberals and Conservatives broke out again in 1948 with La Violencia, the most destructive of Colombia's many civil wars to that point. With a death toll of some 300, 000, La Violencia was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the western hemisphere, comparable only to the Mexican Revolution and the American Revolutionary War. Urban riots, known as El Bogotazo, broke out on April 9, 1948 in Bogotá, following the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a charismatic populist Liberal leader. Liberals soon took up arms throughout the country.

La ViolenciaLa Violencia

To comprehend the brutality of this period, one must understand that generation after generation of Colombians were raised as either Liberals or Conservatives and imbued with a deep mistrust of the opposition. In the 1940s and 1950s, these 'hereditary hatreds' were the cause of countless atrocities, rapes and murders, particularly in rural areas.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=La+Violencia+de+Colombia+de+1948&form=QBIR&qs=n#focal=d66645dcf362ace9342d1fe61a057f83&furl=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_LDcy3x-4Qfw%2FR_2Arfppx7I%2FAAAAAAAABHQ%2FPsBvQmcxwds%2Fs200%2Fgaitan.jpg

Slide Show of El Bogotazo:

The 1953 coup of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was the only military intervention the country experienced in the 20th century. The dictatorship of General Rojas was not to last. In 1957 the leaders of the two parties signed a pact to share power for the next 16 years. The agreement, later approved by plebiscite (in which women were allowed to vote for the first time), became known as the Frente Nacional (National Front). During the life of the accord, the two parties alternated in the presidency every four years. In effect, despite the enormous loss of lives, the same people returned to power. The agreement also disallowed political parties beyond the Liberals and the Conservatives - therefore forcing opposition outside of the normal political system and sowing the seeds for guerrilla insurrection.

The tentacles of the Cold War reached Colombia in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Disillusioned liberals set off to establish their own independent communities - modeled on leftist doctrine - in the countryside. Wealthy landowners began to raise militias and security forces as they feared a breakdown of the status quo. The world was dealing with an ideological struggle between communism and capitalism, and Colombia, with its colonial legacy of poor land distribution, a veritable oligarchy and impoverished mestizo and indigenous underclasses, was ripe for the rise of Marxist guerrilla opposition. By the mid-1960s the political divide hardened into armed conflict. Opposition parties were outlawed from the political process and a new group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), took up arms against what they saw as the corrupt and self-serving government. The security forces, which had grown into paramilitaries, and the government fought back, often taking the offense in the burgeoning conflict. In all, Colombia gave birth to perhaps a dozen different guerrilla groups, each with its own philosophy and its own political and military strategies. The movements that have had the biggest impact include the FARC, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Movimiento 19 de Abril (M-19).

News Article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1058582.stm

FuerzasArmadas Revolucionarias de Colombia

Leftist guerrillas battled the government, paramilitaries and even the cocaine cartels for two decades. Tragedy overtook all sides and horrific murders and acts of terrorism were committed. As communism fell around the globe and the political landscape shifted, the FARC and the ELN lost support from Moscow and Havana. They moved on to drugs, extortion, robbery and kidnapping to finance their struggle. The struggle itself became clouded by the cocaine trade. Rambo and Tony Montana replaced Ché Guevara and Leon Trotsky as role models for the conflict. Regardless of the nebulous political goals, the sale of marching powder has kept the soldiers marching well after

the end of Cold War conflict in neighboring countries. The guerrillas have controlled large swaths of the countryside - at times estimated up to 40% - and, in 2002, the USA and the EU included the guerrillas on their list of terrorist organizations.

The so-called paramilitares or autodefensas built by the landholders and cartels flourished into standing armies. In the past, Colombia's military

has turned a blind eye and even supported the paramilitaries, who share similar objectives. This was often done with money and weapons from the US. The AUC has committed horrendous massacres of civilians (allegedly guerrilla sympathizers) and terrorized the countryside as much as its opposition. One of its techniques is to simply kill off young people in villages that support the FARC or ELN - eliminating potential futurecombatants.

Some former AUC leaders suggest that as much as 70% of their funding comes from the drug trade. Many of the paramilitary leaders were former employees of the cartels and took over as the cartels were dismantled. Diego Francisco Murillo, the commander of the AUC and known as Don Berna, once worked under Pablo Escobar and allegedly controls much of what was once Escobar's empire. Although the AUC may still receive indirect assistance from the USA, it has also been included on the above-mentioned list of terrorist organizations.

Article about Murillo’s Extradtion: http://web.presidencia.gov.co/sp/2008/mayo/13/04132008.html

Fed up with violence, kidnappings and highways deemed too dangerous to use, the nation turned to right-wing hardliner Álvaro Uribe – a politician from Medellín who had studied at Oxford and Harvard, and whose father had been killed by FARC. Uribe ran on a full-on antiguerrilla ticket during the testy 2002 presidential election. While his predecessor Andrés Pastrana had tried negotiating with FARC and ELN, Uribe didn’t bother, quickly unleashing two simultaneous programs: a military push back of groups such as FARC, and a demobilization offer for both paramilitaries and guerrillas, who were promised lenient sentences in exchange for weapons and information. In the post-9/11 era, his branding of guerrillas as ‘terrorists’ helped garner even more US support, which runs between US$500 and US$600 million annually.

President Alvaro UribePresident Alvaro Uribe

A rare Latin American ally with the US, Uribe is wildly popular in his country – even his harshest critics acknowledge much overdue progress made under his watch. From 2002 to 2008, notably, murder rates fell 40% overall, highways cleared of FARC roadblocks became safe to use, and Uribe’s go-ahead for a successful Rambo-style rescue in 2008 of high-profile kidnap victims from FARC (including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt) did a lot to keep the president’s approval ratings regularly near the 80% mark.In March 2008, Uribe approved a tricky bombing mission across Ecuador’s border, resulting in the successful killing of FARC leader Raúl Reyes and the retrieval of computer files that indicated that FARC were trying to acquire uranium for bombs (the files were later authenticated by Interpol). In May 2008, the Economist predicted defeat of the guerrillas was ‘only a matter of time.’

News Article: http://news.nacla.org/2008/03/05/colombia%e2%80%99s-cornered-president-raises-the-stakes/

The bombing mission, however, nearly set the region into broader conflict, with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez immediately getting into the action and moving tanks to the Colombian border, but things soon settled – particularly after the contents of seized computer files from the raid embarrassingly showed Chávez had contributed up to $300 million to FARC. Meanwhile, back in Colombia, Uribe’s popularity hit 90% approval levels.Not all news for Uribe has been so cheery, however. Scandals followed him throughout his first term, and – after a controversial amendment to the constitution (allowing him consecutive terms) – his second. By 2008, following his public feuds with the Colombian Supreme Court, 60 congressmen had been arrested or questioned for alleged ‘parapolitics’ links with paramilitaries (Uribe’s cousin was also implicated, and even fled to the Costa Rican embassy for protection, though the charges were later dropped).

Presidents Chavez & Presidents Chavez & UribeUribe

Even more embarrassing were widely published reports of falso positivos (false ‘positives’), the local moniker referring to killed civilians who were posthumously dressed in guerrilla uniforms. Implications of the

controversy spread through the military, and Uribe fired 27 officers in November 2008, the same time leading commander General Mario Montoya resigned. Amnesty International estimates that nearly half of these deaths

were by local military groups financed by the US. News Article about Exodus of Colombia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/from_our_own_correspondent/1314619.stm

Looking aheadLooking ahead

Colombia faces an interesting transitional period over the coming years. A 2009 referendum will be held to allow Uribe to run for a third presidential term, prompting some criticism that Uribe may be emerging as yet another authoritarian strongman in a region with no shortage of such leaders.

Much of Colombia’s economic plans hinge on the upcoming US-Colombia free-trade agreement (tratado de libre comercio, or TLC). Since 1991 the US has had a confusing overlap of various trade agreements with the Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) beginning with the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) in 1991 and expanded significantly under George W Bush’s watch with the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). Under such programs, Colombia’s exports to the US have steadily risen (including a 50% increase from 2003 to 2007, with a notable rise in flower exports).Throughout 2007 and 2008, however, the US Congress fought over the policy’s renewal (which expired at the end of 2008) that proposes new provisions to allow 80% of US exports to Colombia to go tariff-free. Opponents, chiefly the Democratic party (along with the USA’s new president Barack Obama), pointed to a recent bump in the numbers of killed union leaders, while mostly Republican backers found some surprising endorsements from newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post, whose editorial boards noted overall progress in human rights, and how eased trade restrictions could benefit US workers following the economic crisis of 2008. At the time of writing, it seems more likely than not that some free-trade agreement will be passed.

Scenes of Bogota, Scenes of Bogota, ColombiaColombia

Calima Reservior near CaliCalima Reservior near Cali

Views of CaliViews of Cali

Since the 1970's, Colombia has been home to some of the most violent and sophisticated drug trafficking organizations in the world. What started as a small cocaine smuggling business has, in the last thirty years, blossomed into an enormous multi-national cocaine empire. Traffickers today have enough capital under their control to build sophisticated smuggling equipment, such as a high tech submarine that was recently discovered by the Colombian National Police. Colombian cocaine traffickers had hired engineering experts from Russia and the United States to help with the design of the submarine, which apparently would have been used to secretly ship large quantities of cocaine to the United States.

Colombian CartelsColombian Cartels

Traffickers started out with much more modest goals. In the mid-1970s, marijuana traffickers in Colombia began exporting small quantities of cocaine to the United States hidden in suitcases. At that point, cocaine could be processed for $1500/kilo in jungle labs and could be sold on the streets of America for as much as $50,000/kilo.

The astounding profits attracted an interesting mix of characters into the business. Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha had roots in Colombia's somewhat murky emerald trade. The Ochoa brothers were from a well respected ranching and horsing family. And the violent leader, Pablo Escobar, was a common street thief who masterminded the criminal enterprise that became known as the Medellin cartel.

The Medellin The Medellin CartelCartel

Rodriguez GauchaPablo Escobar

The men from Medellin joined together with a young marijuana smuggler named Carlos Lehder, who convinced the leaders that they could fly cocaine in small airplanes directly into the United States, avoiding the need for countless suitcase trips. The large quantities and the growing appetite for cocaine in the United States led to huge profits, which the cartel began re-investing into more sophisticated labs, better airplanes and even an island in the Caribbean where the planes could refuel.

But the success had a darker side. Pablo Escobar was incredibly violent and his quest for power within the Colombian government led to a stand-off between the cartel and the government. During the 1980's, the cartel revolted against the government's threats to extradite the traffickers to the United States. Pablo Escobar is thought to be responsible for the murder of hundreds of government officials, police, prosecutors, judges, journalists and innocent bystanders. The cartel began to self-destruct as the violence and power grew. Rodriguez Gacha was eventually gunned down by the Colombian police. Jorge, Juan David and Fabio Ochoa turned themselves into the Colombian government in the early 1990s in exchange for lenient prison terms. And Pablo Escobar was hunted down and killed by the Colombian police after a long series of battles.

Carlos Ledher

Part of the downfall of the Medellin cartel was due to their main rivals in the Colombian city of Cali, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and Santacruz Londono. The men from Cali were more subtle and less flashy than their counterparts in Medellin. They conducted their smuggling as a sophisticated business, quietly re-investing their profits in legitimate businesses. The Cali cartel began to attack the Medellin cartel -- particularly Pablo Escobar – as

their competition became more and more violent.

Cali CartelCali Cartel

They eventually would form the PEPES, or People Against Pablo Escobar, which specifically targeted Escobar's homes, businesses and lieutenants. The Cali cartel also began secretly supplying the Colombian police and the DEA with information about Pablo Escobar's actions and whereabouts. By 1994, Escobar was alone and running for his life when the Colombian police managed to track him down.

But for several years before, the Cali businessmen had been dominating more and more of the cocaine trade. They employed the techniques of terrorist groups by separating their workers into cells, with each cell knowing little about other employees.. They hired internationally renowned lawyers to study the moves of the DEA and the US prosecutors. They began using technology as a tool for their business - hiring and training top engineers to design communications equipment that could not be bugged.

And their business thrived. When cocaine use in the United States began to drop, they began shipping more and more into Europe and Asia. The leaders are thought to own huge swaths of land in Colombia, along with dozens of very successful legitimate businesses. The Cali leaders were astute businessmen and they invested heavily in political protection. In the past ten years, both the former president of Colombia, Ernesto Samper and hundreds of Congressmen and Senators have been accused of accepting campaign financing from the Rodriguez Orejuala brothers. But, the leaders were eventually tracked down. They were arrested in the mid-1990s and are currently serving 10 to 15 year prison terms. Many experts believe they actually worked out an arrangement with the Colombian government under similar terms to the Ochoas, that they would not be extradited to a US prison cell. DEA agents believe they are still running their empire from their prison cells.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela

Henry Loiaza-Ceballos

Victor Patino-Fomeque

Jose Santacruz-Londono

Helmer "Pacho"Herrera-BuitragoMiguel Rodriguez

Orejuela

After the destruction of both the Cali and Medellin cartels, the cocaine business began to fragment. Younger lieutenants realized that the large organizations had been more vulnerable to attack by US and Colombian authorities. They formed smaller, more controllable groups and began compartmentalizing their responsibilities. One group simply smuggles the drugs from Colombia to Mexico. Another group controls the jungle labs. Yet another deals with transportation of coca base from the fields to the labs. There are well known links between the Colombian Marxists guerilla groups and the cocaine trade. Guerillas protect the fields and the labs in remote zones of Colombia in exchange for a large tax that the traffickers pay to the organization. In turn, the Colombian right wing paramilitary groups are also thought to control both fields, labs and some of the smuggling routes. This situation has been disastrous for Colombia both sides in an on-going civil war are able to reap huge profits from the drugindustry which are then turned into guns for further fighting. The DEA and the Colombian National police believe there are more than 300 active drug smuggling organizations in Colombia today. Cocaine is shipped to every industrialized nation in the world and profits remain incredibly high.

Article into US investigation of the Cali Cartel by US Immigration and Customshttp://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/califs031105.htm

DEA Briefs of the arrests of the Cali Cartel members: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/major/cali.htm

Coca leaves are taken to remote cocaineprocessing labs like this small onelocated in the Putumayo jungle.

The coca leaves are soaked in water, sodiumbicarbonate and kerosene. The liquid and acid isthen drained leaving a light brown coca paste

The coca paste is dissolved in hydrochloric orsulphuric acid. Potassium permanganate mixed with water is added to the paste and acid solution

The solution is filtered and the remaining precipitate is discarded. Ammonia water is added to the filtered solution and anotherprecipitate is formed.

The liquid is drained and the remaining precipitate is heated, dried and broken up into small pieces.

The resulting powder is called cocaine base and is 90 percent pure cocaine.

The cocaine base is weighed and bagged forshipping to another lab where hydrochloric aciddiluted in acetone or ether will be added tocrystallize the cocaine and create the finalproduct called cocaine hydrochloride.

These six packages weigh almost four kilos. After the final stage of processing turns it into cocainehydrochloride, drug traffickers will ship thecocaine to the United States.

From : http://colombiajournal.org/photos/cocaine-photos

The Clinton and Bush Administrations, and the Congress, expressed concern about the connection between the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC and other groups in Colombia and the drug trade. The Colombian government has engaged in responding to this challenge.

Plan Colombia sharply increased US support to the Colombian military and the National Police, bringing with it a wide variety of military and intelligence related hardware and training, all with the goal of assisting the Government of Colombia in their efforts to resist the depredations of narcotics terrorists. The urgency of Plan Colombia was driven in some measure by increasing evidence that the terrorists were aligning themselves with the FARC and ELN – powerful terrorists groups that were bent on using everything within their means to bring the Colombian government to its knees and potentially forming a radical narcotics and criminally funded successor government. There existed a significant shortfall within the Colombian armed forces and police in their ability to collect tactical and strategical intelligence on the movements and activities of what was becoming a well organized and powerful narco-guerilla movement.

PLAN COLOMBIAPLAN COLOMBIA

Plan Colombia aid took many forms, provision of helicopters, transfer of C-26 and AC-47 aircraft, extensive training of ground forces who were to operate in the some of the most dangerous areas of the countryside and help in establishing a significant unified command type base at Tres Esquinas in the southern part of the country. Plan Colombia also included provision of a U.S. derived intelligence and training of Colombian elements to improve collection and production of their own tactical and strategic intelligence.

The United States is providing more than one-billion dollars in aid, most of it in military equipment and training, to help the Colombian military combat drug trafficking and the armed groups that benefit from the illicit trade. Both the US and Colombian governments have said repeatedly there will be no U-S military intervention in the conflict. Policy enacted under the Clinton Administration limited the number of military trainers in Colombia to 400. As of early 2002 there were 250 American troops in Colombia, 50 Defense Department civilians and 100 contractors, some of whom operated aircraft that spray herbicide on Colombian coca fields.

Violence by narcoterrorist groups and other criminal elements continues to affect all parts of the country, urban and rural. Citizens of the United States and other countries continue to be the victims of threats, kidnappings, and other violence. This threat has increased recently in urban areas, including, but not limited to, Bogota, Cartagena and Barranquilla. Colombian terrorist groups also operate in the border areas of neighboring countries, creating similar dangers for travelers in those areas. Bombings have caused civilian casualties throughout Colombia. Targets include supermarkets, places of entertainment, and other areas where U.S. citizens congregate. There have been no security incidents, to our knowledge, on San Andres Island (off the coast of Nicaragua)About 3,000 kidnapping incidents were reported throughout Colombia in 2002. Since the year 2000, 27 Americans were reported kidnapped in various parts of the country. American kidnap or murder victims have included journalists, missionaries, scientists, human rights workers, U.S. government employees and businesspeople, as well as persons on tourism or family visits, and even small children.

Article about “Plan Colombia:” http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/0401putu.htm

Net coca cultivation in Colombia fell to 440 square miles in 2003 from 558 square miles in 2002 and 656 square miles in the peak growing year of 2001, according to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. The US had spent about $3.15 billion in Colombia since 2000, including about $2.5 billion is military and police assistance. Additional roles include protecting an oil pipeline partly owned by Occidental Petroleum, helping the Colombian military create a unit to eliminate guerilla leaders, and providing logistical data to help the military recapture rebel-held territory. While no US troops have died in Colombia since a 1999 plane crash, 11 US contractors have been killed since 1998, including six in 2003.

No one can be considered immune on the basis of occupation, nationality or any other factor. Most kidnappings of U.S. citizens in Colombia have been committed by terrorist groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which have been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the Secretary of State. Since it is U.S. policy not to make concessions to, or strike deals with, terrorists, the U.S.Government's ability to assist kidnapped U.S. citizens is limited.

      Former hostage John Fredy Diaz talks to The Associated Press during an interview in Bogota, Tuesday, July 15, 2008. Diaz, who was captured in 1998 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when it overran a military base in the southern jungle town of Miraflores, killing his younger brother, Diego, among others, was held for three years before being released in 2001.

In March 2004 the Bush administration asked Congress to increase by 75 percent the number of US troops and contractors in Colombia, citing the need to bolster its fight against drug traffickers and rebel fighters. The Bush administration wanted Congress to raise the cap on US soldiers and advisers to 800 from 400, and to increase the limit on civilian contractors to 600 from 400. These increases were approved in October 2004

**However, as shown by the charts below and on the next page, as the economy plummeted in Colombia, the coca production in some of Colombia’s poorest sections began to increase again in 2005.

Companies with U.S. government contracts for work in Colombia include Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and the DynCorp unit of Computer Sciences Corp.

                                                                                          

Luca

Although U.S. efforts to eradicate coca have made inroads, farmers like John Freddy Romero aren’t worried

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/08/18/world/20060819_COCA_SLIDESHOW_1.html

New your times photo slideshow of Colombian Coca Production:

Has PLAN Has PLAN COLOMBIA COLOMBIA made a made a differencedifference? ?

Worker in fields preparing the coca leaves for production

http://Colombia.JPGwww.bing.com/images/search?q=Colmbian+Civil+War+&form=QBIR&qs=n#focal=54de9f53204cbb9e48a6126182d7a4e5&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobalreport.org%2Fissues%2F163%2F

Articles From Colombia Journal about Plan Colombia: http://colombiajournal.org/special-reports/plancolombia

A cartoon depicting an (American) Congressman praying to a statue of the American Flag saying: “And free us from PLAN COLOMBIA for ever and ever…Amen. “

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znMoaeU6YlE#watch-main-area

What will the future bring What will the future bring for new for new generations of Colombian generations of Colombian Citizens? Citizens?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/colombia# History of Colombia

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html History of Panama & Canal

http://Colombia.JPGwww.bing.com/images/search?q=Colmbian+Civil+War+&form=QBIR&qs=n#focal=54de9f53204cbb9e48a6126182d7a4e5&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobalreport.org%2Fissues%2F163%2F History of the Civil War

History of Drugs in Colombia:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/business/inside/colombian.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/from_our_own_correspondent/1314619.stm

http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/?link=newsPage&story=221 Different Political Parties in Colombia

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/colombia.htm Plan Colombia

http://www.cipcol.org/?p=225 UN Data of Spraying of the Coca Fields

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/world/americas/19coca.html Spraying of the coca Fields

http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/CO_DIS.htm Fleeing of Colombia

Videos:

CNN Video on Drug Smuggling: Video Part 1 & 2http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/10/24/untold.stories.columbia.frontline.bk.a.cnn?iref=videosearch http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/10/24/untold.stories.columbia.frontline.bk.b.cnn?iref=videosearch

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/video/

Maria Full of Grace. Dir. Joshua Marston. HBO Films. 2004

Road to El Dorado. DreamWorks Films. 2000

CNN fyi article, "Seeds of hope in fields of war“

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/teacher.resources/lesson.plans/08/31/colombia/

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/news/08/31/colombia/index.html

http://www.emergency.com/colbknap.htm Article on Colombian Kidnappings

News of a Kidnapping, Gabriel García Márquez . 1996Magical realism’s maestro returns to his journalistic roots with this literary nonfiction novel. News of a Kidnapping relates a series of ten secuestros ordered by Medellin cartel boss, Pablo Escobar, in protest against an extradition treaty struck between the Colombian and US governments. There are none of GGM’s trademark whimsical flourishes in this intense, intricate and unflinching depiction of recent Colombian history, but you won’t care.

The Road to El Dorado, Ellen Weiss. Dream Works & Dutton Children’s Books. 2000. Tulio and Miguel want just two things in life: fame and fortune. They have been scheming-and losing- fir a long time, but then fate hands them a map to a place of their dreams, the legendary city of gold: El Dorado. The friends begin an adventure that will take them across uncharted ocean, into mysterious jungles, through the gates of the golden city, and smack into the greatest scam of their lives. But just when they think they’ve achieved wealth and power beyond their imaginings, fate has the last laugh, and Miguel and Tulio must rediscover a treasure that they have always taken for granted- their friendship.

ResourcesResourcesRecommended novels: