Help us to complete OneWorld Guides
Some developing countries are missing from our range of Country Guides. OneWorld wants to fill these gaps but we need financial help. If there is a country that you would especially like to see included, then you could make it happen...... find out more

Millennium Development Goals in Colombia

Colombia has reduced the proportion of people living below the poverty line from 53.8% in 1991 to 45% in 2006, and extreme poverty from 20.4% to under 16%. That over twenty million people should live in poverty and that the overall rate of progress has been so slow in a country generously endowed with natural resources is testimony to the inability of its government to give adequate priority to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Chocó Colombia

The years of internal conflict have not only diverted resources – over 80% of US aid is channelled to the military – but also devastated the rural economy isolating it from progress made in the cities. For example, the capital city, Bogotá, has similar development indicators to the cities of former Eastern Europe while Choco, a department on the Pacific coast, has indicators comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. The conflict has also disproportionately affected people of Afro-Colombian and indigenous origin, accentuating inequality between these groups and wealthy families of Spanish descent.

In education the government has achieved increased enrolment rates, but there are problems in efficiency and quality. In rural areas illiteracy is several times higher than in the cities. Health indicators are progressing towards the MDG targets but much remains to be done. Child and maternal mortality rates are higher than average for the region, most typically due to the lack of sufficient income, which limits access to health services, especially for the disadvantaged groups which form almost 50% of the population. Oxfam has suggested that 20 million Colombians are unable to afford medicines.

The Origins of Conflict in Colombia

Colombia’s entrenched poverty is closely linked to its long history of socio-political violence which has left 200,000 dead since the 1960s and which remains the principal cause of death in the country. There are two branches of the conflict - the left-wing guerrilla movements and the right-wing paramilitaries.

The former emerged in reaction to the power-monopoly established by the traditional Liberal and Conservative parties in 1957. The most notable of the groups are the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), which were both initially engaged in armed struggle for land and social equality. Self-defence paramilitary groups appeared in the 1970s to fill the vacuum left by the State – the protection of private interests in mining, cattle raising, intensive agriculture, and illegal drug trafficking.

Flooded homes of displaced people in Quibdo © Refugees International

Both guerrillas and paramilitaries commit horrendous crimes against the innocent population. In the battle to establish control over strategic territories and expand the cultivation of narcotics, people are forced to choose between supporting one of the armed groups for protection or fleeing to the relative safety of urban areas where they live in dire sanitary conditions. This violence has created half a million refugees in neighbouring countries and forced the internal displacement of more than 3 million inhabitants, the largest number in any country other than Sudan. FARC is blamed for landmines which disabled or killed 1,000 people in 2006, the highest casualty rate in the world. Kidnapping has become a further source of funds for weapons and trafficking; FARC holds as many as 60 high profile hostages as bargaining chips.

Drug trafficking is the common denominator of violence in Colombia, superseding social and political goals that may once have inspired the guerrillas. The country is the world’s biggest exporter of cocaine and the second biggest of heroin. The profits of this business are fuels for the war and many of the combatants are disinclined to sacrifice these rewards for peace.

Conflict Resolution in Colombia

The election of the right-wing President Álvaro Uribe in 2002 brought a new hardline “democratic security” policy which aimed to regain control over territories held by rebels and paramilitaries by increasing military presence and to destroy the insurgents’ economic base by fumigation of illicit crops. This policy was consistent with the earlier “Plan Colombia”, a US strategy for countering drug trafficking which has been boosted by the Bush regime to the extent that funding over 7 years has exceeded $5 billion. However, whilst the Uribe administration has achieved headline progress in the fight against armed groups, violence and anarchy beyond urban areas is reported to be worsening. Over 200,000 new internal displacements (IDPs) were registered in 2006 alone whilst exports of cocaine are reported to be as high as ever. Plan Colombia and other measures, such as anti-terrorist legislation granting judicial powers to the military, have met strong disapproval from human rights organisations who advocate negotiated solutions supported by the principle of “truth and reconciliation”.

AUC paramilitaries

Whilst the government has established a temporary ceasefire and a formal structure for negotiation with ELN, repeated rounds of talks since 2005 have proved fruitless. FARC refuses to negotiate with the Uribe administration, instead demanding the release of large numbers of prisoners in return for hostages.

The government had greater success in a 2003 agreement with the main paramilitary group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), to provide rehabilitation programmes for its members in return for demobilisation. Leaders would receive reduced prison sentences in return for frank disclosure of their crimes. The process was ostensibly completed by the middle of 2006 with over 30,000 combatants having surrendered their weapons. However evidence is emerging of several faultlines in the process. The government has proved unable to deliver adequate rehabilitation programmes leaving large numbers of ex-fighters vulnerable to reintegration into crime rather than normal community life. Alarming numbers of new paramilitary groups are indeed being formed and re-engaging in the drugs trade. And many of the 50 leaders undergoing court processes have made embarrassing disclosures of their connections with members of the Uribe government. Several senior officials have been forced to resign, seriously damaging the hardline credentials of the president.
Human Rights in Colombia

Leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and armed forces in Colombia have been guilty of a long history of human rights violations, including the use of child soldiers. The government itself often fails to bring to justice military officials under its control.

Children in a displaced camp in Colombia © Amnesty International USA

Despite the detention and trial of AUC leaders, impunity is the major concern of human rights groups who are focusing on the “Justice and Peace” law, a framework approved by Congress in June 2005 to govern the agreement for paramilitary demobilisation. Critics see in this law a mechanism to let paramilitaries off, with inadequate recognition of the rights of the victims to full disclosure of the truth and return of their stolen land. Few convictions have been secured to date under the new law.

The government is also criticised for not providing adequate support and protection to displaced persons who wish to return home. The UN Agency for Refugees feels compelled to locate no fewer than 13 offices in Colombia, assisting 400,000 of the IDPs.

Indigenous Colombians

Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders, journalists and trade union organisers. Over 70 trade unionists were murdered in 2006 alone and only about 5% of workers in Colombia are members of a union. The military’s record on extrajudicial killings was further highlighted during 2007 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Groups, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, who described the treatment of Colombia’s impoverished indigenous people as “truly acts of genocide and ethnocide”. With over 1,000 killings attributed to state security forces in just 4 years, 12 of the 84 indigenous groups in Colombia are considered to be close to extinction.
Politics in Colombia

Álvaro Uribe © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

Álvaro Uribe was re-elected as president in 2006 and maintains high levels of popularity principally by his security policy. People feel safer, especially in the cities. Traditional parties are the liberals and the social conservatives but, in support of the re-election of Uribe, new movements were formed such as Cambio Radical, Colombia Democratica, and Alas-Equipo Colombia. Parties in opposition to the government include Polo Democratico and the Indigenous party. Parties aligned with Uribe were successful in parliamentary elections to both houses held in early 2006.

There is a three-way division of power between the executive president, the legislative and the judiciary. The legislative is comprised of two elected houses; the House of Senators (with 102 members) and the House of Representatives (with 166 members). Judicial power is exercised by 4 bodies - the Constitutional and Supreme Justice Courts and the State and Superior Judiciary Councils. The upper courts in particular have impressed observers by their independent stewardship of the Constitution, for example condemning the government’s failure to implement a 1997 law to assist IDPs.

Beyond these constitutional structures, Colombian politics have always been managed by patronage and the Uribe administration is no exception. The party that wins an election rewards party members by appointing them to public positions or by funding special projects. Another unattractive feature in Colombian politics is the armed harassment of voters. The paramilitaries in particular promote their candidates in local and national elections through pressure and threats. Then they appropriate public budgets through corrupt contracts.

Civil society is active and there are many NGOs and foundations, principally of local origin. The willingness of people to express themselves was demonstrated by the organisation of significant protest marches in early 2008, first against the continued activities of FARC and then against the paramilitaries. Social networking websites proved effective in galvanising protesters.
The Environment in Colombia

©José Joaquín Varela

Colombian civil society is also active in a bold initiative to introduce a Constitutional right to access to safe drinking water. Although Colombia enjoys plentiful supplies of renewable freshwater, activists claim that over a quarter of the population lacks access and that privatisation of many municipal supplies has benefited only the wealthier areas. 1.5 million signatures are now required for a referendum, inspired by a similar move in Uruguay.

Deforestation is the headline environmental concern with the annual loss of around 200,000 hectares, a rate which would clear the country’s forests completely in less than half a lifetime. The principal causes are the expansion of agriculture (73%), timber production (11%), and firewood (11%). In particular the government has plans for massive expansion of palm oil plantations to take advantage of the craze for biofuels. Apart from deforestation, this is triggering a fresh round of land grabs and displacement of legitimate farmers.

Deforestation has also been aggravated by Plan Colombia whose fumigation strategy simply forces coca growers to burn more primary forest for cultivation while their laboratories dump toxins into the river system. An estimated 150,000 hectares of illicit crops are cutting into forest reserves. The fumigation spray itself damages fragile ecosystems and is rumoured to involve toxins that are related to Agent Orange – the notorious defoliant used in the Vietnam War which led to appalling damage to human health.
The Economy in Colombia

Management of the Colombian economy is plagued by the distortions of drug trafficking which involves massive inflows of funds beyond the reach of government. Nevertheless, by conventional measures, the country achieves creditable rates of growth but these are failing to break down poverty and inequality. The official rate of unemployment has risen to 12.8% in 2007 but a further 35% of the population is underemployed. Remittances from overseas are a major source of foreign currency.

From this position of weakness, negotiations of a controversial bilateral free trade agreement with the US have raised concerns about the future of small farmers in competition with subsidised US produce and about the impact of intellectual property rights on the cost of medicines. Colombia has signed the FTA but the new Democrat control of US Congress is less than impressed by the absence of protection of labour standards, especially in the context of persecution of trade union leaders. President Bush is therefore struggling to gain approval for the agreement. For similar reasons, future US aid to Colombia may acquire a different profile with focus on human development rather than the security services.



The OneWorld Colombia Guide was first published in this format in November 2006 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Jonathan Rozo

---------