International Crisis Group
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Colombia at the Crossroads

1. The present situation
2. What should be done
3. History of the crisis
4. Crisis Group analysis
5. News & other reporting
6. Important documents and websites
7. Maps and geographical information
8. Images of Colombia
9. What you can do
10. What Crisis Group does

1. The present situation

On 28 May 2006, President Alvaro Uribe won a second four-year term with 62 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the candidates of the centre-left Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA) coalition and the Liberal Party. This followed congressional elections on 12 March, which produced a majority for several new pro-Uribe parties.

Uribe must simultaneously reinsert more than 35,000 former paramilitaries at risk of becoming an uncontrollable crime problem by rigorously implementing the Justice and Peace Law and supporting full investigation and prosecution of links between the secret police (Security Administrative Department, DAS) and the paramilitaries; promote human rights more decisively; fight drugs; and master the humanitarian crisis. He also needs to get preliminary peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second largest insurgent group, off the ground and find a way to engage on a hostages/prisoners swap as a first step towards a settlement with the more powerful Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

For more information, see Crisis Group's most recent reports, Uribe’s Re-election: Can the EU Help Colombia Develop a More Balanced Peace Strategy?, 8 June 2006; and Colombia: Towards Peace and Justice?, Latin America Report N°16, 14 March 2006.

Photo credit: (c) International Committee of the Red Cross/Boris Heger

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2. What should be done?

The Government of Colombia should:

1. Design and implement a new and comprehensive three-tier National Peace and Development Strategy that complements military responses to the armed conflict with political responses, including:

(a) a Rural Governance and Regional/Municipal Development Strategy to reduce rural poverty and stimulate regional/municipal development;
(b) a restructured and redefined Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) Program with more rigorous verification that command and control structures and criminal linkages of demobilised members of armed groups are being dismantled; and
(c) a Peace Negotiations Strategy that involves concluding peace and demobilisation talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and seeks to establish as soon as possible talks with the FARC on a hostages/prisoners swap as a first step towards peace negotiations.

2. Apply Law 974 (2005) and its regulations regarding internal party discipline to achieve a more coherent and effective Congress.

3. Respect all guarantees for the democratic opposition and the fundamental rights of citizens, in particular of vulnerable groups such as women, children, the indigenous and Afro-Colombians and including the constitutionally-sanctioned possibility for citizens to submit a legal claim for the protection of fundamental rights (tutela).

4. Design and implement a national human rights plan.

5. Immediately and rigorously apply the Justice and Peace Law (2005), increase law enforcement efforts against rearmed groups and organised criminals, and ensure victims their rights under Colombian and international law.

For more information, see Crisis Group's most recent report, Uribe’s Re-election: Can the EU Help Colombia Develop a More Balanced Peace Strategy?, Latin America Report N°17, 8 June 2006.

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3. History of the crisis

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, there was frequent civil war and Colombian politics focused on the conflict between the Partido Liberal (PL) and Partido Conservador (PC). In 1958, the PL and PC formed a power-sharing arrangement, which sparked the formation of left-wing guerrilla movements: Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

The 1990s saw an increasing dependence of the left-wing insurgency and right-wing paramilitary organisations, which forcefully emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s, on the narcotics trade. In 1997, the right-wing paramilitary forces coalesced to form the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). President Pastrana, elected August 1998, implemented a two-sided approach to try to end Colombia's insecurity, combining the November 1998 creation of FARC safe-haven to hold peace-talks with the U.S.-backed "Plan Colombia" whose aim was to remove narcotics from the security equation and strengthen the armed forces. However, negotiations soon stalled and eventually broke down, and Pastrana launched an offensive against FARC in February 2002. In August 2002, Álvaro Uribe assumed the presidency under FARC mortar fire in Bogotá and promised a crack-down against the insurgents. He implemented the Democratic Security Policy, which strengthened the formal security structure and created a peasant militia and network of informants.

In July 2003, the AUC signed a demobilisation accord with the government, aiming at full disarmament by the end of 2005. This was followed by a second accord in May 2004 and the establishment of a government-designated zone in northern Colombia, serving as the site for the negotiations with the AUC leadership. In June 2005, Congress passed the "Justice and Peace Law", meant to serve as the legal framework for the demobilisation of the irregular armed groups. The law has been heavily criticised for being too bland and tailor-made for the AUC. FARC and ELN have rejected conditional offers of peace talks. Insurgent and counter-insurgent organisations remain heavily financed by the narcotics trade, and violence continues. A pro-Uribe majority was elected to Congress in March 2006 and Uribe was re-elected for his second presidential term in May 2006. 

For more information, see the Colombia conflict history on our databases and resources page.

Photo credit: (c) International Committee of the Red Cross/Boris Heger

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4. Crisis Group analysis

Crisis Group recent reports

Recent articles and opinion pieces by Crisis Group

For earlier publications on the situation in Colombia, please visit our Colombia country page.

For a month by month report on developments in Colombia since September 2003, see Crisis Group's CrisisWatch database.

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5. News & other reporting

News sources with regular coverage of events in Colombia


Colombian news sources


Reports & articles by other organisations

Other useful websites

Photo: Shanty town on the outskirts of Bogota, (c) International Committee of the Red Cross/Boris Heger

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6. Important documents and websites

Colombian legal documents

Websites

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7. Maps and geographical information

The Republic of Colombia is located in north-western South America. It is bound to the north and northwest by the Caribbean Sea, to the east by Venezuela and Brazil, to the south by Ecuador and Peru, and to the west by Panama and the Pacific Ocean. It is the third most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico, with 44 million inhabitants.

The Andes mountain range runs through Colombia from the northeast near the Venezuelan border to the southwest. In the Colombian Massif (Macizo Colombiano) the mountains are divided into three ranges with intervening valley lowlands, Magdalena and Cauca, which follow rivers of the same name. The highest point is not in the Andes but in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the Caribbean plain. Colombia has a striking variety in temperature, resulting principally from differences in elevation: it has a tropical climate in the coastlands and lowlands, but is cooler in the mountains. 

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8. Images of Colombia

Colombians flee violent war, Reuters AlertNet, 1 July 2005

Three million Colombians forced from homes, Reuters AlertNet, 1 July 2005

Colombia: The humanitarian consequences of persistent conflict, ICRC, May 2005

Photo credit: REUTERS/Eliana Aponte, courtesy www.alertnet.org

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9. What you can do

Inform yourself about the crisis. Read Crisis Group's publications on Colombia, details of which are set out above. 

Tell a colleague - Email your friends and colleagues about the conflict. Click here to go to our "tell a colleague" page. Insert a message, or copy information from this page and paste it into your e-mail. The more people that are aware of the deteriorating situation in Colombia, the better our ability to get the international community to respond.

Write to your newspaper - Write a letter to the editor of your national newspaper urging your support for increased international engagement in Colombia. A selection of international newspapers is listed here, with email addresses to their letters pages.

Write to your elected representative - Write a letter or email to advise your elected representative of your views of the crisis in Colombia.  A selection of countries with links to their governing institutions and contact details are listed here.

Donate to aid and humanitarian organisations working in Colombia - A selection of aid and humanitarian organisations working in Colombia is listed here with links to their websites, where you can donate to their efforts to deal with the humanitarian problems in Colombia. The list is not exhaustive, and is not intended as an endorsement of any particular organisation. You are of course also very welcome to make a donation to our own International Crisis Group: we are an analysis and advocacy organisation, rather than an aid-delivery one, but we depend very much on public support, as well as grants from governments and foundations, to carry on our work of conflict prevention and resolution.

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10. What Crisis Group does

Crisis Group advocates policy solutions to the world's leading policy makers on areas of actual or potential conflict across four continents. Strong advocacy means disseminating the product as widely and effectively as possible, making sure that policy-makers hear the message and then persuading them to take action. Crisis Group distributes its reports:

• by direct mail of printed reports and papers to over 4,000 senior policy makers and those in the media and elsewhere who influence them;

• by email notification or attachment of reports and papers to 16,000 targeted "influentials", and over another 42,000 recipients subscribing through the Crisis Group website; and

• through our website, www.crisisgroup.org, which in 2005 received 3.3 million visits, and from which 2.3 million copies of Crisis Group reports and briefing papers were downloaded during the course of the year.

Our major advocacy offices, in Brussels, Washington, DC and New York, continue to ensure Crisis Group has the access and influence at the highest levels of the U.S. and European governments, the UN, EU and NATO. Our liaison offices in London and Moscow work to strengthen Crisis Group's profile and improve access to UK and Russian decision makers, while Brussels is responsible for the other European “Permanent Five” member, France. All Crisis Group offices, both advocacy and field, receive a regular flow of senior political and official visitors.

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