Colombia

Colombia

Colombia is a country located in the northwestern region of South America. It is a constitutional, multiparty democracy with a population of approximately 42 million. On May 28, independent presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe was reelected in elections that were considered generally free and fair. Throughout its history Colombia has suffered numerous wars and civil wars in a struggle to define its political system. Colombia currently suffers an armed conflict involving guerrillas, drug traffickers and government corruption. During its political process, and due to local population, NGO’s and international pressure, policies and laws have been gradually put into effect to guarantee Right to life, Human dignity, prevent state of sieges, improve national security, enforce the Rechtsstaat; promote freedom of the press and democratic freedoms; economic rights, rights to information, social and cultural rights, women, children's, workers and ethnic minorities rights, most notably established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991. According to Amnesty International’s Annual Report 2007, “Serious human rights abuses remained at high levels, especially in rural areas, despite continued reductions in certain types of violence associated with Colombia's long-running internal armed conflict, in particular kidnappings and killings.”

Columbia and its human rights abuses have a fairly large impact on the United State’s economy and foreign policy. Colombia is a free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to the United States. Recently, there have been reports of human rights abuses in mining zones. The oil pipelines are a frequent target of extortion and bombing campaigns by the ELN and, more recently, the FARC. The bombings, which have occurred on average once every 5 days, have caused substantial environmental damage, often in fragile rainforests and jungles, as well as causing significant loss of life. Besides oil, coal, and coffee, illegal drugs are exported to the United States. Cocaine makes up a huge part of an illegal industry for Colombia. This has a negative effect on both foreign policy and economics in the United States. Because of the corruption that runs deep in Colombia’s government, officials often do not enforce nor do their best in trying to stop drug traffickers. Colombia is responsible for putting large amounts of cocaine into the streets of America.

All parties to the conflict, the security forces and army-backed paramilitaries as well as guerrilla groups, mainly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), continued to abuse human rights and breach international humanitarian law. They were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. There was a fall in the number of people newly displaced by the conflict, but the large number of displaced people remained a concern. There were further attacks on trade unionists and human rights defenders, mainly by paramilitary groups. Extrajudicial executions by members of the security forces, and selective killings of civilians and kidnappings by guerrilla forces continued to be reported. The Organization of American States Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia published a report in August. This stated that some demobilized paramilitaries had regrouped as criminal gangs, that others had failed to demobilize, and that new paramilitary groups had emerged. In September the government promulgated Decree 3391 which revived some of the more controversial elements of the Justice and Peace Law. Of particular concern was the inclusion of "rural reinsertion" programs by which the government will finance agro-industrial