April 9, 1948, was a tragic day in Colombia’s history. On this day, Jorge Eliécer Gaítán, a candidate for the presidency of Colombia, was assassinated. In the 10 hour period that followed the assassination, angry mobs marched throughout the city of Bogota, looting and burning down over 100 buildings. Before the night would end, nearly 3,000 people would die in the streets. This terrible event in Colombia’s history is today referred to as the Bogotazo. This paper examines some of the underlying reasons contributing to the outbreak of this violence and the events that transpired during the Bogotazo. The paper concludes that the events leading to the violence of the Bogotazo are still present in Colombia today and will hamper its prospects for peace in the future. Colombia’s history has had many episodes of violence ever since it won its independence from Spain in 1819. After independence, the people of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru, western Guyana, and northwest Brazil united to form a single nation called Gran Colombia. Simon Bolivar became this new republic’s first president. However, Gran Colombia would not last for long. Its leaders would become divided on how the new republic should be governed. Some of its leaders would favor a strong centralized government whereas others would prefer a federal form of government. Liberal and conservative views would divide the country. Finally, in 1831, Gran Colombia would divide into the nations that originally formed it Gran Colombia after 1831 went through several name changes. From 1832 to 1858, it was the Republic of New Grenada. From 1858 to 1863, it was the Grenadine Confederation. From 1863-1886, it was the United States of Colombia. Since 1886, it name has been ... ... middle of paper ... .... The death of Gaitán and the Bogotazo on April 9, 1948, would later be used by historians to mark a new era of violence in Colombia called La Violencia. In the years following the Bogotazo, from 1948-1958, another 200,000 Colombians would die. More than 1000 people would die every month during the peak of the La Violencia. Many of the reasons and injustices that divided Gran Colombia in 1831 continue to cause violence in Colombia today. Daily one can read in Colombia’s newspapers report of incidents of violence in many different regions of the Colombia. Fighting between guerilla and government soldiers still take people’s lives and rob them of their hopes for a better future. Our United States State Departments still sends out travelers warnings of more potential violence in Colombia. No significant breakthroughs toward lasting peace seem likely in the near future.
Beginning in the late 1970s Liberation Theology, Marxism, and U.S. Cold War policy collided in El Salvador culminating in a civil war that lasted over a decade and ultimately produced democratic political institutions that persist into the 21st century. Despite the prejudices against the church on behalf of government and media organizations in the U.S. and El Salvador, religious actors fought for human rights and the implementation of democratic institutions throughout the period of conflict. The Salvadoran Civil War, which occurred in the context of the Cold War, was one of the bloodiest and longest events in the history of Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The conflict lasted from 1979 to 1992, left approximately 75,000 people dead, and a country in ashes. The conflict started after the fraudulent elections of the Coronel Arturo Armando Molina (1972), who focused his term on repressing the communist political parties that wanted to work for a social reform. This aroused the anger of the popular sectors, which started to organize groups and demonstrations demanding fair election and improvement of social conditions. The government responded to their demands with savage violence, focusing primarily on the oppression of campesinos because they were the ones who supported the revolutionary leftist forces. These actions alienated the Salvadoran population even more and caused many people in the Catholic Church to start denouncing the government’s actions. Thus, as the Civil War started to rise, the church started to radicalize and to and spoke up against the government’s actions. One of its most fervent advocates was Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who during his short time as the Archbishop of San Salvador manifested hi...
The republic of Colombia has been fighting an internal war for over 50 years. On April 9th 1948, 1:00P.M. The leader of the Liberal Party Jorger Eliecer Gaitan walked out of his office in the downtown area, got shot 3 times and died once he got to the hospital. This day went down in Colombian history as the Bogotazo. Gaitan was a moderate socialist congressman that gave a voice to the middle and lower classes in Colombia. He gave hope to those that had nothing under the right wing elitist government. In 1948 after his death, the era of the Violencia started. A civil war between the Colombian communist party and the farmers against the right wing military conservative government due to the high inflation and unfair assistance to those that
Colombia emerged from the collapse of the Gran Colombia in 1830. Since then the country has struggled with internal threats, illicit drug production, and estranged relations with neighboring nations. In a country slightly less than twice the size of Texas and claiming over 46,000,000 citizens, Colombia faces many challenges in its efforts to resolve internal conflict, reduce narcotics operations, improve the environment, and repair relationships in the region.
As the Medellín Cartel was the largest drug cartel in Colombia at the time, they had controlled 80% of all the cocaine supply that was entering the United States. Despite the fact that Escobar donated millions of dollars to the local people of Medellin and funded the construction of schools and sports centers to help create a good reputation for himself. But even if he did donate millions of dollars to the poor, it was still just a chip into the Medellín Cartel’s wealth. By looking at the statistics of the number of people who were affected by Escobar’s acts of terror it has become evident to me that the negative effects of the Medellín Cartel had heavily outweighed the benefits of how Escobar tried to give back to the local people of Colombia.
In the beginning, there was of course Spain and the Indians, happily hating each other as the Spaniards tore the land up in quest for gold, El Dorado, religious converts, and political power. The English, too, played their part, with Drake attacking Riohachi in 1568 and the countless colonial squabbles of the next few centuries. Declaring itself independent from Spain when Napoleon ousted the Spanish King in 1810, the new country experienced a brief period of freedom and then was quickly reconquered in 1815 by the unpleasant and bloody campaigns of General Murillo. So much did their internal bickering allow their fledgling country to fall to the sword of Murillo, the period is immortalized in Colombia's history with the colorful name of la Patria Boba, or "The Booby Fatherland." Round two, however, fell to the Colombians, when Simón Bolívar reliberated the country in 1820 and became its very first president. In 1849, the country was sufficiently advanced enough to concretize their squabbling in the form of two political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, who exist to this day. These two parties form the political framework for much of García Márquez's fiction, and understanding their true natures is both a key to his writing and, unfortunately, an important insight to Latin American politics in general.
Narcoterrorism has a long past in the history of Colombia, focusing mainly on the market development of one drug: cocaine. Colombia, with its arid tropical climate and lush land, is an ideal place for the sowing and reaping of the coca plant whose extracts are synthesized into the powder cocaine drug. As Colombian cocaine production skyrocketed in the 1970’s and 1980’s thanks to booming demand for the product in Americas, drug kingpins in Colombia began to wield immense power in the country. ...
Throughout his life, he traveled around Latin America and pursued his passion of being a transnational revolutionary. His biggest success was in Cuba, however, his ideas and tactics were transcended into many other movements around the continent with the publication of his 1960 book, Guerrilla Warfare. Here, Guevara illustrates the situations, tactics and skills that are most effective for social revolution to occur. In his book, he delves into innate detail regarding the strategy, tactics and favorable environment for guerrilla warfare. Although he outlines the necessary conditions for a triumphant revolution, Guevara’s book was not useful for sparking any other successful insurgencies throughout Latin America because it downplays the significance of the urban resistance and popular support as important factors to consider within a successful social revolution.
This is evident in Colombia’s Violencia period: “But instead of improving the prospects for peace, the United States “is about to put Colombia´s fragile democracy at greater risk by escalating the new Violencia… It is the people of Colombia who will pay the price for the inability of the United States to face the fact that its ´war´ on drugs can only be won at home”(Source 1). It is clear with this example that the US pushed the limits, forcing violence in Colombia and nurturing it, leaving Colombia in a whole political mess. Colombia, by that time was really lost. Its way had been destroyed by the US; nothing was clear for Colombia anymore. Looking at a general scope, The United States played the role of “Father” to countries in Latin America with the purpose of gaining control of capitalism over communism in this area at the expense of making some countries politically and socially
With a population of 48.32 million and about the size of California and Texas combined is the Republic of Colombia. Located at the northern tip of South America. Similarly to the United States it has a republic form of government with executive,judicial,and legislative branches. There President is Juan Manuel Santos and they use the Colombian pesos for money. They have free education systems that are Primary school which is elementary school for us and Secondary school which to us is high school and there major language is Spanish. Colombia’s flag is striped mostly yellow then blue then red on the bottom.
Colombian citizens experience and live through the good and bad things Pablo does, when Americans only hear about the negative actions Escobar commits. Hearing versus seeing plays a vital role in the difference of perspectives between the Colombians and Americans. In the United States, only hearing about Pablo Escobar leads to confusion among different people as “For what, exactly, isn’t easy to understand without knowing Colombia and his life and times” (15). American civilians not knowing personally know why they hate Escobar reflects poorly on the United States. The media does not inform the general public about all the great and generous things Escobar accomplishes for Colombia, and only publishes the stories of his cartel killing innocent people. From the perspective of Colombians, they only know Escobar as a hero of Colombia as “At his death, Pablo was mourned by thousands. Crowds rioted when his casket was carried into the streets of his home city of Medellin” (15). Colombians create a national mourning day for Escobar after his death, when the Americans celebrate their success in killing him. This represents the difference in opinion of Escobar between the two countries. Pablo made promises and he conqueres them; he said he would end poverty as he provided education and housing to the poorest people inside of Colombia. On the other hand,
... the world in coca cultivation, along with Columbia and Bolivia, and their production doubled in the 1990s (Lia, 2005). Terrorism in modern Peru has evolved from attacks by a collection of communist guerilla outfits with differing degrees of fundamentalism into utilitarian narco-terrorism, with the potential for anti-globalization violence. The evolution of terrorism in other parts of the world have taken a more fundamental turn with the rise of Global Jihadist, but Peruvians guerillas appear to have left the most extreme Maoist versions of their ideology behind. Hopefully this foretells of a much less violent future for Peru, even if there are still unresolved security problems. With the emergence of narco-terrorism, the future is more uncertain, and the trade-offs needed to separate terrorists from coca farmers are difficult to make politically and diplomatically.
Religion in Latin America has always been tied closely to Catholicism because of the influence of Europeans who came to settle South America, bringing along their Catholic foundation. With the early formations of governments in Latin America, church and state were closely linked. The church had significant influence over what happened in the political realm of the countries’ relations. The case was no different for Colombia. The Catholic church has played a significant role in the history of Colombia, assuming an esteemed status in the country and exercising control over different areas of the government and public affairs, but as time passed its role in power has taken a slight downturn.
McDermott, Jeremy. “US Targets Colombian Rebels as War against Terrorism Escalates.” Scottsman.com. February 10, 2002.
A. Area of conflict: The efforts of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end their 52 year old civil war that has caused the death of more than 260,000 people. The Colombians need to develop a system that comprehensively investigates the crimes committed during the war and that allows for reconciliation, and the eventual, peaceful advancement of the nation’s development.
In 1967 deep in the Bolivian Jungle a group of Bolivian Special Forces, trained by the American Green Berets were hunting down Che Guevara, a Marxist revolutionary, who had been attempting to overthrow the government. Guevara had gone to Bolivia in the hopes of instigating a revolution among the poor Bolivian peasants but to his surprise his ideals were met with either indifference or contempt and it was one of these people that betrayed his location to the Bolivia government, and so the Special Forces were sent out to kill Guevara. They tracked him down in the middle of the jungle where he was killed, his hands cut off for identification and his body buried in an unmarked location so as not to become a martyr’s grave (1967: Che Guevara). This story, although centered around one very famous man, is just one of the few that mark Bolivia’s tumultuous history of instability and military action.