Colombia – South America

Colombia is the gateway to South America. It has coasts on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It also has tremendous ecological wealth, extensive rivers, mountain ranges and jungles, and with more than 50,000 vegetable species, the greatest concentration of biodiversity on the planet.

It is also rich in petroleum, uranium, coffee, banana, natural gas, wood, gold and emeralds. In contrast with its abundant natural resources and cultural wealth, the country has lived through more than a century of social confrontations and conflicts, in which the poorest strata of the urban population, the peasant communities, the indigenous groups and in general, the unarmed population, have suffered a tremendous amount of aggression and violation of their human rights.

Some of the bloodiest events of the 20th century have been the following:

• The Thousand-Day War (1899-1902)
• The Banana Zone Massacre
• April 9, 1948
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• "La Violencia" (1948 to 1953)
• The Violence (1953 to 1957)
• Occupation of the Justice Palace
• The genocide perpetrated against The Union Patriotica (Patriotic Union)