COLOMBIA

                     BOGOTA GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS                                 

Colombia and its people received a bad reputation because of a history of drug trafficking. Yet it is such a beautiful and richly endowed country. It could have so much more than a bad reputation of drug trafficking and lawlessness.

BOGOTA FINANCIAL C ENTRE

HISTORY

The area which is now known as Colombia was inhabited by indigenous people such as Musca, Quimbaya and Tairona.

10,000 BC hunters/gatherers lived alongside what is now Bogota and traded with one another. At the beginning of the first millennium BC, groups of American Indians started to have a political system 'capicazgos' with a pyramidical structure and headed by a Caciques.

The Taironas were living in the Caribbean Region and Muiscas were living in the highlands around Bogota. They had the most complex capicazgos structure and spoke the Chibch language.  The Muiscas had the most political structure after the Incas.

CARTEGENS DE INDIAS

LES LEJOS CATHEDRAL IN NARINO

CHICAMACHA CANNON

THE WAYUU REPRESENTS THE LARGEST GROUP OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE..

The American Indians, the Chibcha tribe, lived near Bogota. They lived for more than 6000 years there and were great craftsmen. They made magnificent jewelleries from gold, silver and emeralds.

THE ZIPA USED TO COVER HIS BODY WITH GOLD.

The Zipa used to covered his body in gold, and from his raft, offered the treasures to the Goddess Guatavita in the middle of the lake. That could have, most properly did, spark off the legendary city of El Dorado.

When the Spaniards arrived in 1499 they heard about the fabulous city of El Dorado. They never found it. However, they wiped out many Indian tribes in trying to find it. Bogota was founded in 1538 by a Spanish soldier of fortune. His name was Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada. Most Colombians are a mixture of Spaniards and Indians. The black people living on the north coast. There are still 300,000 Indians but they are living in the forests as they done for centuries.

In 1819 Simon Bolivar defeated the Spaniards and the British forces and liberated Colombia. However, till 1903 they had about 70 civil wars. After Panama broke away from Colombia, it experienced a time of peace in spite of social unrest and military rule on and off. After 1948 there was constant class warfare for 20 years. In 1966 it ended with the presidency of Lleras Restrepo.

ECONOMY

The cocaine trade is undermining the country's security greatly. These groups (cartels) have great power and defy the government. In the mid 1990s the government won back the control after crushing cartels in the cities of Medellin and Cali.

Colombia is blessed with coastline on both sides of the country, the Atlantic and Pacific. It is twice the size of France. The land is so rich and has such a variety. It has three ranges of the Andes Mountains. The Western, Central and Eastern Cordilleras are along the north-western side of the country. In the centre it has a grassy plateaux called the Ilanos. The rain-sodden plains which are covered with tropical rainforest called the Selva are in the south and eastern side.

The hardly inhabited rainforests is full of wildlife such as pumas, jaguars, sloths and armadillos. It also contains rubber trees, balsam wood, mahogany and tropical plants which are used for medical purposes. In the west where the highest mountains peaks are, is the home of the condor. The mountains also serve as a resting place for 1500 species of birds when they are on their migration.

Colombia is known for an export of high quality coffee which is grown on huge plantations. The poor farmers, however, with little land, grow coca plants to sell the leaves. These leaves are processed into the illegal drug cocaine and secretly shipped out which makes a lot of money. Cocaine makes twice as much money for the country as coffee. Citrus fruit, bananas and mangoes are also grown there and exported.

Colombia also has the world most beautiful emeralds. Platinum is another commodity being exported. They have mines of gold, silver, copper, coal, iron and nickel. Oil and gas has been found near the border with Ecuador. They have one problem with transporting the ore through rugged terrain. They used the Magdalena River for many years but roads are being built.

MAGDALENA RIVER