Colombia, officially Republic of Colombia, republic (1994 est. pop. 35,578,000), 439,735 sq mi (1,138,914 sq km), NW South America. The only South American country with both Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, Colombia is bordered by Panama (NW), Venezuela (NE), Ecuador and Peru (S), and Brazil (SE). Major cities include BOGOTÁ (the capital), MEDELLÍN, and CALI. By far the most prominent physical features are the three great Andean (see ANDES) mountain chains (CORDILLERAS) that fan north from Ecuador, reaching their highest point in Pico Cristóbal (18,947 ft/5,775 m). The Andean interior is the heart of the country, containing the largest concentration of population as well as the major coffee-growing areas. In pre-Columbian days this was the site of the advanced civilization of the Chibcha. To the east of the Andes lies more than half of Colombia's territory-a vast, largely undeveloped lowland, including the tropical rain forests of the AMAZON basin and the savannas (LLANOS) of the ORINOCO basin. Agriculture is a major source of income: besides coffee, long Colombia's leading export, the chief cash crops are bananas, cotton, sugarcane, and tobacco. Coca and cannabis are grown for the illegal drug trade, which is a major source of foreign exchange, but trafficking has disrupted the fabric of Colombian society. Rich in minerals, Colombia produces petroleum (since 1991 its most valuable export) and natural gas, iron, coal, gold, nickel, and emeralds. The growing manufacturing sector is led by processed foods, textiles, metal products, and chemicals. Colombia established a customs union with Venezuela in 1991 and has signed free-trade agreements with other Andean nations and Mexico. About two thirds of the population are mestizos; less than one fifth are of pure European descent. Spanish is the official language, and most of the people are Roman Catholic.
Conquered by the Spanish in 1530s, the region that is now Colombia became the core of the Spanish colony of NEW GRANADA, which included Panama and most of Venezuela. The struggle for independence from Spain began in 1810, lasted nine years, and ended with the victory of Simón BOLÍVAR at Boyacá in 1819. Bolívar set up the new state of Greater Colombia, which included all of New Granada and (after 1822) Ecuador. Political differences soon emerged, however, and the union fell apart. Venezuela and Ecuador became separate nations; the remaining territory eventually became the Republic of Colombia (1886), from which Panama seceded in 1903. Through the 19th and into the 20th cent., political unrest and civil strife racked Colombia. Strong parties developed along conservative (centrist) and liberal (federalist) lines, and civil war frequently erupted between the factions. As many as 100,000 people were killed before the conservatives emerged victorious in a civil war of unprecedented violence that raged from 1899 to 1902. And again, after a four-decade hiatus of political peace, in 1948 bloody strife rent the nation, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. Orderly government was finally restored as the result of a compromise between liberals and conservatives in 1958. A guerrilla insurgency arose in the 1970s and continued into the 1990s, although some groups signed peace agreements with the government. In the 1980s and early 90s the cocaine "cartels" threatened to undermine civil government through bribery, bombings, kidnappings, and the murder of government officials. In the 1990 presidential election, an outspoken enemy of the drug lords, César Gaviria Trujillo, was elected president. Although the power of the notorious Medellín drug cartel was broken in 1993, the Cali cartel remains strong. The Liberal party candidate, Ernesto Samper Pizano, won the presidency in 1994, but his victory was tarnished by allegations that his campaign had accepted money from drug traffickers.