On Wednesday, Colombian officials conceded a key topic of negotiation in ongoing peace talks with the nation’s largest Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization, Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). They have agreed to allow political participation and eventual integration of FARC into Colombia’s democratic processes. The issue of future political participation has been one of the most…
He was leader of Peru, and “President of Colombia.” The entire country of Bolivia is named in his honor. Born on July 24, 1783, he was serendipitously raised in an age of revolutions, and was one of the key leaders in the struggle for independence from Spain, which he would help to spread throughout Latin America. Just…
Colombian authorities have launched a manhunt for the drug traffickers who were responsible for massacre of 10 peasants in Santa Rosa de Osos, Colombia this week. It is believed they were murdered for failing to pay extortion tribute to the drug trafficking gang believed responsible. The massacre is particularly shocking and troubling for the public…
Below is a depiction of government debt levels for the seven largest economies in Latin America. Government debt accounted for approximately 46% of GDP across Latin America in 2011. As of 2011, European Union countries an average between 60% for the EU 15, and 74% for all European Union countries. (The EU15 comprised the following 15 countries:…
Since initiating market reforms in 1990 under the administration of President César Gaviria, Colombia’s economy has climbed from a GNI of $38 billion to over $435 billion today [1], with an expected growth rate of %4. GDP per capita increased a full 496% in the same time period; from $1,600 in 1990, to an estimated…
On Sunday, a powerful earthquake hit Colombia near Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali due to a subducting Nazca plate. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) the quake was a 7.3 on the Richter scale. There were no immediate reports of injuries, or damage despite the exceptional intensity of the quake. Recent significant earthquakes in Columbia include…
Mercosur is a full customs union encompassing Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay y Uruguay. On Tuesday, the 31st of July, Venezuela joined that group making it one of the largest economies in the world at an estimated $3.3 trillion dollars. Recently, a similar economic agreement made up of largely western countries (Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia) named…
On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Colombia approved a proposal from the government to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and also included cocaine as a narcotic permissible for personal use. Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro recently submitted a plan to the government a plan to legalize the sale of marijuana in Uruguay through government controlled…
With 3,266,199 square miles of terrestrial territory, Brazil is the 5th largest country by landmass behind Russia, China, and the US of A. While Russia is in a league of its own with two and a half million square miles more than the second largest country in the world, with just 428,761 additional square miles…
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