However, according to 2005 data reported by the Colombian government, the road network totaled 163, 000 kilometers, 68 percent of which were paved and in good condition.

Although the system established by the Sitges agreement was phased out by 1974, the 1886 Colombian constitution — in effect until 1991 — required that the losing political party be given adequate and equitable participation in the government which, according to many observers and later analysis, eventually resulted in some increase in corruption and legal relaxation.

Pressure from the U. S. government and critical sectors of Colombian society was met with further violence, as the Medellín Cartel and its hitmen, bribed or murdered numerous public officials, politicians and others who stood in its way by supporting the implementation of extradition of Colombian nationals to the U. S. Victims of cartel violence included Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara, assassinated in 1984, an event which made the Betancur administration begin to directly oppose the drug lords.

A 2002 example of a Colombian diplomat in London being prosecuted for the manslaughter of a man who mugged his son in a Tesco car park was deemed in the public interest once diplomatic immunity was waived by the Colombian government.

At first, the Peruvian government did not recognize the military takeover, but President of Peru Luis Sánchez Cerro decided to resist a Colombian re-occupation.

The director of the OEA and the Colombian government commissioned Master Santiago Martinez Delgado, to paint a mural in the Colombian congress building to commemorate the event.

By the middle of 1903, the Colombian government in Bogotá had balked at the prospect of a U. S. controlled canal under the terms that the Roosevelt administration was offering.

During this time, ownership of the territory that is now the Panama Canal was first Colombian, then French and then American before coming under the control of the Panamanian government in 1999.

President Chávez also asked the Colombian government and their allies to recognize the FARC as a belligerent force, arguing that such political recognition would oblige the FARC to forgo kidnapping and terrorism as methods of civil war and to abide by the Geneva Convention.

The sixteen-year extension of the bipartisan power-sharing agreement permitted the Liberal and Conservative élites to consolidate their socioeconomic control of Colombian society, and to strengthen the military to suppress political reform and radical politics proposing alternative forms of government for Colombia.

During the 1960s, the Colombian government effected a policy of Accelerated Economic Development ( AED ), the agribusiness plan of Lauchlin Currie, a Canadian-born U. S. economist who owned ranching land in Colombia.

The plan promoted industrial farming that would produce great yields of agricultural and animal products for world-wide exportation, while the Colombian government would provide subsidies to large-scale private farms.

Many of the PCC's attempts at organizing peasants, were met with violent repression by the Colombian government, and landowning class.

Doug Stokes argues that it was not until the early part of the 1980s that the Colombian government attempted to move away from the counterinsurgency strategy represented by Plan Lazo and Yarborough's 1962 recommendations.

At the behest of the United States, the Colombian government began attacking many of the self-defense communities in the early 1960s, attempting to re-assimilate the territories under the control of the national government.

During this period, the Colombian government continued its negotiations with the FARC-EP and other armed groups, some of which were successful.

The Colombian government argued that the attack was caused by the FARC-EP's lack of commitment to the process, since the organization was continuing its criminal activities.

Betancourt was rescued by the Colombian government on 2 July 2008 ( see Operation Jaque below ).

Tánaiste Mary Harney said no deal had been done with Sinn Féin or the IRA over the three's return to Ireland adding that the Irish government would consider any request from the Colombian authorities for their extradition.

This demand was rejected by the Colombian government based on previous experience during the 2002 peace talks.

On 17 December 2004, the Colombian government authorized Trinidad's extradition to the United States, but stated that the measure could be revoked if the FARC-EP released all political hostages and military captives in its possession before 30 December.

The tragic tale of the Mexican colony on Clipperton Island has been the subject of several novels, including Ivo Mansmann's Clipperton, Schicksale auf einer vergessenen Insel (" Clipperton, Destinies on a Forgotten Island "); ISBN 3-354-00709-5 ( in German, no English translation available ) and Colombian writer Laura Restrepo's La Isla de la Pasión in the Spanish language.

Since being liberalized in 1991, the Colombian telecommunications sector has added new services, expanded coverage, improved efficiency, and lowered costs.

While early initiatives in the Colombian peace process gave reason for optimism, the Pastrana administration also has had to combat high unemployment and other economic problems, such as the fiscal deficit and the impact of global financial instability on Colombia.

, two years after its implementation began, the security situation of inside Colombia has shown some measure of an improvement and the economy, while still fragile, has also shown some positive signs according to observers, but relatively little has yet to have been accomplished in structurally solving most of the country's other grave problems, possibly in part due to legislative and political conflicts between the administration and the Colombian Congress ( including those over the controversial project to eventually re-elect Uribe ), and a relative lack of freely allocated funds and credits.

For example, Ecuador has closed its main border crossing with Colombia every night since August 2002, when evidence emerged that Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries were asserting control over Ecuador's border communities.

It has usually been Colombia's second largest party, with the Colombian Liberal Party being the largest.

Guatemala City also has a sizeable Indigenous population and minority groups such as Germans and other Europeans, Jewish, Asians primarily Chinese and Korean, and many groups of other Latin American origins such as Peruvian, and Colombian amongst others.

The thought of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has been influential in individualist anarchism specifically in thinkers such as the French Émile Armand, the Italian Renzo Novatore, the Colombian Biofilo Panclasta, and also " translations of Nietzsche's writings in the United States very likely appeared first in Liberty, the anarchist journal edited by Benjamin Tucker ".

The archipelago has been under Colombian control since 1931 when a treaty was signed during US occupation of Nicaragua, giving Colombia control over the islands.

In April 2011 the Colombian congress issued a statement saying that FARC has a ' strong presence ' in roughly one third of the municipalities in Colombia, while their attacks have increased.

In early January 2011 the Colombian army said that the FARC has some 18, 000 members, with 9, 000 of those forming part of the militias.

The NGO has stated that while most of these incidents remain defensive in nature and are not like the large offensives from years past, FARC actions have been growing since 2005, and the rebel group is currently carrying out intense operations against small and medium-sized Colombian military units in vulnerable areas.

Santos announced on 27 August 2012 that the Colombian government has engaged in exploratory talks with FARC in order to seek an end to the conflict:

An unnamed Colombian intelligence source said Santos has assured FARC that no one would be extradited to stand trial in another country.

Former President Uribe has criticized Santos for seeking peace " at any cost " and rejected the idea of holding talks .< Ref > http :// www. aljazeera. com / news / americas / 2012 / 08 / 20128280155953340. html </ ref > Telesur reported that FARC and the Colombian government had signed a preliminary agreement in Havana the same day.

In this regards, the Colombian government has alread passed a series of laws that entail compensation for the victims and a return of land to the displaced.

FARC has been accused of committing violations of human rights by numerous groups, including the Colombian government, U. S. government, European Union, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and United Nations.

FARC has sometimes threatened or assassinated indigenous Colombian leaders for attempting to prevent FARC incursions into their territory and resisting the forcible recruitment by FARC of indigenous youth.

The Colombian Constitutional Court has warned that 35 of those groups are in danger of dying out.

Although the Colombian State has taken back control over most of the country, narcoterrorism still causes pain in the country.

In the 2010 Colombian presidential election a green party has been created under the name Colombian Green Party, with former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus being the leader.

The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean Sea.