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Latin America and Caribbean
Colombia is a country with two distinct faces: one is that of a country with a stable democracy, a progressive constitution, dynamic economic growth and high levels of education, a country that, taken as a whole, looks set to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals. The other face is that of the world’s biggest producer of cocaine, a country ground down by decades of armed conflict and characterised by human rights violations, great poverty and extreme social inequality.
Almost 50 per cent of the Colombian population lives in poverty. Despite positive economic development, this percentage has hardly changed in the past ten years. The rural population in particular has benefited little from economic growth. More than forty years of armed conflict between government security forces, the guerrilla groups FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), and other violent illegal groups has been a major constraint on the country’s development. It is estimated that some 3.5 million Colombians are living as displaced persons in their own country (“internal refugees”), whilst some 400,000 have fled to neighbouring countries. Displaced persons thus make up almost ten per cent of the total population of Colombia. Many areas have been made uninhabitable by the planting of landmines. In 2009, over 1,000 people were killed by mines, making Colombia the country with the highest number of mine-related fatalities in the world.
The “Democratic Security Policy” introduced by Álvaro Uribe, President of Colombia until the middle of 2010, has led overall to an improvement in the country’s security situation. The activities of leftist guerrilla groups have been contained and some 36,000 paramilitaries have taken part in demobilisation programmes since 2005. The incidence of serious crimes like murder and kidnapping has fallen. But the root causes of the conflict have not been resolved. Many regions are still outside government control and the way in which the struggle for political power, drug trafficking and organised crime are closely entwined continues to limit the scope for taking effective political action.
The government headed by President Juan Manuel Santos, which has been in power since August 2010, is continuing to pursue the Democratic Security Policy. In addition, the new government has announced far-reaching reforms in terms of human rights, greater separation of powers, institutional transparency, land distribution and regional integration.
Relations with Germany
Germany and Colombia maintain close political, economic and cultural relations. For more than 50 years, Germany has worked closely with this Latin American partner on matters of development policy. The priority areas of Colombian-German cooperation are peace-building and crisis prevention, as well as environmental policy, and the protection and sustainable use of natural resources.
German Embassy

German Embassy in Colombia
Carrera 69 No. 25B-44
Edificio "World Business Port"
Piso 7
Bogotá, D.C.
Colombia
Phone: +57 / 1 / 42 32 600
Fax: +57 / 1 / 42 93 145






