Colombia Military

Colombia is a South American country located in the northwestern region of the continent. With a population of over 50 million people, it is the 29th most populous country in Latin America. The Republic of Colombia is a presidential republic and its military consists of three branches: the Colombian Army, Colombian Navy, and Colombian Air Force. The Colombian Army is responsible for defending the country’s borders and sovereignty, as well as providing security to its citizens. In terms of defense spending, Colombia spends approximately $9 billion annually on its military, making it one of the highest defense spending nations per capita in Latin America. The country also participates in several regional peacekeeping missions such as those in Haiti and Venezuela. Colombia is also a member of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and has close ties with other UNASUR members such as Argentina and Peru. See naturegnosis to learn more about the country of Colombia.

Defense

The defense, which is based on selective military duty with an initial 24-month service, comprises 207,000 men and a reserve of 60,000 men. In recent years, a significant modernization and specialization in the fight against drugs has been carried out by both the military and the police units in collaboration with the United States.

Land area 1,138,910 km²
Total population 49,084,841
Population density (per km²) 43.1
Capital Bogotá
Official language Spanish
Income per capita $ 14,400
Currency Colombian peso
ISO 3166 code CO
Internet TLD .co
License plate CO
Telephone code +57
Time zone UTC – 5th
Geographic coordinates 4 00 N, 72 00 W.

The defense is organized in an army of 114,000 men, 232,000 fully-staffed, with an anti-terrorist unit of ten mobile brigades, one of which is a drug-focused brigade; To this are added six mechanized and two airborne brigades. The Navy comprises 15,000 men, 27,000 men fully staffed, with four submarines, four large surface combat vessels, 179 patrol boats and a navy corps of 14,000 men and a small naval aircraft with submarine capacity. The Air Force comprises 3,000 men, 8,200 men fully manned, with 52 fighter planes and 24 modern attack helicopters. Semi-military security forces amount to 129,000 men, of which the national police 121,000 men have been supplemented with increased mobility and with some military (air) capacity.

The material is the mother of Western origin. Defense costs have increased from 1.6 to 2.8% of GDP in 1985-2005. Various (left) revolutionary guerrilla groups (FARC) and armed drug syndicates were organized as early as 1964 and amount to about 22,000 men. In 1997, a (right) semi-military organization (AUC) was organized, amounting to 12,000 men.

Colombia participates in peacekeeping operations with a battalion of 358 men in Egypt (MFO). To see related acronyms about this country, please check ABBREVIATIONFINDER where you can see that COL stands for Colombia.

Colombia Army

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The postwar period

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties were – and continue to be – loosely organized around groupings of persons. The initial political difference between the two parties gradually became smaller and smaller. Thus, during the Lopez reform period, the Liberal Party advocated increased government intervention in the economy and stronger central government by the government. The division within the parties between more or less pronounced left and right wing groups became more important than the contradictions between the parties. Yet, from the late 1940’s, Colombia survived bloody battles between liberals and conservatives, starting with conservative assaults and assaults on liberals in the villages after the conservative election victory in 1946. By contrast, liberal guerrilla groups were formed and the fighting continued until the 1960’s. ‘ and cost between 150,000 and 350,000 people’s lives. What triggered the massive wave of violence was the assassination of Liberal leader Eliécer Gaitán in Bogotá in 1948. This led to violent riots in the city – the so-called Bogotazo. The traditional hatred between the liberal and conservative and the social tensions in the villages was the reason that these riots spread and resulted in protracted and bloody battles – “La Violencia” – across virtually the entire country.

After the conservative government tried in vain to gain control of the country with armed force, in 1953 General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla took power through a military coup. Some of the fighting guerrilla forces put the weapons against the promise of amnesty, but already the following year the fighting started again. Rojas was a Colombian counterpart to Argentina’sJuan Perón – a right-wing populist leader. But he was not able to get the same support that Perón had in Argentina. This was partly due to the fact that the economic situation for Colombia in the early 1950’s was far worse than in Argentina a few years earlier, and partly because of Roja’s lack of administrative skills that led to strikes and riots. Following military pressure, Rejas resigned in 1957, and power passed to a government composed of representatives of both the Liberal and Conservative parties. They formed the National Front to bring the civil war to an end. This led to a gradual decline in fighting, but some groups continued as pure bandit bands. At the same time, the liberals and conservatives agreed to change to have government power.