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Republic of Gran Colombia
After defeating the Spanish at the Battle of Boyoca, Simon Bolivar founds the Republic of Gran Colombia encompassing present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama. Slaves serve in his military under the promise that enlistment guarantees freedom, but most wait another 30 years for this to take effect. -
New Granada
Venezuela and Ecuador split off from Gran Colombia and form The Republic of New Granada, a new country whose boundaries cover present-day Colombia and Panama. -
Emancipation
Slavery is abolished in the Republic of New Granada, and freed African slaves begin to establish their own autonomous communities in the rainforests on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. -
United States of Colombia
The Liberal Party renames the country the United States of Colombia, dividing it into nine autonomous states, known as departments. -
Republic of Colombia
President Rafael Nunez reconstitutes the United States of Colombia as a constitutional republic and renames it the Republic of Colombia, its present name. The Conservative Party rules for the next 45 years. -
Colombian National Police
The Colombian National Police force is founded. -
Thousand Days War
The Thousand Days War begins between the Liberal and Conservative parties after the Conservative Party is accused of stealing the election. Some 100,000 of Colombia's four million people die in the civil war. The conflict dissolves when the American Navy shows up to protect its interests in the Panama Canal. The final peace treaty is signed aboard the USS Wisconsin after the ship's captain, Admiral Silas Casey, brokers the truce. -
Hay-Herran Treaty
The United States and the Republic of Colombia sign the Hay-Herran Treaty, allowing the U.S. to lease a six-mile territory in Panama and the right to construct a canal for $10 million plus $250,000 annually. -
U.S. Intervention
American warship USS Nashville blocks Colombian attempts to suppress the separatist movement in Panama. -
Canal Work Begins
With U.S. support, Panama successfully separates from Colombia and work begins on the Panama Canal. -
Harrison Narcotics Act
Although some native groups grow marijuana and coca leaf for use in traditional ceremonies, the Colombian government begins to criminalize drug production and consumption. They base their policies on the U.S. Harrison Narcotics Act, which prohibits production and consumption of cocaine and all opiates. -
Stirrings of Independence
Indigenous leader Quintín Lame is arrested for attempting to create an indigenous independent republic inside Colombia. -
Banana Massacre
An army regiment from Bogota puts down a strike by United Fruit Company workers in the town of Cienaga, in what becomes known as the Banana Massacre. The event is mythologized by the likes of both political groups and authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novel <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i>. -
Choco Department
The Choco department, the first majority Afro-Colombian administrative region, is created on the Pacific Coast. -
El Bogotazo
The populist mayor of Bogota (and presidential hopeful), Jorge Gaitan, is assassinated, sparking riots in Bogota that leave 3,000-5,000 people dead. -
La Violencia
After Gaitan’s assassination, a civil war between elements supporting the Liberal and Conservative parties consumes the country, killing between 250,000-300,000 and leading many peasants and liberals to join “independent republics” in the countryside. In an effort to establish order, the army installs General Rojas Pinilla in a military coup. -
Opposition Parties Unite
Conservative and Liberal parties form the National Front as part of a peace agreement. -
Plan Lazo
The U.S. conducts a survey of Colombia's internal security and encourages the country to recruit and train civilians to battle communism. This creates the framework for the rise in paramilitary groups. -
Roots of Radicalism
Two leftist rebel groups, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Maoist People's Liberation Army (EPL) are created. -
FARC
Dozens of guerilla leaders band together to form the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which becomes the military wing of Colombia's Communist party. A young rebel named Manuel Marulanda takes control of the group and is FARC's leader until his death in 2008. -
Operation Marquetalia
The Colombian army attacks a paramilitary enclave, dubbed the Marquetalia Republic, in an attempt to establish order in the southern part of the country. -
War on Drugs
U.S. President Richard Nixon, who says drug abuse is "public enemy number one" declares a war on drugs, creating the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE), a precursor to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). -
Rise of the Cartels
With rural poverty hitting 70 percent by the mid-1970s, many poor Colombians begin cultivating coca and processing it into cocaine. The spike in production funds both leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries, and gives rise to Colombia's most powerful drug groups - the Medellin and Cali cartels. -
Kidnapping
FARC kidnaps the Dutch consul in Cali, Eric Leupi, releasing him when the $1 million ransom is anonymously paid. He is reunited with his family four years after being kidnapped and writes the book <i>Dark Side of the Mountain</i> about his experience. -
Resource Development
The Cerrejon Coal mine opens in the Gaujira deparment. Cerrejon is the largest mining operation in Colombia and one of the largest open-pit coal mines in the world. -
Extradition Treaty
Against heavy lobbying from the drug cartels - and their political allies - the U.S. and Colombia sign an extradition treaty. Medellin drug cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar famously says, "I prefer to be in a grave in Colombia than in a jail cell in the United States." -
Hostage Crisis
Twenty-seven guerrillas belonging to the leftist group M-19 siege the Dominican embassy in Bogota, taking 14 ambassadors hostage. Their seige on the embassy lasts 61 days, until they flee the country on a plane bound for Cuba. -
Drug Lord Paramilitaries
Escobar helps form the first major paramilitary group, Death to Kidnappers - called Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS) - after the wife of one of Escobar's friends is kidnapped. -
Drug Lab Bust
Units of the Colombian National Police, along with the DEA, strike a major blow against the Medellin cartel by destroying Tranquilandia, a large jungle cocaine processing laboratory in the Caqueta jungle. -
Palace of Justice Siege
Enraged by the Colombian government's cooperation with the U.S. over extradition policies, guerrillas storm the Palace of Justice in Bogota and destroy files relating to the extradition process. A military raid to retake the courthouse results in the deaths of almost 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court justices. -
Minister Assassinated
Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla is shot to death by teenage assassins hired by the Medellin cartel. In response, the government steps up its campaign against the drug cartels. -
Ceasefire
Colombia's President Belisaro Betancur brokers a ceasefire with about 80 percent of Colombia’s guerrillas. The truce with FARC lasts three years, until a military convoy is ambushed in the Caqueta department. -
Capture
Drug dealer Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medillin cartel, is captured on a farm near Medellin. Hours later he is extradited via a DEA plane to the U.S. -
Standoff in the Carribean
Colombian Navy ship ARC Caldas sails into waters claimed by the Venezuelan government, which responds by dispatching a fleet of fighter jets. A naval battle is narrowly avoided when the Caldas sails back into Colombian waters. -
New Constitution
A new constitution is written to guarantee the rights of Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples. It also contains language prohibiting the extradition of Colombians wanted in other countries. By the end of the 1990s, international pressure overturns most of the reforms. -
Escobar's Fall
Pablo Escobar voluntarily surrenders to police. He lives under house arrest for two years in a self-designed mansion called Cathedral Prison. When the government tries to move him to a normal prison, he is able to flee for over a year. He is killed in a shootout with police in December of 1993. -
Paramilitary Precursors
Colombia’s Ministry of Defense creates CONVIVIR, a network of neighborhood watch groups. Although many support this initiative as a positive security measure - including a local governor named Alvaro Uribe - CONVIVIR is believed to have devolved into a paramilitary group of its own. -
8000 Process
A legal probe into the finances of liberal candidate Ernesto Samper, who runs for president in 1994, becomes known as the 8000 process, after the case's assigned number. Samper is cleared, but the investigation reveals a dozen members of government are taking money from the Cali cartel. -
AUC
A group calling itself the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia - Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) - is formed as an umbrella organization of regional far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia to fight back against FARC and other left-wing rebel groups. -
La Gabarra Massacre
A confrontation over a coca cultivation center on the border with Venezuela between FARC and the AUC leads to the La Gabarra Massacre, leaving 35 people dead. -
Plan Colombia
Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arango and U.S. President Bill Clinton sign Plan Colombia, an agreement in which the U.S. gives Colombia close to $1 billion in military aid to combat drug cultivation and trafficking. -
Safe Haven
In order to promote peace talks President Pastrana grants FARC a safe haven the size of Switzerland in the Caqueta department. -
AUC Makes Terror List
The U.S. State Department lists the AUC as a foreign terrorist organization, joining FARC on the list. -
Safe Zone No Longer
After four years of stalled talks and false starts, President Pastrana ends the peace talks with FARC and orders the armed forces to start retaking the safe zone. -
Bojaya Massacre
During a battle between the AUC and the FARC, mortar fire destroys a local church in Choco, killing 117 and injuring 114. -
Inauguration Day Bombing
As newly elected President Alvaro Uribe is about to be sworn into office, Bogota is bombed in a suspected FARC attack. Uribe declares a state of emergency. -
Justice and Peace
The Colombian government begins a demobilization program in which many paramilitaries receive job training and reduced sentencing in exchange for laying down arms and confessing to their crimes as part of a new law called Justice and Peace. An estimated 10,000 former paramilitaries participate in the program. -
AUC Addresses Congress
As part of peace talks betwen the government and the AUC, the paramilitary group is allowed to address congress. AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso claims that a third of the politicians are elected due to their paramilitary ties. -
Extradition
FARC leader Simon Trinidad, the highest-ranking guerrilla ever captured in Colombia, is extradited to the U.S. on drug charges. -
Uribe's Second Term
Alvaro Uribe is elected for a second presidential term. -
Narcosubs
The U.S. Coast Guard seizes its first Colombian narcosubmarine, a submersible watercraft built exclusively to transport drugs. -
Parapolitics Scandal
The Supreme Court orders the detention of three congressmen implicated in colluding with the AUC. During the investigation, 70 congressmen are indicted, and at least seven are eventually convicted. -
Laptop Links
The Colombian military attacks a FARC camp inside Ecuador's territory, killing several guerrillas, including FARC leader Raul Reyes. The Colombian government says that files found on Reyes’ laptop link him to the Venezuelan government, sparking the 2008 a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. -
14 Extradited
Mancuso and 13 other AUC paramilitaries are extradited to the U.S. in a surprise move by the Colombian government. Some members of Colombia's opposition party complain that the move prevents AUC leaders from revealing their links to President Uribe as part of the Justice and Peace process. -
Operation Jaque
A Colombian military operation called Operation Jaque results in the FARC releasing 15 hostages, including influential politician Ingrid Betancourt, U.S military contractors, and Colombian soldiers and police officers. -
Free Trade Agreements
Colombia and Canada sign a $1.14 billion bilateral trade agreement on the heels of a similar deal with the U.S. The agreements eliminate 80 percent of duties on U.S. goods imported into Colombia, and 98 percent of tariffs on Colombian goods exported to Canada. -
Wiretapping Scandal
Bogota news magazine <i>Semana</i> exposes a wiretapping operation in which Colombia's secret police are shown to be spying on Supreme Court judges, opposition politicians and prominent journalists. -
Spring Offensive
The Colombian army launches Strategic Leap, a new offensive designed to combat FARC along Colombia's northern border with Venezuela and Ecuador. -
Falsos Positivos
Two top military officials are arrested in connection with the False Positives Scandal, in which civilians murdered by army personnel are dressed in rebel or paramilitary uniforms. Legal officials identify as many as 2,355 victims of this practice. -
Tensions With Venezuela
The Colombian government claims that Swedish anti-tank rockets purchased by Venezuela are being used by the FARC. In response, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez orders most of the embassy staff in Colombia - including the ambassador - to return to Venezuela. -
Opposition to Bases
After Ecuador's decision to stop allowing American surveillance planes to take off from the country's Pacific coast, the U.S. signs a deal with Colombia allowing it access to seven Colombian military bases. In response, Chavez sends 15,000 troops to the border with Colombia and tells them to be "prepared for war." -
OAS Emergency Meeting
At an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), a Colombian diplomat sent by President Uribe accuses Venezuela of harboring FARC rebels on the Venezuelan side of the border. President Chavez responds by cutting off all ties with Colombia. In response, the Colombian Air Force announces it will be setting up an air base in the eastern Casanares department to keep an eye on the region and to protect Colombia's crude oil interests. -
Changing of the Guard
Former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, and heir apparent to one of the most powerful families in Colombia, succeeds Alvaro Uribe as President of Colombia.
