Colombian Culture Research Paper

CULTURAL AWARENESS ESSAY: COLOMBIA
When thinking of Colombia, a few images come to mind outside of cocaine, drugs lords, jungles, and cartels. This is the outside perspective that most Americans and other westerners have towards Colombian culture. These stereotypes of Colombia are all summarized by the country’s last thirty years of internal conflict however, when examining the culture of Colombia there is much more at play within its borders than narcoterrorism. By exploring Colombia’s culture through the PMESII-PT and ASCOP models, a much more complete and in depth understanding can be achieved of what it means to be Colombian and Colombian culture.
Beginning with the political aspect of the country, Colombia’s notoriously unstable government …show more content…
The leader of the revolutionary army, Simón Bolívar, attempted to organize the newly liberated provinces into a nation that modeled the United States. However, after Bolívar’s death, control of the country would be divided among his generals, who would split the country into modern day Columbia. Over the next century the country’s government would change hands from liberal to conservative parties several times, and would often plunge the country into violent civil wars. The paramilitary groups that we see today began in 1964 with the rise of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional; ELN) who were motivated by the Cuban Che Guevara. Two years later, another influential guerrilla group known as the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia; FARC), would also come to power and go on to plague Colombia’s legitimate government until the present (McGreevy, 2016). To make matters worse, the narcotics trade began to make its headway into the economy, and would later add to the unrest and ultimately question the legitimacy of the standing government. In 1994, Colombia was able to re-write it’s 1886 constitution, despite threats of terrorist attacks from guerrilla fighters and increased violence …show more content…
Running from the north to the west are the Andes mountains, while in the south lies the northern edge of the Amazonian rain forest, followed by grasslands to the east of the country, and the Caribbean beaches to the north. (McGreevy, 2016). Because of this landscape, the major issues that Colombia faces in terms of infrastructure are its inability to properly increase or maintain the amount of paved roads in its borders. This is mostly due to years of neglect and the varying types of terrain that take its toll on the road ways. Although the Colombian government has drawn plans and written contracts to begin fixing the problem, it is facing several roads blocks, most of which are bureaucratic and administrative. These issues ultimately act as constraints that are hurting the Colombian economy as a whole, because it is creating several challenges for local distributors to move products that are imported or exported (Taking the Slow Road, 2013). There is good news though, and that is in the realm of Colombia’s information systems, as is has steadily gained growth since the 1990s. Colombia is home to a robust fiber optic internet network due to the liberalization of the country’s telecommunications. In addition to greater access to internet, competition between cellular service providers has resulted in fair and manageable

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