Rocio Padilla

period 3
COLOMBIA
I. Colombia has had a roller coaster of a history. Its earliest relations with the world
began when Spain took control of most of the new world. Since that time in history,
South Americans- including Colombian peoples- have been fighting the injustice being
forced on them by the spaniards. Colombia fought long and hard and finally gained their
independence from Spain in 1810; all thanks to a man named simon bolivar. Simon then
came to control Venezuela as well. Because there was so much chaos, Bolivar decided
that he would create a group of countries and make them into one. In 1819, Simon
formed a country that incorporated Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. He called this
great trio Gran Colombia. The constitution for this federation was made and instituted
in 1821. Unfortunately for Bolivar, his vision of seeing theses countries stay together for
a long time did not last very long. Venezuela and Ecuador decided to pull out of the
Gran Colombia plan in 1830. A very infamous person whom we may know, was
named Pablo Escobar. During the 1970s, Pablo Escobar was the kingpin of trafficking
cocaine and other illegal drugs in and out of Colombia and also in the United States.
He collaborated with other criminals from the Medellin Cartel and eventually controlled
over 80% of the cocaine being shipped to the United States. says one of our sources.
According to an article, present day Colombia has a population of 46 million people,
which includes 85 ethnic groups. It has the third largest Spanish speaking population in
the world after Mexico and Spain. There is a 91.4% of literate people aged 15 and older.

II & III. In the past the U.S., evidently, has been involved in South American
affairs.There is also another policy that is called the U.S.-Colombia Action Plan on
Regional Security Cooperation. This plan is beneficial to both countries because it is
helping to fight what they call transnational organized crime (TOC). Because crimes
pose a huge threats to any country, this alliance helps both countries to keep people
safe from getting caught in the middle of violence and crimes. Of course, the U.S. has
always taken control of what goes on in Colombian politics. From the moment that
Colombia was freed from domination, the U.S. came and took the role of being
Colombias new dictator and imperialist power. The U.S. controls every aspect of
government in Colombia. For example, currently, the U.S. has a new trade policy deal
with Colombia called the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA). According
to the office of the United States Trade Representative, this agreement will take away
the taxes on U.S. exports into Colombia. Although this is great news for America
because it will increase exports and create more jobs, Colombia is not getting anything
out of this deal. They are actually losing a lot in permitting this trade agreement to be
valid. Because, while the U.S. is saving tons of money by not paying tax on their
products, Colombia is losing money gained from those taxes on the products entering
its country. While relations seem to be good and beneficial, we dont usually see the
true reason why someone does something. Same goes for the actions that the U.S.
takes towards Latin American countries.
However, the world can become a better place if we all openly said what we would like
to have. Instead of deceiving people into giving us what we want by not telling them that
that is what they are doing, we should be straightforward and candid about our

intentions. For example, in order to ameliorate the conditions in certain aspects of two
countries or more, there shouldnt be a country that is the puppeteer of the
negotiations; There should definite not be one country or party taking total control of the
entire conditions of the deals in order to better benefit from the deal at hand at the
expense that the other country involved receives nothing out of doing business another
party.. That is simply not fair and it increases the amount of problems as that makes
people want to fight back for not being treated justly; then tensions amount and become
wars.
In the case of the United States and Colombia, the U.S. should try not to be so
domineering and threatening towards the Colombians. The U.S. should stop acting as if
they are doing latin americans a favor by protecting them from themselves. They
should learn to stay out of other countries problems and stop trying to fix things that
arent theirs to fix. As a piece of advice, they should also stop trying to instill democracy
and capitalism in everyone else. Being a very capitalistic country, America tends to want
to do whatever they want to get better things and quality of life at the expense of others.
When it comes to business, they should stop asking what do I get out of it and start
thinking about how making deals can improve and benefit both parties. In order to make
improvements to future relations between the U.S. and Colombia, both countries should
come together and discuss what each other needs to make happen and sort through
things to see how it can be done.

Bibliography
http://www.infoplease.com/country/colombia.html

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35754.htm
http://www.colombiaemb.org/overview
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1212827.stm
http://history.state.gov/countries/colombia
http://countrystudies.us/colombia/98.htm
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32250.pdf
http://www.ustr.gov/uscolombiatpa/facts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/15/fact-sheet-united-states-andcolombia
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/04/187928.htm