e northern plains are mostly part of the Caribbean natural region which includes the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, the highest mountain by the sea and the Guajira Peninsula, mostly arid with another separate formation from the Andes mountain range, the Serranía de Macuira to form the Guajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub. Climate Main article: Climate of Colombia Glacier Snowy peaks of the Nevado del Tolima volcano. 5,200+ metres (17,060 ft) The climate of Colombia is determined by its proximity to the Earth's Equator predominating a tropical and isothermal climate, presenting variations within five natural regions and depending on the altitude; determined by mountain climate, temperature, humidity, winds; influenced by the trade winds and precipitation which is influenced by the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Colombia is also affected by the effects of the El Niño and La Niña. Temperatures generally decrease about 3.5 °F (2 °C) for every 1,000-foot (300-m) increase in altitude above sea level, presenting perpetual snowy peaks to lower hot lands. Rainfall varies by location and is present in two seasons (two dry and two rainy) in Colombia presenting one of the highest rainfalls in the world in the Pacific region. Rainfall in parts of the Guajira Peninsula seldom exceeds 30 in (75 cm) per year. Colombia's rainy southeast, however, is often drenched by more than 200 in (500 cm) of rain per year. Rainfall in most of the rest of the country runs between these two extremes. The hot and humid Colombian Pacific coast, one of the rainiest in the world. Altitude affects not only temperature, but also vegetation. In fact, altitude is one of the most important influences on vegetation patterns in Colombia. The mountainous parts of the country can be divided into several vegetation zones according to altitude, although the altitude limits of each zone may vary somewhat depending on the latitude. The "tierra caliente" (hot land), below 3,300 ft (1,000 m), is the zone of tropical crops. The tierra templada (temperate land), extending from an altitude of 3,300 to 6,600 ft (1,000 to 2,000 m). Wheat and potatoes dominate in the "tierra fría" (cold land), at altitudes from 6,600 to 10,500 ft (2,000 to 3,200 m). In the "zona forestada" (forested zone), which is located between 10,500 and 12,800 ft (3,200 and 3,900 m). Treeless pastures table lands dominate the páramos, or alpine grasslands, at altitudes of 12,800 to 15,100 ft (3,900 to 4,600 m). Above 15,100 ft (4,600 m), where temperatures are below freezing, is the "tierra helada", a zone of permanent snow and ice. Colombian Flora and Fauna also interact with climate zone patterns. A scrub woodland of scattered trees and bushes dominates the semiarid northeastern steppe and tropical desert. To the south, savannah (tropical grassland) vegetation covers the eastern plains; Colombian portion of the llanos. The rainy areas in the southeast are blanketed by tropical rain forest. In the mountains, the spotty patterns of precipitation in alpine areas complicate vegetation patterns. The rainy side of a mountain may be lush and green, while the other side, in the rain shadow, may be parched. As a result Colombia is considered to be among 17 of the most megadiverse countries in the world.[16] Environmental issues Main article: Environmental issues in Colombia Nevado del Ruiz volcano, erupted in 1985 causing the Armero tragedy. The environmental issues in Colombia are caused by both natural hazards and human effects on the environment. Natural hazards are determined by the global positioning of Colombia by the Pacific ring of fire causing geological instability. Colombia has 15 major volcanoes which have caused tragedies like Armero and geological faults that have caused numerous devastating earthquakes like the 1999 Armenia earthquake. Human induced deforestation have also added to the problems of geological instability and inundations during the rainy seasons which are susceptible to the El Nino and to La Nina effect, two regions are very susceptible to these mainly in the Caribbean region of Colombia; La Mojana Region and the Magdalena river basin as well as the Valley of the Cauca River in the Pacific Region of Colombia. The population increase and the burning of fossil fuels and industry, among other human produced waste has contaminated the environment of major cities and nearby water sources. Participants in the Colombian armed conflict have also contributed to the pollution of the environment in Colombia. The illegally armed groups have deforested large portions of land to plant illegal crops (mostly on government designated protected areas) while the government fumigated these crops using hazardous chemicals. The guerrillas also destroyed oil pipelines creating major ecological disasters. History Main articles: History of Colombia, Timeline of Colombian history, La Violencia, El Bogotazo, National Front (Colombia), and Colombian armed conflict (1964–present) Pre-Columbian era The Zipa used to cover his body in gold and, from his raft, he offered treasures to the Guatavita goddess in the middle of the sacred lake. This old Muisca tradition became the origin of El Dorado legend. Approximately 10,000 BC hunter-gatherer societies existed near present-day Bogotá (at "El Abra" and "Tequendama") which traded with one another and with cultures living in the Magdalena River Valley.[17] Beginning in the first millennium BC, groups of Amerindians developed the political system of "cacicazgos" with a pyramidal structure of power headed by caciques. Within Colombia, the two cultures with the most complex cacicazgo systems were the Tayronas in the Caribbean Region, and the Muiscas in the highlands around Bogotá, both of which were of the Chibcha language family. The Muisca people are considered to have had one of the most developed political systems in South America, after the Incas.[18] Spanish discovery, conquest and colonization Spanish explorers made the first exploration of the Caribbean littoral in 1499 led by Rodrigo de Bastidas. Christopher Columbus navigated near the Caribbean in 1502. In 1508, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa started the conquest of the territory through the region of Urabá. In 1513, he was also the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean which he called Mar del Sur (or "Sea of the South") and which in fact would bring the Spaniards to Peru and Chile. The territory's main population was made up of hundreds of tribes of the Chibchan and Carib, currently known as the Caribbean people, whom the Spaniards conquered through warfare and alliances, while resulting disease and the conquest itself caused a demographic reduction among the indigenous. In the sixteenth century, Europeans began to bring slaves from Africa. Independence from Spain Francisco de Paula Santander, Simón Bolivar and other heroes of the Independence of Colombia in the Congress of Cúcuta. Since the beginning of the periods of Conquest and Colonization, there were several rebel movements under Spanish rule, most of them either being crushed or remaining too weak to change the overall situation. The last one, which sought outright independence from Spain, sprang up around 1810, following the independence of St. Domingue in 1804 (present day Haiti), who provided a non-negligible degree of support to the eventual leaders of this rebellion: Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander. Simón Bolívar had become the first president of Colombia and Francisco de Paula Santander was Vice President; when Simón Bolívar stepped down, Santander became the second president of Colombia. The rebellion finally succeeded in 1819 when the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada became the Republic of Greater Colombia organized as a Confederation along Ecuador and Venezuela (Panama was part of Colombia). Post-Independence and republicanism The Gran Colombia. Internal political and territorial divisions led to the secession of Venezuela and Quito (today's Ecuador) in 1830. At this time, the so-called "Department of Cundinamarca" adopted then the name "Nueva Granada", which it kept until 1856 when it became the "Confederación Granadina" (Grenadine Confederation). After a two year civil war in 1863, the "United States of Colombia" was created, lasting until 1886, when the country finally became known as the Republic of Colombia. Internal divisions remained between the bipartisan political forces, occasionally igniting very bloody civil wars, the most significant being the Thousand Days civil war (1899 - 1902) which together with the United States of America's intentions to influence in the area (especially the Panama Canal construction and control) led to the separation of the Department of Panama in 1903 and the establishment of it as a nation. Colombia engulfed in a year long war with Peru over a territorial dispute involving the Amazonas Department and its capital Leticia. Soon after, Colombia achieved a relative degree of political stability, which was interrupted by a bloody conflict that took place between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, a period known as La Violencia ("The Violence"). Its cause was mainly because of mounting tensions between the two leading political parties, which subsequently ignited after the assassination of the Liberal Presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948. This assassination caused riots in Bogotá and became known as El Bogotazo, the violence from these riots spread through out the country and claimed the lives of at least 180,000 Colombians. From 1953 to 1964 the violence between the two political parties decreased first when Gustavo Rojas deposed the President of Colombia in a coup d'etat, and negotiated with the guerrillas, and then under the military junta of General Gabriel París Gordillo. After Rojas deposition the two political parties Colombian Conservative Party and Colombian Liberal Party agreed to the creation of a "National Front", whereby the Liberal and Conservative parties would govern jointly. The presidency would be determined by an alternating conservative and liberal president every 4 years for 16 years; the two parties would have parity in all other elective offices. The National Front ended "La Violencia", and National Front administrations attempted to institute far-reaching social and economic reforms in cooperation with the Alliance for Progress. In the end, the contradictions between each successive Liberal and Conservative administration made the results decidedly mixed. Despite the progress in certain sectors, many social and political injustices continued and many guerrillas were formally created such as the FARC, ELN and M-19 to fight the government and political apparatus with influences from Cold War doctrines. Emerging in the late 1970s, powerful and violent drug cartels developed during the 1980s and 1990s. The Medellín Cartel under Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel, in particular, exerted political, economic and social influence in Colombia during this period. These cartels also financed and influenced different illegal armed groups throughout the political spectrum. Some enemies of these allied with the guerrillas and created or influenced paramilitary groups. The new Colombian Constitution of 1991 was ratified after being drafted by the Constituent Assembly of Colombia. The constitution included key provisions on political, ethnic, human and gender rights. The new constitution initially prohibited the extradition of Colombian nationals. There were accusations of lobbying by drug cartels in favor of this prohibition. The cartels had previously promoted a violent campaign against extradition, leading to many terrorist attack and mafia style executions. They also tried to influence the government and political structure of Colombia by means of corruption, as in the case of the 8000 Process scandal. Members of the Colombian National Army during a field training exercise. In recent years, the country has continued to be plagued by the effects of the drug trade, guerrilla insurgencies like FARC and paramilitary groups such as the AUC (later demobilized, though paramilitarism remains active), which along with other minor factions have engaged in a bloody internal armed conflict. President Andrés Pastrana and the FARC attempted to negotiate a solution to the conflict between 1998 and 2002 but failed to do so. President Andrés Pastrana also began to implement the Plan Colombia initiative, with the dual goal of ending the armed conflict and promoting a strong anti-narcotic strategy. During the presidency of Álvaro Uribe, who was elected on the promise of applying military pressure on the FARC and other criminal groups, some security indicators have improved, showing a decrease in reported kidnappings (from 3700 in the year 2000 to 800 in 2005) and a decrease of more than 48% in homicides between July 2002 and May 2005 and of the terrorist guerrila itself reduced from 16.900 insurgents to 8.900 insurgents. It is argued that these improvements have favored economic growth and tourism.[19] The 2006–2007 Colombian parapolitics scandal emerged due to the revelations and judicial implications of past and present links between paramilitary groups, mainly the AUC, and some government officials and many politicians, most of them allied to the governing administration.[20] Departments and municipalities Main articles: Departments of Colombia and Municipalities of Colombia See also: List of cities in Colombia and Corregimiento Colombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district which is treated as a department. There are in total 10 districts assigned to cities in Colombia including Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Tunja, Cúcuta, Popayán, Buenaventura, Tumaco and Turbo. Colombia is also subdivided into some municipalities which form departments, each with a municipal seat capital city assigned. Colombia is also subdivided into corregimientos which form municipalities. Each department has a local government which is headed by a department governor and its own department assembly elected for a period of four years in a regional election. Each municipality also headed by a municipal mayor and a municipal council. And for corregimientos there will be an elected corregidor or local leader. Departments of Colombia.  Department Capital city 1  Amazonas Leticia 2  Antioquia Medellín 3  Arauca Arauca 4  Atlántico Barranquilla 5  Bolívar Cartagena 6  Boyacá Tunja 7  Caldas Manizales 8  Caquetá Florencia 9  Casanare   Yopal 10  Cauca Popayán 11  Cesar Valledupar       12  Chocó Quibdó 13  Córdoba Montería 14  Cundinamarca Bogotá 15  Guainía Inírida 16  Guaviare San José del Guaviare 17  Huila Neiva  Department Capital city 18  La Guajira   Riohacha 19  Magdalena Santa Marta   20  Meta Villavicencio 21  Nariño Pasto 22  North Santander Cúcuta 23  Putumayo Mocoa 24  Quindío Armenia 25  Risaralda Pereira 26  San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina San Andrés 27  Santander Bucaramanga 28  Sucre Sincelejo 29  Tolima Ibagué 30  Valle del Cauca Cali 31  Vaupés Mitú 32  Vichada Puerto Carreño 33  Capital District Bogotá** Some department have also local administrative regional subdivisions such as the departments of Antioquia and Cundinamarca, where towns have a large concentration of population and municipalities are near each other. In the case of some department where the population is still scarce and there are security problems such as in eastern Colombian departments of Amazonas, Vaupés and Vichada there special administrative definitions for territories, some are considered Department corregimientos, which are a hybrid between a corregimiento and a municipality. The difference besides the population is also subject to a cut in the assigned budget. Government, law and politics Main article: Government of Colombia See also: Colombian Constitution of 1991 Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace in Bogotá houses the President of Colombia and maximum representative of the Executive Branch of Colombia. The Government of Colombia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic as established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991. The Colombian government is divided into three branches of power; the executive, legislative and judicial with special control institutions and electoral institutions. The President of Colombia is the highest representative of the executive branch of government in Colombia and is also the head of state and head of government with supreme administrative authority, followed by the Vice President and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Colombia. At a provincial level the executive is managed by department governors, municipal mayors at municipal level and local administrators for smaller administrative subdivisions such as corregidor for corregimientos. The legislative branch of government in Colombia is represented by the National Congress of Colombia which is formed by an upper house the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. At a provincial level the legislative branch is represented by department assemblies and a municipal level with municipal councils. Both the legislative and executive branches share most of the government power while the judicial branch of Colombia functions as an independent body from the other two branches which are vested with a shared power. The judicial branch under a adversarial system is represented by the Supreme Court of Justice which is the highest entity in this branch but shared in responsibility with the Council of State, Constitutional Court and the Superior Council of the Judicature which also have jurisdictional and regional courts. Defense Tall ship ARC Gloria, insignia of Colombia The executive branch of government is in charge of managing the defense affairs of Colombia with the President of Colombia being the supreme chief of the armed forces, followed by the Minister of Defense, which controls the Military of Colombia and the Colombian National Police among other institutions. The Colombian military is divided into three branches with their respective chains of command; the Colombian National Army, the Colombian Air Force and the Colombian National Armada. The national police functions as a gendarmerie independently from the Military as a the law enforcement agency for the entire country. Each of these operating with their own intelligence apparatus and also separately form the national intelligence agency Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad. The National Police has a presence in all municipality seats of Colombia, while the National Army is formed by divisions, regiments and special units. The Colombian National Armada is formed by the Colombian Marine Corps, Naval Force of the Pacific, Naval Force of the Caribbean, Naval Force of the South, Colombia Coast Guards, Naval Aviation and the Specific Command of San Andres y Providencia. The Colombian Air Force is formed by 13 air units: EMAVI, ESUFA, IMA, CACOM 1, CACOM 2, CACOM 3, CACOM 4, CACOM 5, CACOM 6, CATAM, CAMAN, GACAR and GAORI. Foreign affairs Main articles: Foreign relations of Colombia and Colombian diplomatic missions The Foreign affairs of Colombia are headed by the President of Colombia and managed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Colombia has diplomatic missions in all the continents, but not in all countries, and also multilateral relations with Brussels (Mission to t