When we flew from Medellín to Cartagena, the climate changed suddenly. We came from the coolness of the Andes to the hot and humid weather of the Caribbean. After settling in Casa Don Luis, we went out to the streets within the city walls.
Cartagena is impressive with its beautiful balconies, stone walls and squares; but behind this beauty there is also a heavy history shaped by colonialism, slave trade and resistance. It is necessary to carry two emotions together while visiting the city.
The next day, we walked after the colorful streets, murals and music in Getsemaní. This neighborhood, which was once outside the city walls, is today one of the most vivid narratives of Cartagena. We gathered around the same table for dinner for the last time.
When we left Colombia on April 13, we took with us the height of Bogotá, the silence of Guatavita, the color of coffee fruits, the palm trees of Cocora, the transformation of Medellín and the warm streets of Cartagena. The journey, which lasted nine days, showed that the country cannot be told with a single story.
A brief look at the history of Colombia
The Spanish reached the shores of today's Colombia at the beginning of the 16th century. Cartagena de Indias was founded in 1533 and Bogotá in 1538. But we should not think of the conquest of the country as a single event completed over a few years; the resistance of different indigenous peoples and the establishment of the colonial order spans many years.
These lands were later administered under names such as the Kingdom of New Granada and the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Although its administrative area has changed over time, it includes significant parts of today's Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador.
After the completion of the Reconquista in Spain in 1492, the Catholic kingdom saw its expansion in America not only as a military and economic duty, but also as a religious duty. Indigenous peoples are described as “heathen” and “in need of civilisation”; the Catholic Church also becomes one of the most powerful institutions of the colonial order.
The indigenous population suffers huge losses due to wars, forced labor and diseases such as smallpox and measles carried by Europeans.
As the need for labor increased, enslaved people from Africa were brought across the Atlantic. Cartagena became one of the most important ports of the slave trade in Spanish America. Crops such as sugar cane and corn are grown in the lowland regions; Enslaved people are employed in mines and on large plantations.
Animals such as horses, cattle, sheep and chickens are brought from Europe. While large land holdings were formed, gold and other valuable resources were transferred to Spain.
Large landowners grow rich for 300 years. However, those who are not born in Spain cannot have the same say in the administration, no matter how well they are educated. The ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 and Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 accelerate the independence movements in Spanish America.
Although there were several independence struggles in the 1800s, they ended in failure.
Simón Bolívar and General Francisco de Paula Santander
They start Colombia's rebellion against Spain and the independence movement
Simón Bolívar comes from a wealthy and well-educated Creole family. Francisco de Paula Santander is a soldier and statesman who studied law. Although the two acted together in the struggle for independence, they diverged over time on how the new state would be governed: Bolívar advocated a stronger central government, while Santander advocated an order closer to constitutional and federal principles.
The struggle for independence against the Kingdom of Spain accelerates in the 1810s. The Boyacá Victory in 1819 was the decisive turning point in the independence of New Granada.
Bolívar becomes president of the new republic. The struggle continues towards Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru.
On May 24, 1822, independence forces under the command of General Antonio José de Sucre won a decisive victory at the foot of the Pichincha Volcano near Quito. This victory is decisive in the liberation of today's Ecuador from Spanish rule.
Cartagena declares its independence from Spain in 1811. Greater Colombia, founded in 1819 and shaped by the 1821 Cúcuta Constitution; it covers the territory of today's Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. Venezuela and Ecuador leave the union in 1830.
The country has been using the name "United States of Colombia" since 1863; With the 1886 Constitution, a centralized structure was adopted and the name "Republic of Colombia" became official. The name "Colombia" comes from Christopher Columbus.
In 1903, Panama secedes from Colombia with the support of the United States and becomes an independent state. Then, it signs an agreement with the USA regarding the construction and usage rights of the canal zone.
The opposition between liberals and conservatives in the country has been one of the main axes of politics since the time of Bolívar and Santander.
Since its independence, the country has generally been ruled by large landowning families. Conservatives ruled the country for 64 years.
In the early 20th century, the United Fruit Company, based in the United States, becomes very strong in Colombia's banana production. The army opened fire on workers who went on strike against poor working conditions in Ciénaga in December 1928. Even today, it is not known exactly how many people died in the incident known as the "Banana Massacre"; There is a big difference between official and unofficial estimates.
Young lawyer Jorge Eliécer Gaitán is known throughout the country for his speeches that brought the massacre to the Congress agenda.
Gaitán is a lawyer and powerful orator who studied in Italy. He gains great support from workers and peasants with his speeches advocating land reform and social justice; He is seen as one of the strongest candidates in the upcoming presidential election.
The big landowners didn't like him very much
Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán is killed in Bogotá on April 9, 1948. Although it was said that he was planned to meet with young Fidel Castro, who was in the city at the time, the meeting did not take place.
After the assassination, a great uprising called "Bogotazo" begins in Bogotá. The city is plundered and burned; security forces are opening fire on demonstrators. Estimates of the death toll in Bogotá vary and there is no definitive number. The assassination is considered the symbolic beginning of a period of violence known as “La Violencia,” in which hundreds of thousands of people died across the country in the following decade.
Liberal peasant groups and different guerrilla movements that are armed to protect themselves in the countryside are getting stronger. Their aim is not only to fight the army, but also to be represented in politics and to protect the lands they live in.
When people got tired of years of violence, General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla came to power with a coup in 1953 and ruled the country with a military regime until 1957. While it imposed censorship and political pressure on the press, it also invested in infrastructure, supported vocational training and started television broadcasting in 1954.
Liberal and Conservative parties establish the "National Front" agreement to share power alternately after the military rule. Between 1958 and 1974, the presidency alternately changed hands between the two parties. This order reduces violence to some extent, but excludes other political movements.
Emerging from rural armed self-defense groups, FARC begins to organize in 1964 and takes this name in 1966. Manuel Marulanda and Jacobo Arenas become the prominent leaders of the organization. FARC is gaining strength, especially in rural areas such as Tolima, Meta and Caquetá. Over time, a multi-layered conflict emerges in the country, pitting guerrillas, paramilitary groups and state forces against each other.
Former General Rojas Pinilla and Conservative candidate Misael Pastrana are competing in the 1970 presidential election. The result is announced in favor of Pastrana; but the claim of election fraud has been debated for a long time. The M-19 movement, which takes its name from April 19, the day the election was held, was born in this political environment. The organization, which is effective in cities, is known for its kidnappings and armed actions. Some guerrilla movements later lay down their arms and participate in the preparation of the 1991 Constitution. The new constitution redefines Colombia as a more pluralistic and rights-based state.
Guerrilla movements are influenced to varying degrees by the Cuban Revolution, the Soviet Union and the communist movement in China. They do not share the same ideology; they establish activities in different regions and sometimes conflict with each other.
Cocaine Trade and the Country's Darkest Years
The cocaine trade has been growing since the late 1970s, turning into a major power with the Medellín and Cali cartels in the 1980s. The idea of making a lot of money at once changes the balance of society. Coca production, laboratories and smuggling routes established through the Caribbean provide a new source of financing for the country's armed system.
Drug cartels bribe government officials, threaten and kill those who refuse. The relationship between guerrillas and cartels is not always a single alliance: sometimes they conflict, sometimes they earn income from different stages of the same smuggling economy. Guerrillas are increasingly collecting taxes from coca growers and smugglers. Large landowners and drug traffickers also support paramilitary structures to protect themselves against guerrillas.
On November 6, 1985, M-19 raids the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. The building was largely burned down by the military operation of the state forces, which lasted until the next day; Many people, including 11 Supreme Court justices, die and some people go missing. Claims regarding responsibility for the incident and possible support from drug cartels are still disputed. What is certain is that both the repression and the heavy military intervention left an unhealed wound in the country's memory.
By the end of the 1980s, the violent order established by Pablo Escobar shook Medellín in particular. Police officers, judges, journalists and politicians are threatened; Bombs explode in cities. Escobar's goal is to prevent drug criminals from being extradited to the United States.
On November 27, 1989, a bomb placed on Avianca Flight 203 explodes. Presidential candidate César Gaviria is thought to be on the plane, but Gaviria does not board the plane. All 107 people on the plane and three people on the ground die. Gaviria is elected president in 1990.
Escobar surrenders to the state in 1991; but he continues to live in the prison called La Catedral, which he built according to his own conditions, and runs his criminal organization from there. When the government wanted to transfer him to another prison, he escaped in July 1992. Security forces located him after a long search, and Escobar was killed in Medellín on December 2, 1993.
Escobar's death does not end the drug trade. As large cartels break up, smaller networks emerge; Guerrillas and paramilitary groups continue to take a share of coca production, laboratories, and smuggling routes. FARC is approaching the peak of its power in the late 1990s; Kidnappings and attacks define life in much of the country.
In 1998, the government of Andrés Pastrana begins peace negotiations with the FARC. A large demilitarized zone is being established in the south of the country for the talks. The process collapsed in 2002 without an agreement; FARC's armed activities and kidnappings in this area further reduce the trust in society.
Álvaro Uribe, who said he would restore security, won the 2002 elections. The murder of his father by the FARC in 1983 also strengthens his personal connection to this issue. With the financial, technical and military support of the United States under Plan Colombia, the state begins an intense operation period against FARC. During Uribe's two terms, 2002–2010, the FARC lost both territory and fighters; On the other hand, serious human rights violations associated with state forces and paramilitary structures are turning into another file that the country must reckon with.
Barış: To Forget or Continue by Remembering?
Juan Manuel Santos, who became president after Uribe, starts official negotiations with FARC in 2012. After four years of negotiations, the first peace text was submitted to a referendum in 2016 and was rejected by a very small margin. The final agreement, which was amended taking into account the objections, was signed on November 24, 2016 and approved by the Congress. Santos receives the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.
This process makes me think of the saying "forget and forgive". However, the path chosen by Colombia is more about remembering, revealing the truth and rebuilding living together. The Truth Commission that was established listens to victims, former guerrillas, soldiers, government officials and different segments of society. The Special Jurisdiction of Peace creates restorative justice mechanisms for people who reveal the truth of serious crimes and take responsibility. This is not a simple process where everyone goes unpunished or everyone goes to prison; A confrontation that is still debated, has its shortcomings, and will last for years.
The majority of FARC members who lay down their arms return to civilian life, and the political wing of the organization participates in legal politics. But not all fighters abide by the agreement; Armed groups that broke away from FARC, ELN, drug networks and other illegal structures continue their activities in some regions.
Gustavo Petro, who was elected president in 2022, was a member of M-19 in his youth. After M-19 disarmed in 1990, Petro moved into legal politics and served as a member of parliament, senator and mayor of Bogotá. Petro's election is one of the most remarkable transformations in Colombian history, as a politician from a former guerrilla movement could come to power the country through democratic elections.
Today's Colombia is much safer than the violence of the past and much more open to tourism, as we felt in the cities we visited. Still, armed groups, migrant smuggling, illegal gold mining and drug trafficking remain significant problems in some rural areas near the borders with Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador. The old large cartels have been replaced by more dispersed and internationally networked structures.
Colombia's story makes me think: A country does not change in a day. The peace agreement does not end all violence; but it paves the way for conversation, the search for truth, and democratic politics. Today, they have big goals ahead of them, such as seeking peace with the remaining armed groups, developing tourism, and turning to clean energy by reducing oil dependency.
As our guide said: "We are a democratic country; we try to elect the best president." He particularly emphasizes that as education increases, people look at the past and the future more consciously.