ABSTRACT
Colombia is situated in the northwest corner of South America, bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea at the north and the Pacific Ocean at the west. Its favorable geographical location has been used since colonial times to transport merchandise to Europe. Cartagena de Indias was the port from which gold, silver, and precious goods coming from all over South America were sent to Spain. Today, it is one of the country's main growth areas. The Republic of Colombia, with slightly more than 45 million inhabitants, is the third most populated country in Latin America and the twenty-ninth most populated in the world. By area, it is the third largest in South America and the twenty-fifth largest in the world. After the severe economic crisis of the 1990s and due to a high level of violence related with sociopolitical events, with confrontation between armed groups fighting for power and control of the illicit drug traffic and for land control (Patti & Cepeda, 2007), Colombia entered the twenty-first century with the goal of establishing peace and security within its borders. The citizen security policy enacted in the last nine years has enabled the levels of insecurity and violence to be significantly reduced in almost all parts of the country. The first decade of the new century shows a country with an average growth rate of 4.36 percent over the last five years and similar growth prospects for the next 20 years. However, the Gini coefficient, which measures the level of inequality, has increased from 0.55 to 0.58, also in the last five years, which makes Colombia the most unequal country in Latin America and the fourth most unequal in the world. As at May 2011, unemployment was still high, at 11.2 percent.
