ABSTRACT
Colombia has two realities. One is of men with guns, conducting the lucrative, yet illicit business of drug-trafficking along with their sometimes allies in the local revolutionary movements, competing for profit and influence with right-wing paramilitary squads. The other reality is that of a Colombia following a path of prudent economic management and political liberalization, despite an almost relentless assault on the country’s political institution. Colombia emerged from the Spanish colonial period led by an upper class largely of European descent and, while it attracted new waves of European settlers, much of the native population was either eliminated or became small peripheral groups in society. The Colombian economy and political system that now exist are the products of an evolution beginning in the same historical womb as Venezuela. Although Colombia and Venezuela share historical roots and are both regarded as democratic-capitalist in the 1990s, their experiences to that point are radically different.
