Colombia

Colombia is a country in northwestern South America with coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador share its land borders, and the Andes, grasslands and Amazon rainforest fill its interior.

Bogotá is the capital, and Spanish is the official language, while English has official status in the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. Long before the Spanish came, the Muisca on the high plateau around Boyacá traded gold, emeralds and salt, and the Tairona lived in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Alonso de Ojeda landed on the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. Santa Marta was founded in 1525 and Cartagena in 1533, and the territory grew into the New Kingdom of Granada and later a viceroyalty.

Independence was declared on 20 July 1810, still marked as Independence Day, and Simón Bolívar secured it in 1819, becoming the first president of a larger Republic of Colombia that also took in Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. That union broke up in 1830. After periods as the Granadine Confederation from 1858 and the United States of Colombia from 1863, the country took its present name in 1886, and its current borders date from Panama's separation in 1903. The constitution of 4 July 1991 sets up a presidential republic of 32 departments. The land covers 1,141,748 km2 (440,831 sq mi).

Farms grow coffee, avocados, palm oil, bananas, cocoa and sugarcane, while coal and petroleum supply a large share of exports and mines produce emeralds and gold. Colombia is one of the megadiverse countries, rich in bird, orchid and butterfly species. Gabriel García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, Fernando Botero became known for his painting and sculpture, and Shakira, Juanes and Carlos Vives carried its music abroad. Cumbia comes from the Caribbean coast, and arepas and bandeja paisa are common dishes.