Constitution of 1991

The Constitution of Colombia (Spanish: Constitución Política de Colombia), better known as the Constitution of 1991, is the current governing document of the Republic of Colombia. Promulgated on July 4, 1991, it replaced the Constitution of 1886. It is Colombia's ninth constitution since 1830. See a timeline of all previous constitutions and amendments here. It has recently been called the Constitution of Rights.

After an agitated constitutional period in the 19th century, in 1886 Colombia adopted one of the oldest constitutions in Latin America. Nevertheless, after a century in force, the Constitution of 1886 was in need of modifications in order to adapt it to the country's changing social, economic and political conditions.

In the late 1980s, Colombia was facing a period of unprecedented violence. Although political violence had been commonplace in the country's history since the 19th century, and Colombia had been embroiled in an armed conflict primarily against guerrilla groups since the 1960s, in the 1980s the list of actors involved in the armed conflict became increasingly complex and the violence took on new forms. The conflict now involved new guerrilla movements, paramilitary groups and violent drug cartels (most famously the Medellín Cartel of Pablo Escobar). Politically, the National Front arrangement (1958-1974) between Colombia's two dominant parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals was widely seen as delegitimizing the political system by severely limiting third parties and other movements' political participation. Although the strict application of the National Front ended with the 1974 election, the power-sharing aspects of the system were dismantled only gradually - only in 1986 did President Virgilio Barco form a single-party Liberal government, after the Conservatives had rejected his offer of three ministries in his administration.

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