Colombia, a Positive Country
Prepared by:
Internal and External Communications
Affairs Coordinator
Ministry of Foreign Relations
ON THE FRONT PAGE
• BIRD DISCOVERED IN COLOMBIA: three Colombians and a
Danish christened their finding as Scytalopus Stilesi, in honor
of Gary Stiles, a North American ornithologist who lives in Bogotá and
has contributed to the conservation of many species. Luis Miguel
Renjifo, Andrés Cuervo, Daniel Cadena, and Niels Krabbe
are responsible for the finding of a bird that has a small body
and beak, brown stripes on the back and dark gray plumage, which
lives in the low areas of humid forests, at a height between
1,400 and 2,100 meters, in places where light is scarce. The
species has been separated as a genetic unit for more than two
million years. In March 2001, the diversity of birds in Colombia
recorded 685 species in the Caribbean, 637 in the Pacific, 772
in the Andean region, and 894 in the Eastern region.
• COLOMBIA TO BE VENUE FOR OMT: Colombia’s candidacy
to be the venue and organize the general assembly of the Organización
Mundial del Turismo (World Tourism Organization) in 2007 was
unanimously supported by 22 American countries. The support was
provided during the meeting of the Comisión para las Américas
(Americas’ Commission) of the international organization
in Santiago de Chile. With this backing, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs instructed its 54 accredited ambassadors abroad to request
support for this candidacy from the respective governments. The
decision will be made by the general assembly to be held in Senegal
in November 2005.
SOCIAL EQUITY
• FAMILIAS EN ACCIÓN PAYS SUBSIDIES: the Plan Colombia
Familias en Acción (Families in Action) program began
the payment of nutrition and education subsidies to 317,825 mothers
of Sisben’s level 1, until 27 June. The money will reach
the women who are heads of family, and have complied with the
attendance of their children to school and controls concerning
size and growth. The amount of $25,3 billion was deposited in
banking institutions of 627 municipalities in the country so
that the mothers may claim the moneys for cycle one of this year.
• AGRICULTURAL REFORM: the Government
hopes to give 40 thousand hectares of land to peasant families
this year, for
a value of $15.7 billion. With this land resulting from ownership
termination processes and other mechanisms, progress is being
made regarding the agricultural reform. The provision of subsidies
to nearly 16,200 families has been budgeted for this year, that
is, 2,200 more than 14,000 in 2004, who received $67.6 billion.
• WB GRANTS CREDIT FOR DRINKING
WATER: the World Bank
granted a credit for US$70 million to Colombia to finance 320
projects for upgrade, rehabilitation, and construction of drinking
water systems and basic sanitation, approved through public hearings
carried out by the Departamento Nacional de Planeación
(National Planning Department) in all departments. Out of the
total number of projects, 156 have already been considered viable
by the Ministry of the Environment, 68 are undergoing the adjustment
phase, 43 are in the study stage, and 53 are about to be formulated.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT
• IMPORTS WENT UP: in the first
quarter of 2005, the imports of machines, raw materials, and
intermediate goods required by
businessmen went up by 26.8% against the same period in 2004.
According to DANE, imports between January and March 2005 reached
US$4.6 billion when, in the same period in 2004, they amounted
to US$3.6 billion. Thirty percent of imports came from the United
States in March; purchases by countries from the Comunidad Andina
de Naciones (Andean Community of Nations) increased by 18.7%
as they reached US$190 million.
STATE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY
• ELECTRONIC CRIMINAL RECORD
CERTIFICATE: the green Criminal Record Certificate card that must be processed
by citizens to
join a company or leave the country will be history. From the
end of 2005, it will include a fingerprint and digital photograph,
thereby eliminating the need to renew it and also the possibility
of forging the document. The seven million Colombians who today
have their Judicial Certificate will have to change it and register
the fingerprints of their ten fingers. The renewal will be electronic,
after depositing the respective price in force in any bank.
• STATE PURCHASES THROUGH PUBLIC
BID: 80.84% of purchases
made by the Colombian State are carried out through public bids,
following all the channels of transparency, public hearings,
and knowledge of pre-bid specifications on the company’s
Internet pages. According to the Superintendence of Partnerships,
for 5,755 contracts entered into between April 2004 and April
2005 for a value of $7.2 trillion, 17.9% was carried out through
direct contracting, 1.19% through another type of contracting,
and 80.8% through bidding processes.
DEMOCRATIC SECURITY
• DEMOBILIZED CITIZENS: 173 members of illegal armed groups
demobilized individually and voluntarily in May. To date, 12,097
individuals have abandoned the ranks of violent groups to accept
the Government’s demobilization and reinsertion program.
Antioquia with 42, Caquetá with 19, Santander with 14,
Bolívar with 11, and Arauca, Casanare and Meta with 10
each. Other demobilizations have been reported in smaller numbers
in other regions of the country.
• ELN FRONT DISMANTLED: 29 guerrillas of ELN’s “Héroes
de Anorí” front demobilized to the commanders
of the Army’s IVth Brigade and the Caribbean Fuerza de
Tarea Conjunta (Joint Task Force). The former combatants surrendered
their arms voluntarily and opted for the Government-promoted
Plan. So far this year, out of the 200 guerrillas who have
surrendered their arms, 47.7% belonged to Farc, 40.6% to illegal
self-defense groups, 10.1% to ELN, and 1.4% to dissident groups.
• HOMICIDES OF UNION MEMBERS
GO DOWN: homicides of union
members went down by 70.8% in Colombia between January and May
2005 against the same period in 2004. This figure is part of
the National Government’s exposure before the International
Labor Organization. According to Human Rights Watch, 24 union
members were murdered in said period in 2004, while so far in
2005, this figure amounts to 7. It is worth mentioning that the
purpose of the Government is to reduce this and all criminal
modalities to a level of zero.
(FIN/JHINA/CIE)
10 June 2005
