CIA Fact Book
Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to overthrow the government. While Bogota continues to try to negotiate a settlement, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.

FAS Arms Sales Monitoring Project profile of Columbia
Since 1989, the United States has exported over half a billion dollars worth of weaponry to Colombia, most of it financed with U.S. counter-narcotics assistance. The US has consistently aided the Colombian government, in particular the Colombian police, to combat illicit drug trafficking...

Donations 1999-2000
Find out which defense companies are producing what for for Plan Columbia and how much $ they gave your Congressperson!

Colombia Support Network
The Colombia Support Network is a non-governmental organization striving to improve the human rights situation in Colombia

Fueling Failure: U.S. Drug Control Efforts in the Andes
U. S. anti-drug efforts in the Andes are not only ineffective- they may in fact be doing more harm than good. U. S. antinarcotics efforts have the harmful side-effect of forging closer U.S. links to abusive police and military forces in the Andes. In Peru and Colombia, U.S. assistance is provided to the security forces who are among the worst human rights violators in the hemisphere.

Big Oil and Plan Columbia
Colombia’s petroleum production today rivals Kuwait’s on the eve of the Gulf War. The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador than from all Persian Gulf countries combined.

FARC and the Drug Trade
While escalating civil conflict in Colombia is attracting increasing international interest and concern, the complex relationships between drug trafficking, political violence, and the many actors involved in the social conflict in Colombia are often absent from the debate. This background brief provides a general overview of the relationship between the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) and illicit drug production and trafficking.

Colombia's civil war puts children on the front lines
Jan. 11, 2001 | BUCARAMANGA, Colombia -- When they came to recruit Ana, they told her she wouldn't have to work and that she could see her mom and her grandmother whenever she wanted. Instead, leftist guerrillas taught the 13-year-old girl how to kill and marched her off to fight in the mountains of northern Colombia, where she nearly starved before surrendering.

War on Drugs and Human Rights in Colombia
A nice collection of essays and articles relating to Plan Columbia and Human Rights issues