It consists of two island groups in the Caribbean Sea about 775 km (418 nmi; 482 mi) northwest of mainland Colombia, and eight outlying banks and reefs.

[9] Spain formally claimed the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia in 1510, a few years after the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

They established slave-worked plantations and engaged in privateering, which led to the Spanish and Portuguese conquering the colony in May, 1641.

In 1775, Lieutenant Tomás O'Neil, a Spaniard of Irish descent, was given military command of the islands and, in 1790, was named governor.

That year, Spain assigned the islands, together with the province of Veraguas (western Panama and the east coast of Nicaragua), to the Viceroyalty of New Granada.

[citation needed] On 4 July 1818, a French corsair, Louis-Michel Aury, with 400 men and 14 ships flying the Argentine flag, captured Old Providence and St. Catherine islands.

[citation needed] After the Spanish colonies became independent, the inhabitants of San Andrés, Providence and St. Catherine voluntarily adhered to the Republic of Gran Colombia in 1822, which placed them under the administration of the Magdalena Department.

The First Mexican Empire, which was succeeded by the United Provinces of Central America (UPCA), also claimed the islands.

Colombia and Honduras signed a maritime boundary treaty in 1999, which implicitly accepts Colombian sovereignty over the islands.

On 13 December 2007, the ICJ ruled that the islands were Colombian territory but left the maritime border dispute unresolved.

The efforts at assimilation and immigration were led largely by Catholic missionaries, which angered the Protestant native population.

[16][17] At the departmental assembly, elected the same day, the 9 seats were distributed among 6 parties: three Liberals (Arlington Howard, Qwincy Bowie Gordon, and Leroy Carol Bent Archbold), two MIR (Jorge Méndez and Freddy Herazo) two Democratic Colombia Party (former MP María Teresa Uribe Bent and former Interior Secretary Rafael Gómez Redondo), two SNUP (Fernando Cañon Florez and María Said Darwich), one Radical Change (Heber Esquivel Benitez), and one Conservative (Julio César Gallardo Martínez).

[17] Besides the San Andrés and Providencia island groups, there are eight atolls that belong to the department, including submerged Alice Shoal.

[citation needed] The Departamento de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina covers a land area of 44 km2 (17 sq mi) and had a census population of 59,573.

[citation needed] Before 1960, the population of the islands was almost entirely Raizals, who are an Afro-Caribbean group, Protestant in religion, speaking San Andrés–Providencia Creole.

[citation needed] By 2005, Raizals were only 30% of the 60,000 or more inhabitants of the islands, with the rest being mainland Colombians and English-speaking whites of British descent.

[citation needed] Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (IATA: ADZ) serves the towns of San Andrés and San Luis, but also commercially serves the nearby island of Providencia Island through feeder flights from El Embrujo Airport.

[22] In recent years, San Andrés has also received seasonal charter flights, mainly from Canada and a few Central American countries.

[citation needed] Amazonas Antioquia Arauca Atlántico Bolívar Boyacá Caldas Caquetá Casanare Cauca Cesar Chocó Córdoba Cundinamarca Guainía Guaviare Huila La Guajira Magdalena Meta Nariño N. Santander Putumayo Quindío Risaralda San Andrés Santander Sucre Tolima Valle del Cauca Vaupés Vichada