Constitutional history of Colombia

The indigenous nations that inhabited the present territory of Colombia did not have written records; therefore there is no evidence of constitutions prior to the arrival of the Spaniards.

[1] The Monarchy of Spain tried to enforce these laws but revolts by Spaniards that benefited from oppressing the natives forced Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to suppress them in 1545.

[2] The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, translated and published by Antonio Nariño in 1794 and distributed in Santa Fe de Bogotá, could be considered the first draft of a political constitution in the New World.

In particular, the federalists wanted to create a constitution without clerical influence, whereas the centralists leaned towards the Church not only to preserve the faith but as a political body.

In 1809, before the events of the Colombian Declaration of Independence took place, the Cabildo (council) of Santa Fe de Bogotá decided it was advisable to send a representative to the Junta Suprema Central located in Seville.

[3] Jose Maria Cárdenas, descendant of Camilo Torres, commented that "the Cabildo was intimidated when shown the representation project and decided to archive it".

It shows the attitudes that Criollos (locally born people of pure or mostly Spanish ancestry) had towards assuming a role in the government within the domains of Ferdinand VII of Spain.

[7] Federalists (partisans of Francisco de Paula Santander, who saw centralism as a restriction of freedom) would later evolve into the Liberal Party of Colombia.

Centralists (partisans of Antonio Nariño and Simón Bolívar, who wanted to see the nation centralized) would evolve into the Colombian Conservative Party.

In August, September and October 1816 Morillo executed most constitutional leaders, including Camilo Torres, and restored the Real Audiencia in Santa Fe de Bogotá in March 1817.

The Battle of Carabobo, on June 24, 1821, officially brought independence to Venezuela and on July 18 the Congress restarted with greater impetus in Cúcuta to include the regions recently liberated: Caracas, Cartagena, Popayán and Santa Marta.

This unwillingness to behave democratically and solve problems with dialogue, negotiation and vote, deciding on abandonment of the process instead, was a behavior that the political parties of Colombia would maintain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it would generate violence.

Bolivar finally resigned his position during the constitutional convention in January 1830 held in Bogotá (also called the Admirable Congress); his health was starting to fail.

Trying to avoid the separation of Ecuador and Venezuela, the Admirable Congress (named thus due to the highly regarded people who formed it) worked on the Constitution of 1830, limiting centralism and giving the regions and municipalities more power.

[9] The Gran Colombia (without Venezuela and Ecuador) consisted of Panama, Magdalena, Boyacá, Cundinamarca and the Cauca, and these departments were subdivided into about 15 provinces.

This reform eliminated the free press, gave the Catholic Church a monopoly over education and allowed the Jesuits, who had been expelled, to return.

As of 1849, during the government of General José Hilario López the country began a strong political and economic transformation because of the shift from colonialism towards capitalism.

On May 12, four days after having proclaimed the constitution, the 61 delegates chose Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera to govern for two years until April 1, 1864, the moment at which the new regulations to name a president would start.

In December 1904, few months after being elected president, General Rafael Reyes, displeased because of their slowness in approving reforms he wanted to impose, closed the Congress.

It also decided that the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice would serve for life, recognized the right of representation of minorities and the possibility to reform the Constitution by means of the National Assembly.

[10] The National Assembly demonstrated its support to the government with a dictatorial character when it established a presidential period of 10 years for General Reyes with the possibility for him to appoint his own successor.

This important reform banned the participation of the military in politics, established the direct popular election of the president of the republic, departmental assemblies and municipal council; it reduced the presidential period from 6 to 4 years, prohibited the immediate re-election of presidents, eliminated the position of vice-president and replaced it with one appointee that would be chosen by the congress; it established a system of proportions for the appointment of the members of public corporations according to the votes obtained, assuring a minimum of one third for the opposition party; it granted the congress the right to choose the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, consecrated the constitutional control to the Supreme Court of Justice.

The president kept the power to name governors who in turn would appoint mayors, corregidores, administrators, directors of post offices, heads of jails, managers of banks, and some others.

During the government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and by his suggestion, The National Constituent Assembly unanimously recognized the voting rights of women on August 25, 1954.

In October 1957 the temporary Military Junta that succeeded Rojas Pinilla authorized legislation with the stated purpose of finding a solution to the problems of the country.

Some required reforms were postponed, in some cases indefinitely, such Article 120 of the Constitution granting "the right and fair participation of the second party in voting".

More than 50% of the voters approved the "Seventh Paper Ballot" and president César Gaviria Trujillo was forced by the Supreme Court to fulfill the popular mandate.

Thus it was possible not only to obtain constitutional change, but also the guerrilla detachment M-19 laid down their arms and were integrated into the national political life, and the indigenous communities were henceforth guaranteed representation in Congress.

The student and political movement begun in 1989 resulted in 1990 in a Constituent Assembly of Colombia elected by direct popular vote, which one year later promulgated the Colombian Constitution of 1991 in Bogotá.

The fact that Uribe and Gaviria were from independent parties highlights that an important era of ideological transformation occurred in the history of Colombia, even to the point where some mass media announced that bipartisanism had been fatally wounded.