Álvaro Uribe Velez
President

(pronounced "AL-vah-roh yoo-REE-bay VEH-lehz")

"We need the United States' help to preserve our democracy… we can no longer suffer terrorism."

The Republic of Colombia is located in the northwest corner of South America. Bordering Ecuador and Peru to the south, Brazil to the southwest, and Venezuela to the east, Colombia is the only South American country with a coastline on both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Colombia connects the South American continent with the Central American isthmus through a narrow and densely forested border with Panama. In total, the country occupies 1,138,910 sq km (439,736 sq mi).

Colombia is the third most populated country in Latin America, with more than 40 million inhabitants (2002 estimate). Its population is 58% mestizo (mix of Spanish and indigenous), 20% white, 14% mulatto (black and indigenous), 4% black, and 4% mixed black-Amerindian, and 1% Amerindian. A...