Colombia (The Era of Relative Peace)

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia) is a sovereign country located in northwest portion of South America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and Peru. It shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and the Tairona.

Independence
Present day Colombia used to be part of the Spanish Empire before the country declared independence as part of Simon Bolivar's Gran Colombia. Eventually, Gran Colombia split into different countries including Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

Pre-War
During the Cold War, Colombia was embroiled in its own civil conflict between the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo, FARC–EP and FARC) and the Medellin Drug Cartel led by Pablo Escobar. The Colombian Armed Forces and the Colombian National Police received weapons, training, and funding from the United States. The CIA also trained right-wing paramilitary groups to combat communist rebels operating in the Colombian jungles. The situation in the country was considered violent just as World War III broke out.