The law provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25 "a full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection A in countries that receive assistance under this part, and B in all other foreign countries which are members of the United Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human rights report under this Act.
UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty democracy in which the Liberal and Conservative parties have long dominated politics. Citizens elected President Andres Pastrana of the Conservative Party and a bicameral legislature controlled by the Liberal Party in generally free, fair, and transparent elections in , despite attempts at intimidation and fraud by paramilitary groups, guerrillas, and narcotics traffickers.
Similar attempts at intimidation by illegal armed actors, including killings and kidnapings, threatened to impair local elections scheduled for October; however, the elections were generally peaceful. The civilian judiciary is largely independent of government influence; however, the suborning or intimidation of judges, witnesses, and prosecutors is common.
The Government continued to face serious challenges to its control over the national territory, as longstanding and widespread internal armed conflict and rampant violence β both political and criminal β persisted. The principal participants in the conflict were government security forces, paramilitary groups, guerrillas, and narcotics traffickers. The number of victims of paramilitary attacks during the year increased.
In some areas government forces were engaged in combat with guerrillas or narcotics traffickers, while in others paramilitary groups fought guerrillas, and in still others guerrillas attacked demobilized members of rival guerrilla factions. The FARC and the ELN, along with other smaller groups, exercised a significant degree of territorial influence and initiated armed action in nearly 1, of the country's 1, municipalities during the year, which was approximately the same level as in Their popular support nationwide remained low, according to polls and numerous other reports.
