El presidente Iván Duque inició su mandato en agosto de 2018 con el ánimo de consolidar una política exterior "responsable, innovadora y constructiva" (Cancillería de Colombia, 2018b). Su estrategia se enfocó en la búsqueda de la restauración de la democracia en Venezuela, la lucha contra las drogas y el fortalecimiento de la OEA. Estos vectores develan la construcción de una doctrina en política exterior que promueve el rol de Colombia como estabilizador regional.
This chapter analyzes the Unasur's role as mediator in internal crisis of Bolivia (2008) and Ecuador (2010), and the inter-state conflicts of Colombia-Ecuador (2008) and Colombia-Venezuela (2009 and 2010). Likewise, its institutional entrepreneurship in the collective defense of democracy with the Georgetown Protocol of 2010 and, its counter-balance role during the US-Colombian military Agreement crisis (2009), which was a starting point for the creation of the South American Defence Council (SADC). Later, it analyzes Unasur's decline due to Chávez's death (2013), and the appeasement of the organization on the democratic backsliding in Venezuela (2014–2017). Its decline (2018–2019) confirms the fragility of Latin American multilateralism liable to political cycle changes. The rise of right-wing governments, less committed to political concertation at the multilateral level, generates Unasur's dismemberment and the birth of the Forum for the Progress and Development of South America (Prosur) a weak project with the old multilateral practices of the Americas.
The Colombian Peace Process (2012-2016) ended with an agreement that finished one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the contemporary world. The traumatic effects on the population give an account of the horrors committed by different actors at the crossfire throughout the years. The peace agreement achieved between the government and the FARC guerrilla movement (2016) embodies a novel and persistent way to overcome different perspectives of the actors and the population itself. In a divided political panorama, the Post-conflict scenario will be a true test for the Colombian people that can serve as an example of the capacity of forgiveness and reconciliation in the modern global system. For the Colombians, it will not be easy to consolidate a peaceful era to facilitate the rise of the country as a new power in the Global South. In this chapter, we will analyze the main elements of the Contemporary Colombian Conflict and its process of negotiations from the short and midterm perspectives, as well as the main actors involved, and the effects of the conflict on the civilian population.
There is general unknown about Colombia political situation. Over the years the country simply doesn't existed for the analysts' interest. Things changed at the beginning of the 80's, the country catch the attention for the infamous cocaine cartels, war on drugs and the irregular warfare against guerrilla groups. The above created what we denominate a "failed state stigma", a distorted vision of the country prompted by the media and partialized academic analysis, even more so when the consequences of the internal conflict affected the neighborhood (refugees in the borders, drug trafficking, aerial fumigations, illegal crops).
