President of Colombia in the context of José María Melo

The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 (Spanish: Constitución Política de Colombia de 1991), is the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. It was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114 on Sunday, July 7, 1991, and is also known as the Constitution of Rights. It replaced the Political Constitution of 1886 and was issued during the presidency of the liberal César Gaviria.

It is divided up into eight sections, under titles.

Tomás José Ramón del Carmen de Herrera y Pérez Dávila (21 December 1804 – 5 December 1854) was a Neogranadine statesman and general who in 1840 became Head of State of the Free State of the Isthmus, a short lived independent state which is located in what is now Panama. Tomás de Herrera also became acting President of the Republic of the New Granada for 3 months during the Colombian Civil War of 1854 against General José María Melo, who had committed a coup on 17 April.

The Government of Colombia is a unitary presidential republic with separation of powers into an executive, judicial, and legislative branch. The executive is led by the president, who acts as both the head of state and government, the judiciary includes four high courts which manage different fields of the law, and the national legislature is a bicameral congress composed of the senate and chamber of representatives.

The country is principally divided into 32 departments and one capital district.

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala Spanish pronunciation: ['xoɾxe eʎ'eθeɾ gai'tan aʝala] (23 January 1903 – 9 April 1948) was a Colombian politician and statesman who was the leader of the Liberal Party. A nationalist, he served as the mayor of Bogotá from 1936–37, the national Education Minister from 1940–41, and the Labor Minister from 1943–44.

He was assassinated during his second presidential campaign in 1948, setting off the Bogotazo  and leading to the outbreak of a brutal ten-year civil war in Colombia known as La Violencia (1948–1958). His ideas, known as Gaitanismo, are considered a form of liberal socialism in Colombia.

The Military Forces of Colombia (Spanish: Fuerzas Militares de Colombia) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Aerospace Force. The National Police of Colombia, although technically not part of the military, is controlled and administered by the Ministry of National Defence, and national conscription also includes service in the National Police, thus making it a de facto gendarmerie and a branch of the military. The President of Colombia is the military's commander in chief, and helps formulate defense policy through the Ministry of National Defence, which is in charge of day-to-day operations.

The Military Forces of Colombia have their roots in the Army of the Commoners (Ejército de los Comuneros), which was formed on 7 August 1819 – before the establishment of the present day Colombia – to meet the demands of the Revolutionary War against the Spanish Empire. After their triumph in the war, the Army of the Commoners disbanded, and the Congress of Angostura created the Gran Colombian Army to replace it, thus establishing the first military service branch of the country.

The Government entities of Colombia (Spanish: Entidades Gubernamentales de Colombia) are entities of the government of Colombia. The government entities include commissions, control agencies, administrative departments, directorates, funds, and superintendencies. Some of these agencies are under the supervision of the President of Colombia with special autonomy.

César Augusto Gaviria Trujillo (Spanish: [ˈsesaɾ awˈɣusto ɣaˈβiɾja tɾuˈxiʝo] ; born 31 March 1947) is a Colombian economist and politician who served as the President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1994 to 2004 and National Director of the Colombian Liberal Party from 2005 to 2009. During his tenure as president, he summoned the Constituent Assembly of Colombia that enacted the Constitution of 1991.

The Caro and Cuervo Institute (Spanish: Instituto Caro y Cuervo) is an educative centre specialising in Spanish literature, philology and linguistics, with a focus on research and promotion of reading in Colombia. The institute produces editions of Colombian authors and promotes the preservation of the national literary heritage. The institute was named after two well-known Colombian linguists, former President Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar and Rufino José Cuervo Urisarri.

The institute was created by order of the Colombian government in 1942. Its first assignment was the creation of the Spanish language dictionary, Diccionario de Construcción y Régimen de la Lengua Castellana.