Colombia has already had more Protestant congressmen than Chile, although it has historically had one of the weakest Protestantisms in Latin America. In a country torn apart by drug trafficking and guerrilla warfare, and where the Catholic Church has massive institutional power, elections for a Constituent Assembly in 1990 were the catalyst for involvement, coordinated by the Evangelical Confederation. Since then, with a slight weakening of the two-party system, the new parties formed around special interests have included several evangelical ones, sometimes little more than vehicles for the political ambitions of leaders of charismatic mega-churches.

Colombia is one of the most violent countries in the world. Two phenomena contribute to this: guerrillas and drugs. The conflict between guerrillas, paramilitaries and the Armed Forces claimed six thousand lives in 1997 (Folha de São Paulo, 31 May 1998). Some of the current violence is reputedly by paramilitaries paid by foreign companies to clear peasants off desired land. The two main guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, control a third of the country. The famous drug cartels constitute another parallel power. Colombia produces 80 per cent of the world's cocaine, and drug money helps to finance the guerrillas. Not surprisingly, it also finances much conventional politics: President Samper was elected in 1994 by a tiny margin, with contributions from cartels.

Political history has been characterised by the stable hegemony of the traditional Conservative and Liberal parties which date from the mid nineteenth century.