Colombia
Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from
the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and
Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian
Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds
from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large
swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the
movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to
overthrow the government. An anti-insurgent army of paramilitaries
has grown to several thousand strong in recent years, challenging
the insurgents for control of territory and the drug trade, and also
the government's ability to exert its dominion over rural areas.
While Bogota steps up efforts to reassert government control
throughout the country, neighboring countries worry about the
violence spilling over their borders.

Comoros
Unstable Comoros has endured 19 coups or attempted coups
since gaining independence from France in 1975. In 1997, the islands
of Anjouan and Moheli declared their independence from Comoros. In
1999, military chief Col. AZALI seized power. He pledged to resolve
the secessionist crisis through a confederal arrangement named the
2000 Fomboni Accord. In December 2001, voters approved a new
constitution and presidential elections took place in the spring of
2002. Each island in the archipelago elected its own president and a
new union president took office in May of 2002.

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Established as a Belgian colony in
1908, the Republic of the Congo gained its independence in 1960, but
its early years were marred by political and social instability.
Col. Joseph MOBUTU seized power and declared himself president in a
November 1965 coup. He subsequently changed his name - to MOBUTU
Sese Seko - as well as that of the country - to Zaire. MOBUTU
retained his position for 32 years through several subsequent sham
elections as well as through the use of brutal force. Ethnic strife
and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994
from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi, led in May 1997 to the toppling
of the MOBUTU regime by a rebellion led by Laurent KABILA. He
renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC), but
in August 1998 his regime was itself challenged by an insurrection
backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Troops from