For many people in the United States, thoughts of the South American country of Colombia include the best coffee in the world on one hand and guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking on the other. The danger lurking in rural areas keeps many tourists away, though the government of Colombia invites them with the slogan, “The only danger is that you are going to want to stay.” What else is there to see, and how do the people of Colombia view their country? Join veteran children’s book writer Rebecca Thatcher Murcia as she takes you on a personal tour of this vibrant country, from its festivals in coastal cities to the volcanoes and other natural wonders in the high Andes Mountains. Find out what Colombians eat for breakfast, and then try the recipe in the back. Explore their jobs, schools, and places of worship, and find out where they go on vacation. You might be surprised to find how much you and the people in Colombia have in common.

Colombia¿s sugarcane-based ethanol industry, after operating for only 3 years, is the second most developed in the Western Hemisphere. Most Colombian ethanol plants are energy self-sufficient and even generate surplus power that is sold to the national electric grid. Colombia¿s sugarcane-based ethanol production is increasing; proposed expansion projects have the potential to more than triple daily production from 277,000 gallons in 2007 to almost 1 million gallons in 2010. Most of the expansion is intended for exports, principally to the U.S. However, it is unlikely that Colombia could export ethanol anytime soon because domestic production is insufficient to meet nationwide requirements that gasoline contain a 10% ethanol blend. Maps.

This book studies a significant event in US relations with Latin America, shedding light on the role of dependent states and their foreign policy agency in the process by which local concerns become intertwined with the dominant state’s foreign policy. Plan Colombia was a large-scale foreign aid programme through which the US intervened in the internal affairs of Colombia, by invitation. It proved to be one of the major successes of US foreign policy, and has been credited with stemming a potentially catastrophic security failure of the Colombian state. This book discusses the strategies and practices deployed by the Colombian government to influence US foreign policy decision making at the bureaucratic, legislative and executive levels, and is a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of small power agency. Giving a clearer insight into the decision making processes in both the US and Colombia, this book founds its argument on solid empirical analysis assembled from interviews of the major players in the events including: Andres Pastrana, President of Colombia; Thomas Pickering, US State Department; Arturo Valenzuela, Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs at the NSA; General Barry McCaffrey, the US ‘Drug Czar’; and Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Approaching the events in question from a bottom-up theoretical perspective that puts the emphasis on the facts of the case, this book will be of great interest to academics, students and policy makers in the field of foreign policy analysis, US foreign policy studies, and Latin American studies.

This report provides a summary of the anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in place in Colombia as at the date of the onsite visit (June 5 to 22, 2017). It analyzes the level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40 Recommendations and the level of effectiveness of Colombia’s AML/CFT system, and provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened.

In Canada Looks South, experts on foreign policy in Canada and Central America provide a timely exploration of Canada's growing role in the Americas and the most pressing issues of the region.

Taking a global and multidisciplinary approach, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism brings together a team of international scholars to examine the travel and tourism industry, which is expected to grow at an annual rate of four percent for the next decade. In more than 500 entries spanning four comprehensive volumes, the Encyclopedia examines the business of tourism around the world paying particular attention to the social, economic, environmental, and policy issues at play. The book examines global, regional, national, and local issues including transportation, infrastructure, the environment, and business promotion. By looking at travel trends and countries large and small, the Encyclopedia analyses a wide variety of challenges and opportunities facing the industry. In taking a comprehensive and global approach, the Encyclopedia approaches the field of travel and tourism through the numerous disciplines it reaches, including the traditional tourism administration curriculum within schools of business and management, economics, public policy, as well as social science disciplines such as the anthropology and sociology. Key features include: More than 500 entries authored and signed by key academics in the field Entries on individual countries that details the health of the tourism industry, policy and planning approaches, promotion efforts, and primary tourism draws. Additional entries look at major cities and popular destinations Coverage of travel trends such as culinary tourism, wine tourism, agritourism, ecotourism, geotourism, slow tourism, heritage and cultural-based tourism, sustainable tourism, and recreation-based tourism Cross-references and further readings A Reader’s Guide grouping articles by disciplinary areas and broad themes