Constitution of Colombia

The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 was ratified by a Constitutional Assembly on 6 July 1991, took effect the next day and was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114, replacing the Constitution of 1886 under the administration of President Cesar Gaviria. Its drafting followed the student-led seventh ballot paper movement during the 1990 elections, a response to violence from guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels, and it established Colombia as a decentralized unitary republic built on the estado social de derecho, a social state under the rule of law combining constitutional government with extensive social and economic guarantees.