POLICÍA NACIONA
'M
odern' law enforcement was established in Colombia just over 130 years ago when national law 90 of 1888 instituted a gendarmerie under government orders and as a dependency of the then Ministry of Government for Bogotá. In those days, there were other law enforcement services at departmental or municipal level, under the orders of the governors or mayors. Three years later, in 1891, the national government amalgamated all the law enforcement agencies into one national body, the Policía Nacional de Colombia (PNC, Colombian National Police).
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Over the years, the PNC became an armed civilian body with the President of the Republic of Columbia as its supreme commander. The President’s authority is cascaded down and exercised through the Minister of Defense and the Director General of the National Police. The PNC, part of the Colombian Public Force along with the Military Forces of Colombia (Army, Navy, and Air Force), has a hierarchical structure similar to that of the Military Forces. The mid-1940s saw the start of La Violencia, a civil war in Colombia. Although this war is considered
