According to Article 1 of their Constitution, the Republic of Colombia is defined as a social state of law, organized as a Unitarian republic with political and administrative decentralization.
The political power is divided in three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.
The Executive Branch is constituted by the National Government (article 15 of the Constitution), formed by the President and Vice President of the Republic, Ministers and directors of the administrative departments. The President is the Head of State and with the Vice President he is elected popularly for a period of four years.
The Legislative Branch (article 114 of the Constitution) is formed by the Congress of the Republic, which is in turn formed by the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. Senators and Representatives are elected popularly every four years.
The Judicial Branch, according to article 116 of the Constitution, is in charge of administering justice through the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice, the State Council, the Superior Council of the Judiciary, the General Prosecutor’s office, tribunals and judges, as the Military Criminal Justice and Congress. Articles 228 and 230 consecrate the independence of judges and their decisions.
Please note that this profile has been extracted from a more in-depth document available in Spanish which can be downloaded here
