Colombia's shield

The coat of arms of the Republic of Colombia is the heraldic emblem that represents the country, and which, together with the flag and the national anthem, has the category of patriotic symbol.

The current emblem and its constituent elements have their origins in the shield approved by means of Law 3 of May 9, 1834, when General Francisco de Paula Santander was President of the Republic of New Granada. The colors and their arrangement were successively adopted and reaffirmed by various decrees, particularly those issued on May 17, 1924 and January 11, 1934. Finally, the shield is regulated by decree 3558 of November 9, 1949., which also describes in a timely manner the reproduction of most of its parts. The shield currently in force includes both the elements ruled on in 1834 and those described in 1924 and 1949, with their respective aesthetic improvements.

The coat of arms as a national symbol is used by the Government and state institutions, being the only institutions that can hold it privately. Regarding its design, there are different stylistic versions, since despite the fact that the current laws and decrees describe how it should be reproduced, they do so incompletely and without taking into account the science of heraldry, which has given place to certain gaps that the community in general has inappropriately filled within the drawing of the coat of arms.

Description and design of the shield

Elements

According to the laws passed on May 9, 1834, May 17, 1924 and November 9, 1949, the national coat of arms consists of the following elements, with their corresponding meanings:

The shield had some aesthetic modifications in 2004 during the term of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, which were not substantial in its design.

Specifications

Weapons of the coat of arms of Colombia.

While the laws issued on May 9, 1834 and May 17, 1924 have arranged the elements and the way in which they are distributed within the coat of arms, the law of November 9, 1949 contains a detailed (but incomplete)) description of the shield specifications for its correct reproduction, whose relevant parts are:

• The blazon is Swiss-shaped, with six (6) wide proportions of eight (8) high.
• The shield is divided into three (3) pairs or fields.
• It is wrong to adorn the shield with ribs or edges, as well as to divide with them the three fields.
• The right and left of the shield are determined in relation to the shield and not the observer.
• The cap must be looking to the right and a bit deformed upward so that of the impression of the spearhead.
• The sea of the third barracks must be "silvered. "
• The ships of the third strip are black and must have at least three (3) sticks and be sailing to the right of the shield.
• Flags must leave the lower edge and not behind the shield.
• The condor looks at the right hand in signal Legitimity; placing it toward the sinister means Enough!.

Inaccuracies in design

Heraldic errors

The ambiguous descriptions of the different parts of the shield in the laws of May 9, 1834 and May 17, 1924, added to some mistakes in the specifications given in the law of November 9, 1949 and that it was never into account for a correct description of the coat of arms, the science of heraldry, have given rise to a variety of errors in the design of the Colombian coat of arms (some of which are still maintained) that have taken several years to correct. The main ones have been:

1. The condor: As a natural figure this bird is not found in the heraldic books; therefore it must be followed for its position and colors the same rules as for its closest simile, that is the eagle. According to this assertion, the position of the Colombian shield's clutch should be a front condor with its open wings (hereinafter referred to as explayed or whipped), with its head turn right, the tail down and scattered and supporting its legs on the emblem. Because it was previously unknown as the silhouette of this bird should be, the interpretation made in the 1830s by the artist Pio Domínguez put on a bell that hardly seems to be a condor, but that does not happen to be an eagle with the head twisted to the left. In the successive representations, the condor was drawn looking indistinctly towards the right hand or the sinister (although the artists most chose the latter), for no reason whatsoever. In 1949 the bird's gaze was corrected, but not his posture, so he is still drawn contoured as if he were embarking on the flight.

2. Gorro frigio: In the model of the 1834 shield, the frigid hat of the second strip looked to the left. Although the figures within the shield sphere do not necessarily follow the rules of the bell, it is essential that all of them look to the right side of the shield. This mistake remained until 1949, when the eyes of the condor, the ships and the frigid hat were regulated simultaneously.

3. Bordes and steaks: In later versions of 1890, embroidery (both blazon and field separations) have been added to the shield without any explanation or regulation. The Executive Decree of 1949 specifies that the national shield should never have them, but its widespread use throughout the country makes this a very common and difficult to eradicate.

4. Dimensions: Since its creation in 1834, the proportions of the Colombian national shield had never been determined. In 1949 for the first time these are regulated, but these dimensions are currently considered "heraldic sin," for being too elongated to the tip. The measures for a shield in this way must be 6 high by 5 wide, which are the most common in heraldic science.

Shield Fixes

Because these errors were perpetuated but not corrected (decree 3558 of 1949, despite detailing the details of the elements, the coat of arms did so partially, for which reason it only amended some errors but not all of them), the historian and heraldist Enrique Ortega Ricaurte, head of the National Archive of Colombia in the mid-XX century, who was very concerned about the incessant desecrations of the national arms, resolved in 1954 to interpret the National Shield in accordance with the rules of heraldry. In this way he detailed a shield that can be accepted as correct. Said description was published in the Official Gazette No. 28820 of August 6, 1955 and which literally says:

• Shield field: The National Shield is Swiss and must be the same appointed by the Act of 9 May 1834. He'll have five parts wide for six in length. In no case shall it bear a rim or edge (Article 336 "G" of the Regulation of the Guarnición Service, approved by Decree No. 3558 of 9 November 1949 of the Executive Branch). It must be stubborn in a strip, that is, "divided into three equal parles, separated by two horizontal parallels".

• Flags: The four flags that adorn the shield, which are not an integral part of it, will have the same inclination as those contained in the approved by the legislators of 1834. Its colors and disposition are those set by the Decree of 26 November 1861 of General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, the Provisory President of the United States of Colombia; "these flags are collected to the vertex of the shield" (Article V of Decree 861 of 17 May 1924 of the President of the Republic of Colombia).

• Condor: The Condor that symbolizes freedom is represented in front of the extended wings and looking to the right, "for being nobler." A crown of green laurel shall hang from its peak; and on a waving ribbon, shelter of the shield and intertwined in the crown, it shall be written, on gold, with black letters: LIBERTAD and ORDEN.

Versions used by state agencies

Colombia has maintained the characteristics of its coat of arms almost invariably since 1834 until it was definitively regulated in 1949. However, and despite the fact that the laws indicate how the emblem should be, there are several stylistic versions, generated by a misinterpretation of the components that are indicated in the different decrees and laws. Additionally, some versions have incorporated elements that are not regulated, such as the borders found in the emblems used by government entities, which have also interpreted other details included in it in a different way (for example, the condor and the cornucopias).).

Of all the elements, the one that has transformed the most over time has been the last strip, which contains the Central American isthmus: initially regulated as blue with seas of silver, it has evolved until now to be drawn in green surrounded by seas in blue. This change in color was due to the replacement of the green field that supported the coat of arms with the tail at the bottom, where the side flags are collected; then the design became popular due to its chromatic harmony that de facto modified the last field of the national coat of arms (although this has never been reformed in the norm).

Heraldic versions		Versions of government entities
Version of the national shield of Colombia duly interpreted, according to the decrees that created it and modified it and in accordance with the heraldic norms.	Heraldic version of Colombia's national shield with seas in blue and isthmus in green.	Version with orles in yellow, seas in blue and isthmus in green, widely used in the country.	Version currently used by the Presidency of the Republic, which has the aesthetic modifications made in 2004. This shield does not comply with the heraldic norms, nor with the laws and decrees regulating the emblem.	Version used by the Presidency of the Republic in the 1950s and 1960s. This shield was based on the drawing made by historian Enrique Ortega Ricaurte for his review published in the Official Journal of August 6, 1955.	Version used by the House of Representatives until 2008. This version of the shield has exaggerated proportions, since its height bends its width.

History

First shields

During Spanish rule, the coat of arms of the reigning monarch was used as a symbol of his various kingdoms and lordships. Said coat of arms (usually known as the Arms of the King), changed when a new monarch ascended the throne, in accordance with the rules of heraldry. The Spanish monarchs who reigned over Colombia (Isabel la Católica, Fernando el Católico, Juana la Loca, Carlos I, Felipe II, Felipe III, Felipe IV, Carlos II, Felipe V, Luis I, Fernando VI, Carlos III, Carlos IV and Fernando VII), each had its own emblem, different from that of the others. On the other hand, some cities or towns did have their own coat of arms, which was granted by means of Reales Cédulas.

The first coat of arms of Colombia, as a joint entity, was initially conferred on the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá and its province by Carlos V, in the Royal Decree issued in Valladolid on December 3, 1548, and which in 1717 became the shield of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada. This shield was made up of an eagle crowned with gold in a field of the same, whose legs held two gules pomegranates, with an azure border that had nine pomegranates as a border. of gold, which, according to some sources, represented the nine provinces that at that time made up the viceroyalty. Since 1932 this emblem has been the shield of Bogotá.

Virreinato de la Nueva Granada	United Provinces of New Granada
1717 — 1819	1815 — 1816

Provisional shield of the United Provinces of New Granada in 1814.

The coat of arms of the viceroyalty was abandoned during the time of the cry for independence, since it sought to establish New Granada as an independent state, and its symbols had to be as far removed as possible from those adopted during the colony, which represented the ties to Spanish royalty. Between 1810 and 1812, those provinces that did not want to remain under Spanish colonial protection united to form the first republic in the national history of Colombia, which was officially called the United Provinces of New Granada and whose capital was Tunja.

After agreeing on the way to govern the country, the representatives of each of the regions that made up the federation met during the year 1814 in Congress, to reach some agreements on various matters of national interest, among them to fix the emblems that should be used to identify the young republic from the others. In that Congress, the delegates of the United Provinces gave rise to the first national coat of arms of Colombia. This contained numerous elements typical of the nascent republic: the Chimborazo volcano, the Andean condor, the Tequendama waterfall, the Isthmus of Panama, several open grenades, a bow, a quiver, and a vertical arrow; all surrounded by a circle with the legend “United Provinces of New Granada”. The law that regulated it was given on July 14, 1815 and sanctioned on November 14 of the same year, which also provided a detailed description of the colors that the coat of arms should carry:

Act of 14 July 1815 on 14 November 1815

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On the elements of the national shield:

It will be the national shield quartered for the distribution of the signs that distinguish and characterize the New Granada, namely:

In the first barracks will appear the Chimborazo throwing flames of fire on the part of Altizana; in the second, the condor in attitude to lift the flight and with the claw raised; in the third, the waterfall of Tequendama; in the fourth the isthmus of Panama and two ships on its sides, to denote the two seas. Above all will be an open grenade.

The bell a bow and a carcaj with arrows in aspa, and one of these vertical. The garland composed of grenades and branches properly intertwined, will utter its contour; and lately it will be placed in its circumference on the colors of the national flag the currency “United Provinces of New Granada”.

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On the enamels of the national shield:

The first barracks is of blue with a gold hill of two peaks, the highest surpassed of silver and the bottom of gules, representing the Chimborazo of Quito, whom nature crowned with snow and fire;

The second of purple, with vulture condor, whipped, of sable, head and throat of gules, beak and legs of gold, with the right claw raised;

The third of the siple, in a dented and waved silver band, representing the waterfall of Tequendama in the province of Cundinamarca;

The silver room, in a denticulated siple band, accompanied by two sable ships, representing the isthmus of Panama;

The above-all blue with an open gold grenade of foils fused and garrisoned with siple leaves, alluding to the name and sign with which this part of the globe has been known;

The bell, an arch and a carcaj with arrows in golden spruce, these of blue and gulls, and one of them vertical of sable, armed of gold in bar behind the shield; it is surrounded by a garland of gold grenades open of gules, fusted and garrison of leaves of siple and bloss of purple;

All wrapped in three golden bands, siple and gules, which are the colors of the flag and national pavilion; the currency “United Provinces of New Granada” in gold letters on the siple bandage.

Along with the United Provinces, an autonomous government was established in Cundinamarca between 1812 and 1815, led by Antonio Nariño. This created a shield made up of a saber eagle with open wings, in whose right claw he held an upturned sword and in the left claw a grenade, on whose head was raised a Phrygian cap. In addition several fragments of broken chain were around the eagle. At the top it bore the motto “Die or Win”, and enveloping the entire shield was the sign “Free and Independent Government of Cundinamarca”. This coat of arms was abandoned when the end of the conflict between federalists and centralists led to the annexation of Cundinamarca by the United Provinces of New Granada, to be later retaken in 1886 as the emblem of the department of Cundinamarca.

Shields of Greater Colombia

Before the imminent definitive independence of the country, the heroes of the liberation campaigns decreed the territorial and political union of Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador during the congress of Angostura, thus creating Gran Colombia on February 15, 1819. In said convention it was established that provisionally the coat of arms and the flag of the nation would be those used until then by Venezuela, "because they are better known".

1819 — 1820	1820 — 1821	1821 — 1830

Francisco de Paula Santander, who at that time was vice president of the department of Cundinamarca (the name given to all of New Granada while it was part of Gran Colombia), decreed on January 10, 1820 the design of a new shield national, due to the lack of knowledge about the characteristics of the weapons of Venezuela. This consisted of a Swiss-shaped coat of arms, which displayed a condor in its azure field, which carried a sword and a grenade in its paws (as in the Cundinamarca shield decreed by Nariño). In the lower zone there was an iron sphere, from which a chain of 10 stars (for the ten provinces of the nation) started and on this there was a flame of fire. In the upper area of the shield there was a laurel wreath, and everything was surrounded by the Order of the Liberators and a ribbon with the motto “Vixit et Vincit et Amore Patriae”, which in Latin means & #34;He lived and died, and this, for the love of the Homeland". On July 12, 1821, the National Congress decreed that this shield and the Venezuelan flag would be the new provisional symbols of the Republic.

The previous coat of arms was replaced by the first official coat of arms of Gran Colombia, which was established by the law of October 6, 1821, after the Constituent Congress of 1821, under the following terms:

Act of 6 October 1821

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Considering that Article 11 of the Basic Law of the Republic is to designate the weapons that must distinguish it in the future between the independent nations of the earth, it has come to decree and decree the following:

Article 1: It will be used, instead of weapons, of two cornucopias full of fruits and flowers of the cold, temperate and warm countries, and of the Colombian phases that will consist of a shaft of the spears with the crossed segur, arches and arrows, tied with tricolor ribbon at the bottom.

Article 2: The great seal of the Republic and stamps of the office will have engraved this symbol of the abundance, strength and union with which the citizens of Colombia are determined to sustain their independence, with the following inscription in the circumference: “Republic of Colombia”.

After the incorporation of the Free Province of Guayaquil in 1822, it was proposed to modify the Gran Colombian shield for the last time; some official documents of the time show the printing of different models, however there is no documentation such as a law or decree that shows that a new emblem was actually regulated. The proposed design consisted of an English-shaped shield divided into three fields, each one of a flag color. Of these quarters, the upper one, in azure, had as many stars as there were departments in the Republic; for this reason he had three at the beginning, then six, later nine and finally twelve. In the lower left field, in gules, there was an indomitable horse, a symbol of freedom, and in the remaining quarter, in gold, there was a broken scepter, representing the destroyed monarchy. In the upper zone of the shield he wore a condor with its wings outstretched and in the lower zone a ribbon with the legend “Be Free or Die”. As holders of the shield he carried an old man with a mace on his left and at his feet an amphora spilling water with the legend “Orinoco” ; and to his right a nymph with an olive branch in her hand and at her feet another similar amphora with the legend “Magdalena” .

Shields of New Granada

After the disappearance of Gran Colombia in 1830, the three countries that were formed (State of Venezuela, State of Ecuador and the Republic of New Granada) continued using the same emblems (flag and shield) provisionally, until decreeing their own insignia. In this way it happens that from 1830 to 1834 New Granada, converted into a republic, used the same Gran Colombian shield, only adding the motto “Estado de Nueva Granada” on its border to differentiate it from the one used by its neighbors.

State of the New Granada	Republic of New Grenada Granadina Confederation
1830 — 1834	1834 — 1861

Escudo proposed in 1833 for the Republic of New Granada.

In 1833 Alejandro Vélez presented to congress a flag and shield project for the country, the first being the same one that was used by the United Provinces of New Granada in 1815 but with its stripes vertically. The shield, meanwhile, was Swiss in shape and was divided into three quarters, the upper one in azure carried a pair of cornucopias and a pomegranate, all golden, as a symbol of the country's wealth. In the central field, gules, an indomitable silver horse as a sign of the independence of the republic. At the tip, in a silver field, the isthmus of Panama in azure, surrounded by two ships in saber, one in each ocean. By stamp he wore a laurel wreath in sinople held by a sable condor. As holders of the shield were the effigies of Justice and Liberty in a silver tunic. Although the project passed a large part of the debates in congress, no law was drafted that would ratify it as the national coat of arms.

The following year, General Francisco de Paula Santander, president of the Republic of New Granada, defined the shape and basic elements of the current coat of arms of Colombia by means of Law 3 of May 9, 1834, which in its most have remained intact:

Act No. 3 of 9 May 1834

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Article 1: The weapons of the New Granada will be a shield divided into three horizontal strips, which will carry on the top, on a blue field, a gold grenade, with stems and leaves of it, open and grenade of red. On each side you will go a golden cornucopia, tilted and pouring towards the center, coins that of the right and the left fruits of the zone. The first denotes the name of this Republic, and the second the wealth of its mines and the feracity of its lands.

Article 2: In the middle, on a platinum-colored field, a red hat tied in a spear, as a symbol of freedom and a precious metal that is typical of this country.

Article 3: At the bottom it will carry the isthmus of Panama of blue, the two waves of silver, and a ship with its sails deployed in each of them, which will indicate the importance of this precious throat, which is an integral part of the Republic.

Article 4: There shall be the shield held on the top by a crown of laurel, of green, slope of the beak of a condor, with the wings unfolded; and on a wavering tape, beside the shield and intertwined in the crown, shall be written on gold with black letters this motto: "Freedom and Order".

Article 5: The shield will rest on a green field, adorned with some small plants.

The lateral flags that accompanied the shield were not legislated in said norm. These came to be incorporated due to an error of interpretation, since on May 27, 1834 the Secretary of the Interior and Foreign Relations of that time, Dr. Lino de Pombo, sent a copy of the decree that dictated the coat of arms and national flag along with their models. Lino de Pombo placed the flags of the merchant marine (which contained an eight-pointed silver star in the center) and of the navy (with the national coat of arms in the blue stripe) on the sides of the shield as an example, although he clarified in said document that were not an integral part of it. Apparently the model provided with side flags was taken as a whole and from then on it was the one used in all official acts.

Shield used by the Republic of New Granada between April and December 1854, during the dictatorship of General José María Melo.

Shield used by the Republic of New Granada during December 1854. This emblem was apparently taken from an interpretation made in France of the shield decreed in 1834, which appeared in several documents of that country and was more consistent with the canons of the heraldic.

In 1854, after the coup led by José María Melo, the coat of arms was changed for a few months (from April 17 to December 4). This shield was made up of a horizontal fasces over which a condor hovered with a laurel branch in its visible leg, to the left of it was a cut coat of arms (divided into two quarters), in whose upper field there was a grenade and in the bottom the isthmus of Panama in sinople. Behind the coat of arms were three national flags, and in the upper area of the shield was a five-pointed star. Hanging over the fasces was a silver ribbon with the motto “Ab Ordine Libertas” (Serving Liberty), which was in keeping with the motto "Liberty and Order " used by the Neogranadine Republic.

It is also known that once Melo was deposed at the end of that year, the Republic of New Granada used another model of shield. Said coat of arms consisted of the same one that was regulated by Santander but with notable differences in its external decorations. For example, the side flags were not two but six, three on each side; the condor instead of being in flight, perched on the coat of arms; and the entire shield was placed on two crossed cannons, six bullets placed in a pyramid and a sinople terrace. However, in said version, the central band of the Phrygian cap was very narrow, trying to form the heraldic figure called a girdle or badge, which is a diminished honorable piece.

Subsequently, the government of the Confederation of Granada continued to use the same emblems of the New Granada Republic without major changes, just adding an oval ring of gules that wrapped the entire shield as a frame. In said oval the name of the country was printed, generally in golden letters, and 8 eight-pointed stars as a symbol of each of the states of the confederation. Its most profuse use was found in state emblems, since in these, in addition to the name of the country, the name of the state it represented was also registered.

Shields after the definitive change of name to Colombia

In 1861 General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera became president of the country, and one of his first actions was to change the name of the country to the United States of Colombia. When the federation was declared, a change was brought about in the national symbols, among them the disposition of the stripes of the flag, which affected the design of the side flags of the shield. Mosquera decreed that the arms of the country would be the same as those of the Confederation of Granada, with the addition that on this there would be an arch composed of 9 eight-pointed stars, which represented each one of the Sovereign States into which the country was divided. The shield was framed by a red oval, in which the text “United States of Colombia” was engraved along with the nine eight-pointed stars that were repeated in the lower area of the oval.

United States of Colombia	Republic of Colombia	Republic of Colombia
1861 — 1886	1886 — 1924	1924 — Present

Escudo de Colombia en la facade del Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe Uribe, ubicado en Medellín y fechado en 1927. While this shield complies with some of the characteristics described in the law of May 17, 1924, the condor still presents his gaze to the sinister.

After the end of the civil war of 1885, the name of the country was finally changed in 1886 to the current Republic of Colombia. This implied new modifications in the national shield. Decree 838 of November 5, 1889 ordered the suppression of the nine federal stars (since the country had adopted the unitary system) and the change of the legend to “Republic of Colombia”. In addition, later use transformed the red oval into a circle, which is currently only used to frame the shield in official State insignia, such as the one used on the presidential banner.

The last significant modifications were established by decree 861 of May 17, 1924, which established that the placement of the flags would be as follows: the two lower ones forming an angle of ninety degrees (90°) with each other and the two upper ones separated from the first ones at angles of fifteen degrees (15°), these being collected at the vertex of the coat of arms, which definitively eliminated the green soil that the previous versions of the shield had; Said change affected the color of the Central American isthmus; this would now come to be painted in green (many later versions make it seem that from this very moment the seas, previously silver, would now be colored blue). In addition, through decree 3558 issued on November 9, 1949, it is established that the condor looks to the right hand of the shield as a sign of legitimacy of the Colombian nation.

Proposed changes

Since the beginning of the XXI century, some political branches have proposed a change in the coat of arms national. The main proposals manifest the desire to modify, in several cases without considering the heraldry norms or historical tradition, the fundamental elements of the emblem.

Some of these critics have argued that the coat of arms is outdated and anachronistic. For example, it has been said that the Andean condor is a threatened species in the country, with barely 100 specimens, and given its nature to feed on carrion, it is an animal with a very low profile to represent a nation. The pomegranate, being a Mediterranean fruit, is currently not cultivated in Colombia and the Phrygian cap is of Greek origin. Finally, it has been suggested to also change the isthmus of Panama, since it no longer belongs to Colombia.

Isthmus of Panama

Shield proposed in 2009 by the governor of Sucre, Jorge Barraza Farak, for the Republic of Colombia, replacing the frigid hat with the flying hat. This proposal also reflects its similitude raised in the Congress of the Republic by the representative Dayro Bustillo in 2008, in which it was intended to change the isthmus of Panama by the islands of the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

Among the proposals to modify the national shield is to change the form that corresponds to the so-called Swiss style by a contour with the shape of the chromquis of the map of Colombia divided into three fajas, as shown here.

During 2007 and 2008, a bill was submitted to the Congress of the Republic which contemplated replacing the isthmus of Panama with the islands of the Archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia, and in turn also proposed the unification of the elements of the first strip in exotic fruits; Said initiative was given because some congressmen, primarily by the representative Dayro Bustillo of the department of Bolívar, considered that Panama, by leaving it as part of Colombian territory since 1903, should not have representation in the national emblem. Said resolution generated a wide debate on whether it was possible to modify so profoundly the national coat of arms, whose components have been historically constant since its creation in 1834.

The proposal generated mixed reactions both for and against. Senator Luz Elena Restrepo stated the following: "For me it is valuable to get Panama out of the shield. The loss of Panama was a process that is a symbol of corruption. If there is such a negative energy in a patriotic emblem, it must be removed".

In contrast, historian Jorge Orlando Melo commented that it is "unnecessary" change the shield "The flags and shields have a historical reason. I don't think it's necessary to remove the condor from the shield, because it's running out in the Andes. Or that we are going to remove the cornucopia from the shield because wealth is not seen. Or that we remove Panama, because we lost it". Melo also points out that many countries have emblems with references "that are no longer valid". In addition, he affirms that the Central American isthmus in the Colombian shield refers to something that Colombia still has, such as the Darién area and the coasts on the Atlantic and the Pacific, since it is the only country in South America that has coasts on both oceans.

This controversy not only affected the Colombian people and government, but also had repercussions in Nicaragua, since both countries are in dispute over the sovereignty of the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina archipelago and its surrounding waters. The Nicaraguan government saw it as an attempt by Colombia to reaffirm its authority over the islands, without at that time the International Court of Justice having issued any norm that clarified the matter.

Phrygian cap

Following the paper presented in 2007 in which it was contemplated to change the Isthmus of Panama for the islands of San Andrés and Providencia, several discussions were presented about the content of the stripes, especially to replace the Phrygian cap of the sector central, symbol of the freedom of the slaves. Not knowing the true meaning and universal importance of this emblem, the congressmen have raised the vueltiao hat as its replacement, which was declared Cultural Symbol of the Nation by the Colombian Congress through Law 908 of 8 September 2004.

Finally, on October 10, 2009, the governor of the department of Sucre, Jorge Barraza Farak, made official the proposal to add this hat to the national emblem. In said proposal, the president expressed that the Phrygian hat should be replaced by the sombrero vueltiao, a characteristic Colombian garment and an artisanal work from the Caribbean, and likewise that the Central American isthmus should be exchanged for the San Andrés and Providencia archipelago.

Shape of the shield and condor of the Andes

At the beginning of 2008, several members of the Second Committee of the House of Representatives sought to replace the condor with another bird that would better represent the identity of the nation, according to their opinions, because it is a highly threatened species and also a scavenger.

During said session and based on what was formulated, proposals of all kinds began to emerge from the congressmen, launched without consulting heraldry regulations, much less history. Among them is to replace the condor with any other Colombian bird. This originated from a proposal that proposed to suppress the current form of the coat of arms that corresponds to the so-called Swiss style, for a frame with the sketch of the map of Colombia (although the congressmen referred to this with the name of "physical map de Colombia") divided into three stripes, because the current one is a "Spanish coat of arms". But as the new "framework" of the shield would be the map, totally irregular, it would be impossible for a condor to perch there, a bird that is also in danger of extinction. They then proposed to change the animal and asked to draw up a list of those that could be symbolic.

Other proposals

In the 2007 and 2008 sessions, it was also suggested that other national elements should appear in the new shield, such as flowers, coffee, the Eastern Plains, the Sierra Nevada, and even typical costumes. Finally, another proposition included the idea of adding the word "Democracy" to the waving golden ribbon, which has the inscription "Liberty and Order".

Regulation and use

Shield used by the President of Colombia in his protocol acts.

Colombia's shield in the emblem of the National Police.

The coat of arms of Colombia, together with the flag and the anthem, are regulated by decree 1967 of August 15, 1991. Regarding the coat of arms, the decree provides the following:

• The coat of arms of Colombia should be used only in the national flag of the President of the Republic, in the war flags, in the letter of paper, envelopes, among others, through which strictly official matters are sold. However, it can be sculpted in monuments, churches, chapels, pantheons or military cemeteries, barracks, ships, educational centers and other places, provided they meet conditions of severity, seriousness and respect.
• The shield can be used in advertising media only when such messages lead to the formation of a nationalist sense or enhance the patriotic values.
• When the Patriotic Symbols are used in clothing, objects and events, they must be carried with the utmost respect and decorum.
• It is the duty of all educational establishments in the country to own Bandera and Escudo Nacional, which must remain with the utmost respect and dignity in a main classroom or hall of acts.
• It is also the duty of educators and parents to foster the worship of the Patriot Symbols. As a reinforcement to this cult, at least once a month an act must be carried out in which the pupil who has most distinguished himself must ize the National Flag, while the student community intonates the National Anthem to promote the patriotic spirit of the citizens.

Sanctions

The former Colombian Criminal Code (Decree 100 of 1980) provided in its first chapter (article 117) that whoever publicly insults the national symbols of Colombia, that is, the anthem, the flag or the national shield, would commit treason against the Patria and should serve a prison sentence of six (6) months to two (2) years.

Subsequently, with the issuance of Law 599 of 2000, the prison sentence was eliminated by article 461 and replaced by a fine. However, the rule was declared unenforceable by the Constitutional Court (outside the legal system and therefore without application) through judgment C-575 of 2009.