Article 96

The following hold Colombian citizenship:

1. Citizens by birth:
• Native-born Colombians, according to one of these two conditions that the father or mother should have been natives or Colombian citizens or that, being the offspring of aliens, either of the parents was domiciled in the Republic at the time of birth;
• The children of a Colombian father or mother who were born abroad and then became domiciled in the Republic.
2. Citizens by naturalization:
• Aliens who apply for and obtain their naturalization card, in accordance with the law, which will establish those cases where Colombian citizenship is lost through naturalization;
• Citizens by birth from Latin America and the Caribbean who are domiciled in Colombia and who, with the government's authorization and in accordance with the law and the principle of reciprocity, request that they be registered as Colombians in the municipality where they reside;
• Members of the indigenous (Indian) peoples who share border areas, with application of the principle of reciprocity according to public treaties.
• No Colombian by birth may be stripped of his/her citizenship. The status of Colombian citizenship cannot be lost by virtue of the fact of acquiring another citizenship.
• Citizens by naturalization will not be obligated to renounce their citizenship of origin or naturalization. Whoever has renounced his or her Colombian citizenship may recover it in accordance with the law.

Article 97

Even when he/she has renounced citizenship status, the Colombian who acts in opposition to the country's interests when Colombia is involved in a foreign war will be tried and sentenced as a traitor.

Colombian citizens by naturalization and aliens domiciled in Colombia cannot be obligated to take up arms against their country of origin; neither may Colombians who have acquired citizenship abroad against the country of their new citizenship.


Article 98

Citizenship is lost de facto when an individual has renounced it, and its exercise may be suspended by virtue of a legal decision in the cases determined by law. Those persons whose citizenship has been suspended may request its restoration Paragraph. Unless the law states otherwise, citizenship status will be exercised beginning at age 18.

Article 99

Being a citizen in good standing is a prior and indispensable condition for exercising one's right of suffrage, to be elected, and to hold public office involving authority or jurisdiction.


Article 100

Aliens in Colombia will enjoy the same civil rights as Colombian citizens. Notwithstanding, for reasons of public order, the law may impose special conditions on or nullify the exercise of specific civil rights by aliens. Similarly, aliens will enjoy, in the territory of the Republic, guarantees granted to citizens, except for the limitations established by the Constitution or the law.

Political rights are reserved to citizens, but the law may grant to aliens resident in Colombia the fight to vote in elections and in popular consultations at the municipal or district level.


Article 101

The borders of Colombia are those established in international treaties approved by the Congress, duly ratified by the President of the Republic, mid those defined by arbitration awards in which Colombia takes part.

 The borders identified in the form provided for by this Constitution may he modified only by treaties approved by the Congress and duly ratified by the President of the Republic. Besides the continental territory, the archipelago of San Andros, Providencia.

 Santa Catalina, and Malpelo are part of Colombia, in addition to the islands, islets, keys, headlands, and sand banks that belong to it. Also part of Colombia is the subsoil, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone, the airspace, the segment of the geostationary orbit, the electromagnetic spectrum and the space in which it operates, in accordance with international law or the laws of Colombia in the absence of international regulations.

Article 102

The territory, together with the public resources that are part of it, belong to the nation.