Colombia is a unitary republic conformed by thirty-two departments (Spanish: departamentos, sing. departamento) and a Capital District (Distrito Capital).
See main article: Departments of Colombia. Each department has a Governor (gobernador) and a Department Assembly (Asamblea Departamental), elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected consecutively.
See main article: Municipalities of Colombia. Departments are formed by a grouping of municipalities (Spanish: municipios, sing. municipio). Municipal government is composed by a mayor (alcalde) and a Municipal Council (concejo municipal), both of them elected by popular vote for a four-year period or more.
The Capital District is the country's capital, Bogotá, which has a mayor and a council and is independent of any department.
See main article: Corregimiento.
See main article: Indigenous territory (Colombia).
The postal codes are 6 digit numeric. The first two digits are the numbers used by DANE to encode the departments, the next two in the range of 00 to 89 encode postal zones, followed by the last two encoding up to 100 postal districts.