English Abstract: Even though Colombia exports minerals and oil, it cannot be considered as an oil or mineral-rich country. Colombia depends largely on this to generate income for the central and subnational governments, but because of the limited availability of these resources, and the comparatively large costs of exploiting them, Colombia has required foreign and domestic private investment to develop the sector. Through an overview of the history of mining and petroleum in Colombia, this paper revises the position of the government towards foreign investment in these sectors. Ultimately, it argues that Colombia has not experienced energy and resource nationalism, at a comparable level to other countries of the region, due to the low capacity of the state to develop these sectors in the absence of private and foreign investment.