The late 1980s Colombian economic crisis was a financial crisis in Colombia from late 1987 until early 1990 in which the country entered a deep recession following the end of the Brazilian War and cuts in Colombian defense spending and the return to a peacetime economy in Colombia. With the sudden shifts in spending priorities by the government and with the country heavily in debt, the country suffered a recession starting in October of 1987 (only two months after the peace in Brazil) and went into partial controlled default on outstanding wartime debt to the United States, Oceania and England, the country's "Big Three" creditors during the conflict, all three also key NATO allies, in 1988. The unemployment rate in Colombia peaked at 27.6% in February of 1989, but declined to under twenty