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127-424: [REDACTED] Colombian Conservative Party [REDACTED] Colombian Liberal Party and allied militias La Violencia ( Spanish pronunciation: [la βjoˈlensja] , The Violence ) was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party , fought mainly in the countryside. La Violencia is considered to have begun with

254-542: A candidate with a superficially similar program, remained marginalized. Uribe was elected President of Colombia in the first round of 26 May 2002 elections with 53% of the popular vote. His running mate was Francisco Santos Calderón , a member of the Santos family, who have a long-lasting tradition as members of the Colombian Liberal Party and as owners of Colombian daily newspaper El Tiempo . Santos

381-451: A candidate. Uribe and his supporters denied or undermined these claims, and critics never committed to legal action because there was no evidence for these claims. Former paramilitary Salvatore Mancuso , commander of the AUC , admitted in 2023 that his organisation had supported Álvaro Uribe's presidential campaign in 2002. During his tenure, Uribe's declared priority was to contain or defeat

508-532: A controversial effort to demobilize the right-wing paramilitary group known as the AUC . All of these groups were part of the Colombian Armed Conflict . His role in the conflict was accompanied by large-scale alleged exactions: thousands of civilians were killed by the Colombian army, as part of the "false positives" scandal , with almost total impunity. Their deaths are being investigated by

635-463: A decrease of 27%. By April 2004, the government had established permanent police or military presence in every Colombian municipality for the first time in decades. The Colombian Embassy in Washington states that, as a result of this policy, the Colombian armed forces would now have: "60% more combat-ready soldiers than four years ago; Helicopters which have significantly improved the mobility of

762-574: A false identity as Antonio Gutiérrez. However, he was eventually identified and legally charged and prosecuted for libel by the Conservative Party. As a result of La Violencia there were no liberal candidates for the presidency, congress, or any public corporations in the 1950 elections . The press accused the government of pogroms against the opposition. Censorship and reprisals were common against journalists, writers, and directors of news services; in consequence many media figures left

889-592: A living person's body; or bocachiquiar , where hundreds of small punctures were made until the victim slowly bled to death. Former Senior Director of International Economic Affairs for the United States National Security Council and current President of the Institute for Global Economic Growth , Norman A. Bailey describes the atrocities succinctly: "Ingenious forms of quartering and beheading were invented and given such names as

1016-468: A modification of party rules in order to suspend the membership of those politicians who were under investigation. Former attorney general Alejandro Ordóñez has become one of the most visible heads of the Conservative Party, and some groups inside the party supported a possible presidential campaign for him in 2014. Ordóñez is remembered for his conservative positions on moral and religious issues. However, other conservative politicians have sympathized with

1143-512: A new constitution was written. The modern Republic of Colombia was founded with a centralized and protectionist government, and an education system managed by the Catholic Church. Universal suffrage, "contradictory with the hierarchical nature of the society", was abolished in 1880. Only those over the age of 21 with a "legitimate" trade or profession as means of subsistence, literate, earning at least $ 500 Pesos yearly (a substantial sum at

1270-561: A new constitution, with conservative and centralist characteristics. Mariano Ospina Rodríguez , a prominent member of Alcántara's government, supported the return of the Jesuits to the country and reformed the education system. Alcántara was succeeded in office by General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera , whose supporters created the Liberal Party in 1848. One year later, Mosquera's detractors Ospina Rodríguez and José Eusebio Caro formed

1397-466: A plot to take control of the country and undo the country's moves toward progress, spurred the violence. This conspiracy theory supplied the rationale for Liberal Party radicals to engage in violence, notably the anti-clerical attacks and killings, particularly in the early years of La Violencia . Some propaganda leaflets circulating in Medellín blamed a favorite of anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists,

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1524-547: A press conference during which he addressed several of the accusations Senator Petro and others had made against him. Uribe argued that his family had nothing to do with any massacres and that they had already sold the implicated farms several years before the alleged events. He also stated that the Uribes and the Ochoas were both famous in the horse breeding business, causing their meetings to be both common and public. He claimed that

1651-740: A reduced rate. The demobilizations were renewed in November and finished in the complete disbandment of the group by middle February 2007, although some of the paramilitary units rejected disbandment and returned to criminal activity. These groups became known as the Black Eagles . This group is relatively small in comparison to the AUC and have not been able to achieve the notoriety or the military power of their predecessor, but are present on some former paramilitary areas, like Catatumbo and Choco. The Colombian Congress agreed to prosecute AUC leaders under

1778-558: A reelection of Juan Manuel Santos. Since 2014, due to disagreements with President Santos about the Colombian peace process and opposition to agreements with the FARC guerrillas, the party joined the opposition with the conservative Democratic Center , which also opposed making deals with the FARC. At the command of former president Andrés Pastrana, the party joined the movement to reject

1905-433: A speech that FARC remained strong and had never retreated, and he credited Colombia's soldiers for previous successes against FARC activities. Negotiations with the AUC also increased public anxiety. Discussions continued about the legal provisions to assure "justice, reparation and truth" after a full demobilization. Also according to many observers, paramilitary activity continued despite AUC's declared cease-fire, albeit at

2032-729: Is a Colombian hero who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia . He held offices in the Public Enterprises of Medellín and in the Ministry of Labor and was the director of the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics (1980–1982). He became the Mayor of Medellín in October 1982. He

2159-578: Is impossible. Scholars, however, estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 people died; 600,000 to 800,000 were injured; and almost one million people were displaced. La Violencia directly or indirectly affected 20 percent of the population. La Violencia did not acquire its name simply because of the number of people it affected; it was the manner in which many of the killings, maimings, and dismemberings were done. Certain death and torture techniques became so commonplace that they were given names—for example, picar para tamal , which involved slowly cutting up

2286-406: Is no investment. Without investment, there are no fiscal resources for the government to invest in the welfare of the people". His security program was based on a policy of democratic security , aiming to: The policy intended to achieve these goals by: In early 2002, Uribe's administration decreed a one-time tax of 1.2% of the liquid assets of the higher-income Colombians and corporations, with

2413-534: Is the third largest political force in the country's legislature after the Liberals and the Historic Pact for Colombia . It was part of the coalition of Juan Manuel Santos from 2010 to 2014 and supported the conservative government of Álvaro Uribe from 2002 to 2010. It currently supports the leftist government of Gustavo Petro , despite noticeable differences in ideology. Lawyer José Ignacio de Márquez

2540-515: The Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Communist Party on the other side. The conflict caused millions of people to abandon their homes and property. Media and news services failed to cover events accurately for fear of revenge attacks. The lack of public order and civil authority prevented victims from laying charges against perpetrators. Documented evidence from these years is rare and fragmented. The majority of

2667-473: The Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes scandal. Conservative former president Andrés Pastrana spoke in favor of a change in the direction the party had taken. His comments generated a dispute with the party president, José Darío Salazar, who was being investigated by the Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes at the time. In January 2012, the new president of the party, Efraín Cepeda, announced

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2794-513: The Holy See or the Board of Bishops. These events were recounted in the 1950 book Lo que el cielo no perdona ("What heaven doesn't forgive"), written by the secretary to Builes, Father Fidel Blandon Berrio. Eduardo Caballero Calderón also recounted these events in his 1952 book El Cristo de Espaldas ("Backwards Christ "). After releasing his book, Blandon resigned from his position and assumed

2921-537: The Liberals who were in their midst. In the two decades prior to La Violencia , Conservative politicians and churchmen adopted from Europe the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory to portray the Liberal Party as involved in an international anti-Christian plot, with many prominent Liberal politicians actually being Freemasons . Although most of the rhetoric of conspiracy was introduced and circulated by some of

3048-549: The Social Party of National Unity . In 2010, the Conservative Party won the second-greatest number of votes of any political force in Colombia, and joined Santos' coalition. In November, 2011 senator Efraín Cepeda was elected as the new president of the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party increased its number of seats in the congress during the first decade of the 21st century. In the legislative elections of 2002 ,

3175-461: The Society of Jesus (Jesuits), for the murder of Gaitán. Across the country, militants attacked churches, convents, and monasteries, killing priests and looking for arms, because they believed that the clergy had guns, a rumor which was proven to be false when no serviceable weapons were found during the raids. One priest, Pedro María Ramírez Ramos , was slaughtered with machetes and hauled through

3302-813: The Thousand Days' War and the Banana massacre . During the Hegemony, the Central Bank (later the Bank of the Republic ) was established, and the rail transport system that now crossed the country continued to improve. However, the emerging working class felt irritated with the consecutive conservative governments and began supporting the Liberal Party, winning the presidency with Enrique Olaya Herrera in 1930. In 1946, after sixteen years of liberal governments,

3429-513: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the year 2004 stated: "Achievements and advances were observed in the field of human rights and international humanitarian law; however, there were also difficulties and contradictions. ... Progress was recorded in terms of prevention and protection, including strengthening of the mechanism of community defenders and the early warning system, as well as regarding

3556-640: The United Nations . Millions of people were the victims of forced displacement. In August 2010, Uribe was appointed vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid . In 2012 Uribe and a group of political allies founded the right-wing Democratic Center movement to contest the 2014 national elections. He was elected senator in the 2014 parliamentary election and took office in July 2014. Uribe

3683-538: The assassination on 9 April 1948 of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , a Liberal Party presidential candidate and frontrunner for the 1949 November election . His murder provoked the Bogotazo rioting, which lasted ten hours and resulted in around 5,000 casualties. An alternative historiography proposes the Conservative Party's return to power following the election of 1946 to be the cause. Rural town police and political leaders encouraged Conservative-supporting peasants to seize

3810-608: The "Independent Conservatism" movement of the Gerlein family , Pastrana's independent party New Democratic Force , the National Conservative Movement, and the movement in Antioquia called "Unionismo". In 2002, although most Conservative senators and representatives initially backed Juan Camilo Restrepo in his bid for the presidency, the Conservative Party supported Álvaro Uribe in his campaign. Uribe

3937-467: The "cowboys". When López Pumarejo returned to Bogotá he issued declarations stating that the guerrillas were not criminals but were simply fighting for freedom, and in response the Conservative dictatorship shut down the newspapers and imposed strict censorship. 1952 passed with only small skirmishes and no organized guerrilla leader, but by June 1953, Guadalupe Salcedo had assumed command. In 1952

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4064-461: The 'corte de mica', 'corte de corbata' (aka Colombian necktie ), and so on. Crucifixions and hangings were commonplace, political 'prisoners' were thrown from airplanes in flight, infants were bayoneted, schoolgirls, some as young as eight years old, were raped en masse , unborn infants were removed by crude Caesarian section and replaced by roosters, ears were cut off, scalps removed, and so on." While scholars, historians, and analysts have all debated

4191-538: The 1946 election, Mariano Ospina Pérez of the Conservative party won the presidency, largely because the Liberal votes were split between two Liberal candidates. Mariano Ospina Pérez and the Conservative party Government used the police and army to repress the Liberal party. Their response was to fight back with violent protests. This led to an increasing amount of pressure within political and civil society. Some consider La Violencia having started at this point because

4318-425: The 1950 election. This began the Bogotazo as angry mobs beat Roa Sierra to death and headed to the presidential palace with the intent of killing President Ospina Pérez. The murder of Gaitán and subsequent rioting sparked other popular uprisings throughout the country. Because of the Liberal nature of these revolts, the police and military, who had been largely neutral before, either defected or became aligned with

4445-466: The 1953 agreement. Some of the guerrilleros did not surrender to the government and organized into criminal bands or bandoleros, which caused intense military operations against them in 1954. One of them, the guerrillero leader Tirofijo , had changed his political and ideological inclinations from being a Liberal to supporting the Communists during this period, and eventually he became the founder of

4572-466: The AUC's main leaders had declared a cease-fire and agreed to concentrate in Santa Fe de Ralito , several paramilitary demobilizations began in earnest, thousands of their "rank and file" fighters were disarmed and incorporated into government rehabilitation programs late in 2004. The main AUC leaders, who would be held responsible for atrocities, remained in the concentration zone and continued talks with

4699-616: The Armed Forces throughout the national territory; Attack helicopters ensuring the means to be more aggressive in the fight against FARC and AUC; Increased basic combat supplies, including rifles and ammunition; and [has received] significant less human rights complaints against them". In January 2005, Human Rights Watch stated: "Paramilitary groups maintain close ties with a number of Colombian military units. The Uribe administration has yet to take effective action to break these ties by investigating and prosecuting high-ranking members of

4826-623: The Colombian President's cousins and a close political ally, was arrested after being denied asylum at the Costa Rican embassy in Bogotá , as part of a judicial inquiry into the links between politicians and paramilitary groups. Mario Uribe has been accused of meeting with paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso in order to plan land seizures. On 22 February 2011, Uribe Escobar was convicted and sentenced to 90 months in jail after

4953-479: The Colombian Supreme Court found him guilty of the charge of conspiring with paramilitary groups. On 23 April 2008, Uribe revealed that a former paramilitary fighter had accused him of helping to plan the 1997 massacre of El Aro , a charge which he said was under official investigation. Uribe described the accuser as a "disgruntled convict with an axe to grind", denied the charges and said there

5080-519: The Congress, creating a Conservative dictatorship. The Liberal Party decided to stage a military coup, and it was planned for November 25, 1949. However, many of the party members decided it was not a good idea and called it off. One conspirator, Air Force Captain Alfredo Silva, in the city of Villavicencio , had not been notified of the abandonment of the plan and carried it out. After rallying

5207-513: The Conservative Party survived with new leaders. The Ospina faction survived through Misael Pastrana's son Andrés Pastrana , while Álvaro Gómez Hurtado , son of Laureano Gómez, led a dissident group called the National Salvation Movement . Gómez was murdered in 1995 in unclear circumstances, although some testimony claims that the killers were members of the government and the mafia. In 1982, conservative Belisario Betancur

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5334-551: The Conservative Party won 13 of 102 seats in the Senate and 21 of 166 in the Chamber of Representatives. The party had the second highest number of votes, after the Liberal Party. Four years later , the Conservative Party won 18 seats in the Senate (5 more than in 2002) and 29 Representatives in the lower chamber (9 more than in 2002). The party stayed in the second place but this time after the Social Party of National Unity and above

5461-459: The Conservative Party, which grouped the ministerial liberals, most of the authorities of the Catholic Church and important landowners. In the newspaper La Civilización of October 4, 1849, Ospina and Caro published the conservative program that became the ideological platform for the new party. In 1851, in the Cauca department , certain fractions of the Conservative Party took up arms to fight against

5588-458: The Conservative government began increasing the backlash against Liberal protests and small rebel groups. There were an estimated 14,000 deaths in 1947 due to this violence. On April 9, 1948, Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was assassinated by Juan Roa Sierra on the street in Bogotá, via three shots from a revolver. Gaitán was a popular candidate and would have been the likely winner of

5715-589: The Conservative government. Initially, Liberal leaders in Colombia worked with the Conservative government to stop uprisings and root out Communists. In May 1949, Liberal leaders resigned from their positions within the Ospina Pérez administration, due to the widespread persecution of Liberals throughout the country. Attempting to end La Violencia , the Liberals, who had majority control of Congress , began impeachment proceedings against President Ospina Pérez on November 9, 1949. In response, Ospina Pérez dissolved

5842-553: The Eastern Plains to end the Liberal revolt, but they were still unsuccessful. In this time, the Liberal leadership in Bogotá realized the Conservatives were not giving up power any time soon, and they wanted to organize a national revolt. In December 1951 and January 1952, Alfonso López Pumarejo , the former Colombian president and leader of the Liberal Party, made visits to the Eastern Plains to renew his alliance with

5969-714: The International Displacement Monitoring Centre, an estimated total of 3.303.979 to 4.915.579 people have been internally displaced in Colombia. In November 2006, a political crisis emerged as several of Uribe's congressional supporters were questioned or charged by the Colombian Supreme Court and the office of the Attorney General for having alleged links to paramilitary groups. Álvaro Araújo , brother of Uribe's Foreign Minister María Consuelo Araújo ,

6096-544: The Liberals. The situation was better for the conservatives in the elections of 2010 , getting 22 senators and 36 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. As members of the uribista coalition and then of the National Unity Round Table (the government coalition of Juan Manuel Santos), the Conservative Party and the Social Party of National Unity have become ideological partners. In December 2011,

6223-492: The Ministry of Labor under Alfonso López Michelsen from 1977 to 1978. During this time, he married Lina Moreno, a philosopher from Medellín . President Julio César Turbay named him Director of Civil Aviation from 1980 to 1982, at the age of 28, after the previous director was assassinated. He was appointed Mayor of Medellín in 1982, but was removed five months later due to alleged connections with drug cartels. Uribe

6350-595: The Ministry of the Interior's programs for the protection of vulnerable groups. Weaknesses persisted in the Government's responses to warnings, as well as in decreasing risk factors for vulnerable groups. The Government adopted positive measures regarding the destruction of stored anti-personnel mines. The armed forces occasionally carried out operations in which they failed to observe humanitarian principles". An anti-terror statute criticized by many human rights groups

6477-590: The President's knowledge of these activities. Uribe himself has denied ordering any illegal wiretapping and claims that those responsible for spying on the opposition are part of "a mafia group that hurts the Colombian Democracy, freedom, the country and the government itself". The DAS, an "intelligence service that answers to the president" as described by the Washington Post , has been

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6604-497: The Uribe family's farms in the north of the country had been previously used as staging grounds for paramilitary forces. He also showed a picture of Santiago Uribe, the President's brother, together with Fabio Ochoa , a drug dealer, in 1985. Petro also argued that Governor Uribe's office allowed paramilitary personnel to participate in some of the legal cooperative neighborhood watch groups known as CONVIVIR . Another accusation concerned

6731-562: The Villavicencio garrison, he disarmed the police and took control of the city. Silva proceeded to urge others in the region to join the revolt, and Eliseo Velásquez , a peasant guerrilla leader, took Puerto López on December 1, 1949, as well as capturing other villages in the Meta River region. In this time, Silva was caught and arrested by troops from Bogotá coming to take back control of Villavicencio. In 1950, Laureano Gómez

6858-422: The abolition of slavery. In 1863, the Liberal party created a new constitution in the city of Rionegro , which was opposed by the Conservative Party. The country began an unstable period of economic decay and multiple short civil wars between states and parties. In 1876, the independent liberal politician Rafael Núñez was defeated by the official liberal candidate Aquileo Parra . Núñez was in favor of reforming

6985-666: The administration's decision making. It was claimed that this model would help improve employment, education, administrative transparency and public security. Within his jurisdiction, Uribe openly supported a national program of licensed private security services that became known as CONVIVIR , which had been created by Decree 356 issued by the Colombian Defense Ministry in February 1994. The groups quickly became controversial – while some reportedly improved security in communities and intelligence coordination with

7112-592: The agricultural lands of Liberal-supporting peasants, which provoked peasant-to-peasant violence throughout Colombia. La Violencia is estimated to have killed at least 200,000 people, almost 1 in 50 Colombians. The La Violencia conflict took place between the Military Forces of Colombia and the National Police of Colombia supported by Colombian Conservative Party paramilitary groups on one side, and paramilitary and guerrilla groups aligned with

7239-505: The armed forces credibly alleged to have collaborated with paramilitary groups. Credible reports indicate that some of the territories from which the military has ejected the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias de Colombia, FARC) are now under the control of paramilitary groups, which continue to carry out indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population". A February 2005 report by

7366-578: The atmosphere as "tense" and "suffocating", even hypothesizing that "a revolution may be brewing". In other parts of Colombia, different rebel groups had formed in throughout 1950; they formed in Antioquia , Tolima , Sumapaz , and the Middle Magdalena Valley . On January 1, 1953, these groups came together to launch an attack against the Palanquero Air Base , with the hope of using the jet planes to bomb Bogotá and force

7493-428: The caucuses of the Conservative Party and the Social Party of National Unity created a pact to maintain the majority of both parties in the Chamber of Representatives. The party was one of the most impacted by the Colombian parapolitics scandal , and it has been affected by corruption scandals that happened during the first decade of the 21st century in agencies of the government such as the Ministry of Agriculture, and

7620-612: The clergy, as well as by Conservative politicians, by 1942, many clerics became critical of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory. Jesuits outside Colombia had already questioned and published refutations of the authenticity of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , disproving the concept of a global Judeo-Masonic conspiracy. Regarding this same matter, Colombian clergy also came under the increasing influence of U.S. clergy; and Pius XI asked U.S. Jesuit John LaFarge, Jr. to draft an encyclical against anti-Semitism and racism . The belief in

7747-463: The communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC . Rojas was removed from power on 10 May 1957. Civilian rule was restored after moderate Conservatives and Liberals, with the support of dissident sectors of the military, agreed to unite under a bipartisan coalition known as the National Front and the government of Alberto Lleras Camargo and which included a system of alternating

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7874-403: The conservative candidate Mariano Ospina Pérez won the presidency because the Liberal Party presented two candidates Gabriel Turbay and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , neither of whom could gain a majority. Political violence had been on the rise during Ospina's term, and Gaitán became a victim of it during his second presidential bid. He was murdered in Bogotá on April 9, 1948. After his assassination,

8001-574: The continuation of forced disappearances in Colombia. According to the CODHES human rights NGO, forced displacement during Uribe's term affected over 2.4 million Colombian nationals by the end of 2009. A spokesperson for the organization stated: "It's true that there have been advances for some segments of society, but not for everyone, which casts into doubt the democratic component of (the government's) security policy". From 2000 to 2008, more than 130.000 Colombian nationals fled to Ecuador. According to

8128-431: The controversial Justice and Peace Law , by which the paramilitary leaders would receive reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony and declarations of their entire criminal activity: links with drug dealers , assassinations, disappearances and massacres. These declarations are to be brought before a specialized judge, in a public hearing attended by the victims. The paramilitary leaders are also forced to "repair"

8255-536: The cooperative groups". Uribe ran as an independent liberal candidate, having unofficially separated from his former party. His electoral platform centered on confronting Colombia's main guerrilla movement, the FARC . Other relevant propositions included slashing the national administration's expenses, fighting corruption and initiating a national referendum to resolve several of the country's political and economic concerns. Colombia's government under President Andres Pastrana had engaged in peace negotiations with

8382-642: The country. Jorge Zalamea, director of Critica magazine, fled to Buenos Aires ; Luis Vidales to Chile ; Antonio Garcia to La Paz , and Gerardo Molina to Paris. Since the 1920s, Conservatives had held the majority of governmental power, a position it would continue to occupy until the 2002 election of Alvaro Uribe . Even when Liberals gained control of the government in the 1930s, there was tension and even violent outbursts between peasants and landowners, as well as workers and industry owners. The number of yearly deaths from conflict, however, were far less than those estimated to have occurred during La Violencia . In

8509-413: The damage caused to the victims or their families: By disclosing the location of mass graves and by repaying each of them through economic assistance. As of 2008, these public hearings are still underway. To improve its results in the fight against guerrilla warfare, the Colombian army carried out mass executions of civilians transformed into false positives . If exactions of this kind already existed,

8636-484: The date of the meeting where the massacre was planned. In May 2009 Colombian prosecutors officially began an investigation on a series of illegal wiretapping and spying activities carried out against opposition politicians, judges, journalists and others by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS). The probe has involved several of Uribe's top aides and former high-ranking personnel within

8763-528: The department and Colombian paramilitaries were involved in a plan to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez . According to Reporters Without Borders , Colombia was demoted from 114th to 145th place between 2002 and 2010 on freedom of the press. Uribe's administration was responsible for arresting and extraditing more drug traffickers to the United States and to other countries than all other previous presidents. He has been publicly recognized as

8890-439: The department. Former DAS counterintelligence director Jorge Alberto Lagos has told investigators that information on the country's Supreme Court judges was provided to Bernardo Moreno and José Obdulio, two of Uribe's aides. Gaviria has claimed that criminals have tried to damage the government's image as part of a "political war" against the administration. El Tiempo has criticized these explanations, raising questions about

9017-494: The drafting of the necessary legal framework before making any more significant moves. In 2005, Uribe and Colombia's congressmen prepared for the elections held in May and March 2006 respectively. FARC, which had been perceived as relatively passive, began to show signs of what analysts considered renewed vigor in February. It made a series of attacks against small military units, which left at least three dozen casualties. Uribe said in

9144-422: The electorate contemplated voting for Uribe and that the Liberal Party's Horacio Serpa would probably win. But public mood shifted in his favor after the peace process with the guerrillas degenerated. The administration of President Andrés Pastrana had failed for four years to secure a cease-fire, and Uribe began to be seen as a candidate who might provide a viable security program. Former General Harold Bedoya ,

9271-490: The end of the 19th century until 2002, in bipartisan political hegemony. The two parties were in direct military conflict between 1948 and 1958, during the civil war period known as La Violencia , after which they established the " National Front ", agreeing to rotate power, intercalating for a period of four presidential terms. The election victory of independent candidate Álvaro Uribe in 2002 put an end to dominance of two party politics in Colombia . The Conservative Party

9398-661: The end of the mobs was not the end of all the violence in Colombia. One communist guerrilla movement, the Peasant Student Workers Movement , started its operations in 1959. Later, other organizations such as the FARC and the National Liberation Army emerged, marking the beginning of a guerrilla insurgency. As was common of 20th-century eliminationist political violence, the rationales for action immediately before La Violencia were founded on conspiracy theories, each of which blamed

9525-491: The existence of a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy played a prominent role in the politics of Laureano Gómez , who lead the Colombian Conservative Party from 1932 to 1953. More provincial politicians followed suit, and the fact that prominent national and local politicians voiced this conspiracy theory, rather than just a portion of the clergy, gave the idea greater credibility while it gathered momentum among

9652-443: The existence of some sort of conspiracy, a belief which was adhered to by members of both camps, made the political environment toxic, increasing the animosity and the suspicion which existed between both parties. The Conservatives were also motivated by their belief in the existence of a supposed international Judeo-Masonic conspiracy. In their view, they would prevent the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy from coming to fruition by eliminating

9779-551: The first major offensive of the Conservative army, the Liberal forces took major losses and confidence in Velásquez was lost. New populist leaders took control of the different groups of rebels and eventually came together to impose a 10% tax on wealthy landowners in the region. This tax created divisions from the wealthy Liberals and the Conservative government used them to recruit counter guerrillas. The Conservative army then increased its offensive attacks; committing atrocities along

9906-416: The first months of that war when anarchists , left-wing socialists and independent communists burned churches and murdered nearly 7,000 priests, monks, and nuns, and the conservatives used this to justify their own mass killings of Jews, Masons, and socialists. Colombian Conservative Party The Conservative Party along with the Colombian Liberal Party dominated the Colombian political scene from

10033-457: The future revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara , then an unknown young man traveling through South America, briefly visited Bogotá. In a letter he wrote to his mother on July 6, 1952, later published in " The Motorcycle Diaries ", Guevara noted that "There is more repression of individual freedom here than in any country we've been to, the police patrol the streets carrying rifles and demand your papers every few minutes". He went on to describe

10160-538: The goal of raising US$ 800 million. More than $ 650 million was collected before the final payment quota was made, surpassing original expectations. Another goal was to increase defense expenditures from a current level of about 3.6% of GDP to 6% of GDP by 2006. According to official government statistical information from August 2004, in two years, homicides, kidnappings, and terrorist attacks in Colombia decreased by as much as 50% – their lowest levels in almost 20 years. In 2003, there were 7,000 fewer homicides than in 2002 –

10287-451: The government's High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo . A number of the paramilitary members who initially demobilized in Medellín apparently did not actually belong to the AUC and this caused public concern. The AUC commanders claimed, as the year ended, that they had difficulties controlling all of their personnel from their isolated position, that they had already demobilized some 20% of their forces, and that they would await for

10414-519: The governor of Antioquia , he studied at St Antony's College, Oxford , England, on a Chevening - Simón Bolívar scholarship and was appointed Senior Associate Member at St Antony's College. Uribe married Lina María Moreno Mejía in 1979. They have two sons, Tomás and Jerónimo. In 1976, at the age of 24, Uribe was Chief of Assets for the Public Utilities of Medellín ( Empresas Públicas de Medellín ). He served as Secretary General of

10541-599: The governor to ask for his resignation because he claimed that Uribe had links to the Medellín Cartel. In 1993, he attended Harvard University , receiving a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard Extension School and a Certificate in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Harvard Law School . Between 1998 and 1999, after having completed his term in office as

10668-541: The helicopter's hours and missions had been strictly logged, making it impossible for it to have participated in any massacre. Uribe said that he supported the CONVIVIR groups but was not solely responsible for their creation, adding that other civilian and military authorities also participated in their oversight. He also said that he dismantled some CONVIVIR groups when doubts began to surround their activities. On 22 April 2008, former senator Mario Uribe Escobar , one of

10795-591: The largest guerrilla group, the FARC, but after four years of peace negotiations without cease-fires, disapproval of Colombia's main parties grew. Violence was rampant. The FARC claimed they had taken control of some 100 municipalities of Colombia out of 1093 at that moment. Kidnappings were common and were among the highest in the world, as well as the assassination and crime rate. The AUC was also gaining influence, and expanding its massacres and illicit drugs production, competing with FARC, ELN and other narco-traffickers. Until at least 2001, polls showed that at most 2% of

10922-421: The leader of the most radical faction of the Conservative Party, while Ospina formed a moderate faction friendly to the less extremist members of the Liberal Party. In 1953 a coup d'état against Gómez was led by the conservative General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla . Rojas was close to Mariano Ospina Pérez and his faction of the Conservative Party, as well as to some moderate liberals. Rojas began his government with

11049-493: The military, their members were accused of abusing civilians and operated without serious oversight. In 1998, Human Rights Watch stated: "we have received credible information that indicated that the CONVIVIR groups of the Magdalena Medio and of the southern Cesar regions were directed by known paramilitaries and had threatened to assassinate Colombians who were considered as guerrilla sympathizers or who refused to join

11176-560: The need for a reform of the 1991 constitution in order to correct some of its flaws to promote the modernization of the state, to fight unemployment, poverty, and lack of security and to extend and defend property rights. The Colombian Conservative Party is usually the second largest single party in the Colombian Congress, though far behind the numbers corresponding to the Colombian Liberal Party or those of multiple independent factions and candidates. From 1958 to 1978 it, and

11303-421: The negotiating table with a more flexible position, even if this would only happen after his term in office expired. Early in his government, he was quoted as saying that Colombia's main concerns were the challenges of terrorism and the narcotics trade. In a dialog with BBC 's Talking Point , Uribe stated: "Of course we need to eliminate social injustice in Colombia but what is first? Peace. Without peace, there

11430-472: The other major party, the Colombian Liberal Party , shared power as the result of the National Front agreement that followed the fall of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla . The Colombian Conservative Party has become a close political ally of President Álvaro Uribe , who was formerly a member of the opposing Liberal party. The party did not present its own candidate for the 2006 presidential elections, and instead supported President Uribe's reelection. In 2010,

11557-436: The other side as traitors beholden to international cabals . The left were painted as participants in a global Judeo-Masonic conspiracy against Christianity, and the right were painted as agents of a Nazi - Falangist plot against democracy and progress. After the death of Gaitán, a conspiracy theory which was circulated by the left , that leading conservatives , militant priests, Nazis and Falangists were involved in

11684-567: The pact, and presented him as presidential candidate in 1958 and 1962. Conservatives Belisario Betancur and Evaristo Sourdis were candidates for the 1970 election, losing against Pastrana. During the National Front the ideological differences between the parties started to disappear; however, the parties themselves survived because most of their members came from traditional families and political clans. Both parties were taken over by regional political lords, while traditional factions of

11811-497: The party held for the first time, primary elections to choose a candidate for presidency. Noemí Sanín was nominated presidential candidate of the Conservative Party, the first woman to do so. In legislative elections of 2006 the party won 29 out of 166 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 18 out of 100 seats in the Senate. In 2010, the party won 23 seats in Senate and 37 in the chamber of Representatives. Alvaro Uribe Álvaro Uribe Vélez CYC (born 4 July 1952)

11938-586: The party's members. The atrocities that were committed at the outset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 were seen by both sides as a possible precedent for Colombia, causing both sides to fear that it could also happen in their country; this belief also spurred the credibility of the conspiracies and it also served as a rationale for violence. Anticlerical violence in the Republican zones in Spain in

12065-468: The peace agreements, claiming that signing an armistice agreement would allow the former guerrilla group to go unpunished. Despite attempts from President Santos to be inclusive and allow input from the opposition in the final agreement, the party's anti-peace stance did not permit them to collaborate. The party's primary focus was on the 2018 presidential election, in which former President Uribe 's appointed candidate Iván Duque Márquez advocated reversing

12192-416: The peace process. In 2017, for the former Conservative president Andrés Pastrana , one of the Conservative Party's few remaining major figures, claimed that the party is "absolutely corrupt". He also called two of the most important Conservative leaders "corrupt": Senate speaker Efraín Cepeda, and senator Hernán Andrade. Commentators believe his complaints are aimed at running independently in coalition with

12319-458: The period known as La Violencia began, in which popular unrest in cities caused uprisings like the Bogotazo riots. In the rural areas, members of the Liberal Party formed peasant guerrilla forces, which were then targeted by conservative and paramilitary forces. The Liberal Party boycotted the presidential election of 1950, which was won by the radical conservative Laureano Gómez . Gómez became

12446-620: The phenomenon became widespread from 2002, encouraged by the bonuses paid to the soldiers and by quasi-absolute impunity. In 2010 a mass grave containing 2,000 corpses was discovered near a military base in the department of Meta . This is the largest mass grave discovered to date in South America . In 2008, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the United Nation's Human Rights Council criticised

12573-500: The population at the time was Catholic . During the conflict there were press reports that Catholic Church authorities supported the Conservative Party. Several priests were accused of openly encouraging the murder of the political opposition during Catholic mass , including the Santa Rosa de Osos Bishop Miguel Ángel Builes , although this is unproven. No formal charges were ever presented and no official statements were made by

12700-450: The possible participation of a helicopter belonging to the former Antioquia Governor's administration during a paramilitary massacre. Two days later, Uribe publicly revealed that former US Vice President Al Gore had canceled his participation in a pro-environment event Uribe was to attend in Miami due to the continuing allegations against him. The Colombian President reacted by organizing

12827-907: The president and power-sharing both in cabinets and public offices. In 1958, Lleras Camargo ordered the creation of the Commission for the Investigation of the Causes of "La Violencia". The commission was headed by the Bishop Germán Guzmán Campos . The last bandolero leaders were killed in combat against the army. Jacinto Cruz Usma, alias Sangrenegra (Blackblood), died in April 1964 and Efraín Gonzáles in June 1965. Due to incomplete or non-existent statistical records, exact measurement of La Violencia' s humanitarian consequences

12954-468: The previous round of voting. Some of Uribe's opponents made accusations during his campaign, especially in a speech by Horacio Serpa and a book published by Newsweek's Joseph Contreras , who interviewed Uribe that year. Claims centered on Uribe's alleged past personal relationships with members of the Medellín Cartel and the sympathy that some paramilitary spokesmen expressed towards Uribe as

13081-558: The resignation of the Conservative dictatorship. The attack relied entirely on surprise to be successful, but the rebels were spotted by the sentry posts and were quickly hit with machine gun fire. The attempt was a failure, however it did incite fear into Bogotá elites. Most of the armed groups (called guerrillas liberales, a pejorative term) were demobilized during the amnesty declared by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla after he took power on 13 June 1953. The most prominent Guerrilla leaders, Guadalupe Salcedo and Juan de la Cruz Varela, signed

13208-523: The ruling party, the Democratic Center, and receiving favors. The party's current program includes several objectives: to continue the search for peace in Colombia (following the examples of former presidents Guillermo León Valencia , Belisario Betancur and Andrés Pastrana , as members of the party), to preserve national unity and the continuing belief in God held by the majority of Colombians,

13335-404: The source of this era of unrest, they have yet to formulate a widely accepted explanation for why it escalated to the notable level it did. As a result of La Violencia , landowners were allowed to create private armies for their security, which was formally legalized in 1965. Holding private armies was made illegal in 1989, only to be made legal once more in 1994. The death of the bandoleros and

13462-474: The state and ending the federal system, replacing it with a centralist system administered from the capital, Bogotá. He was the Liberal candidate for the presidency in 1880 and won the election, despite many leaders of his own party opposing him. Núñez was re-elected in 1884 with the support of the Conservative Party, and began the process known as the Regeneration ( Spanish : La Regeneración ), in which

13589-455: The state's responsibility for social security. During his later term, he received official and unofficial awards as one of the "best senators" (1990, 1992 and 1993) and as the senator with the "best legislative initiatives" (1992). He was elected governor of the department of Antioquia for the 1995 to 1997 term. During his term, Uribe developed what he described as a model for a communitarian state, where in theory, citizens would participate in

13716-407: The street behind a truck, despite the fact that the militants had previously searched the church grounds and found no weapons. Despite the circulation of the conspiracy theories and the propaganda after Gaitán was killed, most of the leftists who were involved in the rioting on 9 April learned from their errors, and as a result, they stopped believing that priests had harbored weapons. The belief in

13843-543: The subject of earlier controversies during the Uribe administration. According to Revista Semana , revelations about the infiltration of paramilitaries affected the entity under former DAS chief Jorge Noguera in 2007 and further accusations have continued to surface. The magazine reported that information gathered by the DAS has been allegedly forwarded to paramilitaries, narcotraffickers and guerrillas. Previously, former DAS computer systems chief Rafael García had claimed that

13970-520: The support of prominent politicians of both parties, yet he decided to make his own political party in 1955, the Popular Action Movement . Rojas censored and closed important newspapers and began seeking re-election. Fearing a possible dictatorship, members of the Conservative and Liberal parties created an alliance called the National Front ( Spanish : Frente Nacional ) that prevented Rojas from being re-elected. The National Front

14097-498: The three main armed groups in Colombia, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), National Liberation Army (ELN), and FARC . And by the end of his first term in office the AUC had other right-wing militias agree to disarm and go to jail under special sentences of seven years. Uribe stated that the government had to first show military superiority in order to eventually make the guerrillas return to

14224-562: The time) or owner of estates valued over $ 1500 Pesos could vote. Following the events of the Regeneration, the Conservative Party remained in power in Colombia until 1930. During this period the country lost Panama to the United States . The overt partisanship and the use of the state power exacerbated old tensions, which would ultimately lead from small scale conflicts like the war of 1895 to historical periods such as "La Violence". Two notable violent episodes occurred in this period:

14351-423: The way, they burned entire villages, slaughtered animals, and massacred suspected rebels, as well as set up a blockade of the region. The rebels were able to combat the offensive with small, covert, attacks to capture outposts and supplies. By June 1951, the government agreed to a truce with the guerrilla forces and they temporarily lifted the blockade. A few months after the truce, larger army units were sent to

14478-400: Was a former Liberal who ran as independent against the official liberal candidate Horacio Serpa . Restrepo was close to the government of Andres Pastrana and was criticized by members of his party who supported different candidates like Uribe and Noemí Sanín . In 2006, the Conservative Party supported Uribe's re-election and became the second largest party of his congressional coalition, after

14605-480: Was a pact in which for sixteen years, Conservatives and Liberals would share power locally and nationally, and govern the country by taking turns in the presidency. The Conservative Party would not present a candidate for the 1958 and 1966 presidential elections, and the Liberals would support the Conservative candidate in 1962 ( Guillermo León Valencia ) and 1970 ( Misael Pastrana ). During this historical period conservative dissidents led by Jorge Leyva Urdaneta opposed

14732-614: Was a senator between 1986 and 1994 and finally the Governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997 before being elected President of Colombia in 2002. Following his 2002 election, Uribe led an all-out military offensive against leftist guerrilla groups such as the FARC and the ELN with funding and backing from the Clinton and Bush administrations in the form of a $ 2.8 billion USD direct foreign aid package called " Plan Colombia ". He also led

14859-426: Was also one of the founders of the anti-kidnapping NGO Fundación País Libre , created shortly after his own experience as a hostage of drug lord Pablo Escobar . Observers considered the elections mostly free of foul play at the national level, but there were instances of active intimidation of voters and candidates, by the actions of guerrilla and paramilitary groups. 47% of the potential electorate voted, down from

14986-615: Was among those summoned for questioning. In November, the former ambassador to Chile , Salvador Arana, was charged with the murder of a mayor in a small town in the Department of Sucre. The Supreme Court sentenced Arana to 40 years in prison in December 2009. In April 2007, Senator Gustavo Petro made several accusations against Uribe during a televised congressional debate about paramilitarism in Antioquia. Petro said that some of

15113-547: Was approved by Congress on 11 December 2003 but was struck down in August 2004 by the Colombian Constitutional Court during its review. The statute granted the military judicial police rights and allowed limited arrests and communication intercepts without warrants. It was struck down due to an error in the approval procedure, an objection the court has also presented towards other bills. After some of

15240-693: Was born in Medellín, the oldest of five children. His father, Alberto Uribe, was a landowner. When he was 10, his family left their Salgar ranch and moved to Medellín. He graduated in 1970 from the Instituto Jorge Robledo, after being expelled from the Medellín Benedictine School for arguing with the Benedictine monks . Uribe studied law at the University of Antioquia and graduated in 1977. His father, who

15367-510: Was close to the Medellín Cartel and a paramilitary militia, was killed by a guerrilla group during a 1983 kidnapping attempt. After his father's death, Uribe focused on his political career and became a member of the Colombian Liberal Party . Uribe was appointed mayor of Medellín by Antioquia governor Álvaro Villegas in 1982, although he only held the post for five months as he resigned for reasons that remain controversial. According to Villegas, then President Belisario Betancur pressured

15494-677: Was critical of his successor Juan Manuel Santos 's peace talks with the FARC guerrillas. In August 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ordered his arrest as part of an investigation into bribery and witness tampering . He was released from house arrest on 10 October. The case went to the Fiscalía General de la Nación , after which Uribe resigned from his Senate seat. A number of his political opponents have claimed for years that Uribe should be prosecuted, alleging he has ties with paramilitarism . Álvaro Uribe

15621-508: Was elected president of Colombia in 1837. During his government, tensions between civil politicians and generals grew into the first civil war in Colombia. Marquez's supporters in the conflict were called the " Liberales ministeriales ". After the war, known as the War of the Supremes ( Spanish : Guerra de los Supremos ), General Pedro Alcántara Herrán won the presidency. Alcántara created

15748-491: Was elected one of Antioquia's senators from 1986 to 1990, and again from 1990 to 1994. As senator, he served as president of the Seventh Commission and he supported laws dealing with reform of pensions, labor and social security , as well as promotion of administrative careers, cooperative banking , brown sugar, and protection for women. Some of the legislation later drew criticism, in particular some which reduced

15875-581: Was elected president of Colombia, but it was a largely manipulated election, leading Gómez to become the new Conservative dictator. After Alfredo Silva's disappearance, Velásquez assumed power of the forces in the Eastern Plains that, by April 1950, included seven rebel zones with hundreds of guerrillas known as the "cowboys". While in command of the forces, Velásquez suffered from a superiority complex , leading him to commit abuses including body mutilation of those killed. Without sufficient arms, during

16002-513: Was elected president. After that, the party was in opposition until 1998, when Andrés Pastrana was chosen to be the president. The party used the name Social Conservative Party ( Spanish : Partido Social Conservador ) between 1990 and 1992. During this period many new parties were formed, including some movements that seceded from the Conservative Party. Among them were the National Salvation Movement (mentioned above),

16129-464: Was proof of his innocence. The Colombian newsweekly Revista Semana reported that the paramilitary in question, Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, had not mentioned Uribe during previous declarations made more than five years ago, when he was sentenced for his own role in the massacre. The magazine also listed a number of possible inconsistencies in his most recent testimony, including the alleged presence of General Manosalva, who had died months before

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