Jorge Eliécer Gaitán

Bust of Gaitán in Medellín

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (born January 23, 1903 in Cucunubá Cundinamarca, † April 9, 1948 in Bogotá ) was a Colombian politician and lawyer. His assassination plunged Colombia into the deepest crisis in its history. The partial destruction of the capital Bogotá by supporters of Gaitán, the so-called bogotazo , was followed by a civil war, the so-called Violencia , which lasted until 1958 .

Ascent

Before the middle-class Gaitán entered the political scene, he could already look back on a career as an academic and lawyer. After studying law and political science at the National University in Bogotá, he received his doctorate in law from 1926 to 1928 at the Sapienza in Rome. He then taught in Bogotá as a law professor at the national university and at the Universidad Libre .

He then became known as a congressman of the Liberal Party, who was particularly committed to a fairer distribution of land. As Mayor of Bogotá (1936), Minister of Culture (1940–1942) and Minister of Labor (1943/44) he was responsible for a series of important social reforms. Of particular importance during this period was his large-scale literacy campaign.

Gaitán's anti- oligarchical discourse, which was enriched with both nationalist and socialist elements, increasingly aroused the resentment of the leadership of the Liberal Party. So it came about that the party leadership for the presidential elections of 1946 put up the rather moderate and loyal candidate Gabriel Turbay. The Gaitán, more popular with the masses, opposed this decision by positioning himself as an opponent. It was only because of the resulting fragmentation of the liberals that the conservatives came to power after more than 16 years.

Due to his immense popularity with the people, Gaitán managed to unite the Liberal Party under his leadership. In the 1947 congressional elections, his supporters gained a majority in both chambers, and on October 24 the Liberals finally proclaimed him “sole chairman” ( jefe único ). For the presidential elections of 1950 he was therefore considered the most promising candidate.

ideology

The main axis of his political discourse was the Manichean distinction between the “political” and the “national country” ( país político / país nacional ). According to him, "political" Colombia was caught in the stranglehold of oligarchic particular interests and was on the verge of perishing in the internal disputes of the corrupt power elites. The “national” Colombia, on the other hand, that is, the mass of ordinary citizens, has been neglected by the oligarchy. It is therefore the task of politics to create a balance between the classes and to improve the socio-economic conditions of the common people.

In historiography, however, there is disagreement about the true political intentions of Gaitán. In particular, his idea of ​​the “national land” has been criticized recently. Various sources indicate that he was secretly opposed to the “uncivilized” masses. On the other hand, Gaitán was elevated to the status of a mythical “man of the people” who represented both liberal and conservative virtues.

assassination

Since the lower classes did not experience any improvement in their material living conditions despite the beginning of an economic boom towards the end of the 1940s and were also excluded from the political process, Gaitán's discourse became more socially explosive. In 1948 there was already a general climate of unrest. In some parts of the country, public order had collapsed since 1946.

Gaitán took advantage of this explosive situation and called for massive protest marches against the government. Some of these gatherings, such as the “March of Silence” or the “March of the Torches”, have been remembered by the people of Bogotá to this day. In January 1948, he finally presented the public with an indictment in which he denounced state repression and the particular guilt of certain ministers.

At noon on April 9, 1948, as he had just left his law firm in central Bogotá, Gaitán was shot at by the mentally confused Juan Roa Sierra. Immediately a crowd rushed to the assassin and lynched him. Then the news of Gaitán's death spread like wildfire through the city. In no time the supporters of the liberal leader rallied to let their anger run free. Since Gaitán's assassin could no longer reveal his motives, the background to the murder remains unclear to this day.

Bogotazo

For most of Gaitán's supporters, there was no doubt that the Conservatives were responsible for the murder of their leader. For this reason, the presidential palace, in which the conservative ruler Mariano Ospina Pérez had holed up with his family, became the primary target of the Gaitanistas on April 9, 1948 . While some supporters of the murdered man fought street battles with the police, others destroyed buildings they believed to be symbols of the conservatives or the oligarchy. More and more the situation degenerated into a struggle of all against all.

Numerous soldiers and police officers soon switched to the Liberal side. For this reason, government - loyal “special police officers ” from the province of Boyacá , the so-called chulavitas , were ordered to Bogotá. The initial shootings escalated into uncontrolled bloodshed as the day wore on. Looting, murder and manslaughter occurred throughout the center of Bogotá, which went up almost completely in flames. It is estimated that the bogotazo cost more than 3,000 lives. During the ensuing civil war between liberals and conservatives, known as the Violencia , more than 200,000 people lost their lives.

Culture

• In Bogotá, the city theater, the Teatro Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, is named after him.
• The Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez used the murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán as the starting point for his novel La forma de las ruinas (English title: The shape of the ruins ) , published in 2015 .

proof

1. ^ John Green: Colombian Popular Movements and Mass Mobilizations. In: Werner Altmann u. a. (Ed.): Colombia Today. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-89354-562-X , pp. 188-191.
2. ↑ Daniel Pécaut: Violencia y Política en Colombia. Elementos de reflexión. Hombre Nuevo, Medellín 2003, ISBN 958-97321-1-9 , p. 126.
3. ^ David Bushnell : Colombia, una nación a pesar de sí misma. De los tiempos precolombinos a nuestros días. Planeta, Bogotá 2005, ISBN 958-42-0749-0 , p. 278.
4. ^ Marco Palacios: Entre la legitimidad y la violencia. Colombia, 1875-1994. 2a edición corregida y aumentada. Norma, Bogotá u. a. 2003, ISBN 958-04-7155-X , pp. 198-205.

literature

• Karsten Albert: The Bogotazo. On the events of April 9, 1948 in Colombia . In: Latin America. Semester report of the Latin America Institute of the University of Rostock , vol. 25 (1990), no. 1, pp. 80–92.
• Werner Altmann u. a. (Ed.): Colombia Today. Politics, economy, culture (= Bibliotheca Ibero-Americana. Vol. 62). Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-89354-562-X .
• Herbert Braun: The Assassination of Gaitán. Public Life and Urban Violence in Colombia. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI 1985, ISBN 0-299-10360-9 .

Web links

Commons : Jorge Eliécer Gaitán  - collection of images, videos and audio files