Alberto Lleras Camargo

Alberto Lleras Camargo

Alberto Lleras Camargo (born July 3, 1906 in Bogotá ; † January 4, 1990 ibid) was a Colombian politician of the Partido Liberal Colombiano and two-time President of Colombia and General Secretary of the Organization of American States .

biography

Alberto Lleras Camargo was born into one of the most influential families in Colombia. After completing school at the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, one of the most renowned schools in his hometown, he first studied law from 1925, but soon gave up this degree in favor of a career as a journalist. From 1926 to 1929 he lived as editor of the newspaper La Nación in Buenos Aires. After returning to Bogotá in 1929, he became editor-in-chief of El Tiempo . At the same time he got into politics, joined the Partido Liberal, became its general secretary in 1930 and soon became one of its leading politicians. In 1931 he was elected to the House of Representatives ( Cámara de Representantes ) and immediately elected its spokesman (until 1933).

In October 1935, President Alfonso López Pumarejo appointed him Minister of the Interior in his cabinet, to which he was a member until the end of López Pumarejo's tenure in 1938. In the meantime he was Minister for National Education from January to February 1937. After a brief activity as ambassador to the United States from April 1943, President López Pomarejo reappointed him as Minister of the Interior in the government in October 1943. After a government reshuffle, he became foreign minister in February 1945.

After López Pumarejo's resignation, he succeeded him as President of Colombia on August 7, 1945 and held this office until the end of his regular term on August 7, 1946. Between April 1948 and August 1954 he was the first general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS ).

In 1957 he was instrumental in founding a coalition between the Liberal Party and the conservative Partido Conservador , which ended a longstanding, sometimes violent struggle between the two parties and was directed in particular against the dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla . This system, known as the Frente Nacional , ultimately resulted in the two parties alternating between 1958 and 1974 for a four-year term.

Lleras Camargo was then between August 7, 1958 and August 7, 1962, the first President of Colombia on the basis of this agreement. During his presidency he began legislating for land reform and implemented a ten-year plan for the country's social and economic development. To promote economic cooperation in the region, he was involved in the establishment of the Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC) in 1961, which provided for the dismantling of import tariffs.

In 1966, Lleras Camargo was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The Alberto Lleras Dam , completed in 1989, was named in his honor.

Lleras Camargo married Berta Puga Martínez in 1931, a daughter of the Chilean general Arturo Puga , who in June 1932 headed a briefly ruling military junta in Chile . Carlos Lleras Restrepo , President of Colombia from 1966 to 1970, was his cousin.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Alberto Lleras Camargo ( memento of October 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Colombian Presidency, accessed on November 20, 2013.
2. ↑ Hans-Joachim König: Small history of Colombia . CH Beck. Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-406-56804-6 . P. 133.

Web links

• Detailed biographical notes in the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (Spanish)
• rulers.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfonso López Pumarejo	President of Colombia 1945–1946	Mariano Ospina Pérez
Gabriel París Gordillo	President of Colombia 1958–1962	Guillermo León Valencia