Mariano Ospina Pérez

Mariano Ospina Pérez
President of the Republic of Colombia
In office August 7, 1946 – August 7, 1950
Preceded by	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Succeeded by	Laureano Gómez Castro
Born	November 24, 1891 Medellín, Antioquia  Colombia
Died	November 24, 1976 Bogotá, DC  Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Conservative Party

Mariano Ospina Pérez (born in Medellín, Antioquia on November 24, 1891 - died in Bogotá on April 14, 1976) was a Colombian engineer and political figure, member of the Colombian Conservative Party. He served as the president of Colombia between 1946 and 1950. He was a member of Phi Iota Alpha. His Private secretary was Mr. Antonio Salazar Herrera.

Early years

Ospina Pérez was son of Tulio Ospina Vasquez and Ana Rosa Pérez who were part of traditional Colombian political families he was grandson of former presidents of Colombia Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and nephew of Pedro Nel Ospina.

He studied in the Colegio San Ignasio in Medellín, Antioquia the city were he grew up and also studied engineering in the Escuela de Minas de Antioquia (Mining School of Antioquia) where he graduated as Mining engineer. After graduating Ospina-Perez travelled for two years in which he toured and studied in Louisiana, London and Paris. He took some courses on sugar cane production, economy, labor relations, cooperativism, mining production and railways.

Political career

Upon his return to Colombia in 1914 Ospina-Perez contacted the leadership of the Colombian Conservative Party and was appointed as City council for Medellín representing the Conservative Party. In 1915 Ospina was elected as councilman and later for a second term in 1917. This same year he was elected Deputy for Antioquia. In 1919 Ospina-Perez was appointed Railway Superintendent of Antioquia. In 1921 he ran once again for the Assembly of Antioquia resulting elected. After his father's death in this same year Ospina-Perez took over his father's job as Director of the Mining School.

In 1922, his uncle Pedro Nel Ospina was elected president and he was also elected as senator of Colombia for a four year period. In 1926 the new elected president Miguel Abadía Méndez appointed Ospina-Perez as Minister of Public Works but he only lasted eight months in office until 1927. Between 1930 and 1934 he was manager of the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia and since then he acquired the moniker of "Hombre de los Cafeteros" (the man of the coffeemakers) working for the federation for almost a decade while also working as union leader and senator.

Presidential candidate

The Conservative party was relying on candidate Laureano Gómez to become the official candidate for the presidency of Colombia. Ospina-Perez' name was suggested for the 1946 elections to take advantage of the division the opposing Colombian Liberal Party was having within its lines between Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and Gabriel Turbay. With only three weeks remaining for the main election Ospina-Perez was appointed as the official conservative party candidate for the presidency of Colombia. Ospina-Perez defeated his liberal political contenders with less than 40% of the votes due to a large abstention.

Presidency (1946-1950)

See also: Bogotazo and La Violencia

La Violencia
Prelude
Murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
El Bogotazo
Political Parties
Liberal Party
Conservative Party
Colombian Communist Party
Presidents of Colombia
Mariano Ospina Pérez
Laureano Gómez
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

During his presidency the country was facing a political struggle between the conservative political forces, the liberal political forces the development of the Colombian Communist Party in the Boyacá, Nariño, Norte de Santander and Santander Departments against the conservative government. The communist and liberals blamed president Laureano Gómez for directly interfering with the presidential election of 1946, by calling off one million eight hundred liberal votes as invalid. Ospina-Perez was dubbed by the communists as Laureano Gomez successor with the mission of perpetuating the Conservative party in power.^[1]

During his presidency on April 9, 1948 the liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was running for the presidency of Colombia for a second time, this time Gaitan had won his party's primaries and had a large support from the masses when he was assassinated in confusing circumstances by Juan Roa Sierra. The confusion and anger triggered by Gaitan's assassination provoked the Bogotazo a massive riots that extended through out the Colombian capital Bogotá and extended later to the rest of the country to generate a ten year period of violence known as La Violencia. The government forces supported by the conservative started a repression campaign against the liberals after a failed attempt to establish a government of national unity with a shared responsibility in the government. Ospina-Perez was heavily criticized by the liberals, specially in the National Congress where in 1948 the opposing party tried to impeach him, but Ospina-Perez closed congress before they achieved their goals and generated a decade of civil-military dictatorship (lasted until 1958 when the National Front was created).

Post-Presidency

See also: National Front (Colombia)

In 1949, in the middle of a generalized violence Laureano Gómez was elected as president of Colombia. Later on both conservative leaders became political enemies and created divisions in the Conservative party. Ospina-Perez fomented a moderate wing of conservatives while Laureano Gomez supported extreme conservative politics. Ospina ultimately supported the coup d'etat against Gómez that established the military dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, Ospina-Perez former Minister of Post Office and Telegraphy (Nowadays the Colombian Ministry of Communications).

Ospina-Perez later had political differences with Rojas Pinilla and retired his support for him turning this instead for the creation of the National Front. Ospina-Perez was later considered as presidential candidate for the party elections of 1962 and 1974 but was replaced by Misael Pastrana Borrero who replaced him as head of the moderate conservatives.

Personal life

He married Bertha Hernández de Ospina, one of the first women to become Senator of Colombia.

References

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