10th Grade – Political Sciences

Third Term
1. The end of the dictatorship
a. Political parties
i. The Conservatives and the Liberals had been at war for decades; however,
they wanted to make a deal to stop war through an electoral law that
guarantee (ensure) clean and transparent voting.
ii. On July 31st, 1900, the conservatives took power with the help of Vice-
President Marroquin. Based on this act, the war continues until 1902.
1. Nevertheless, during this time, the deals between the two sides
were broken as they please.
iii. As a consequence of this war, the Panama Department decided to get
independence from Colombia (Nov 3, 1903). However, other things
contribute to independence like:
1. Deals with the United States
2. Being out of the conflict.
3. Having control of the territory.
4. Nicaragua’s channel could be even in danger.
iv. Between 1904-1910, General Rafael Reyes became president, even if the
country continued divided.
1. His effort was to get a conciliation between Conservatives and
Liberals.
a. He didn’t support the privilege of his friends and relatives.
2. He asked Congress for extraordinary power to deal with the
political parties, but those were denied.
3. In 1905, Reyes took advantage of the rumors among conservatives
and committed a coup d’état, taking the power of the congress
a. He called for a Constituent Assembly. So, the first thing he
did was to extend the presidential period until 1914.
b. He named Liberal ministers, except for war and
government.
c. He got the Conservatives as enemies.
v. The new congress made huge reforms from 1910 to 1930.
1. Changes in the electoral system – the minority should have some
part of the curules.
vi. In 1914, José Vicente Concha was elected as president (conservative).
However, Rafael Uribe Uribe (Liberal’s head)
1. Some people (workers) are against the government and Uribe
because they didn’t have more contracts. So, they decided to kill
Rafael Uribe Uribe with an ax.
vii. In 1918, Marco Fidel Suárez became president (Conservative).
1. Former director of National Library.
2. Raised in a traditional idea of Catholicism, he had that vision of
the world in the same way.
b. The Liberal Republic 1930 – 1946
i. After 1929, the government faced a difficult situation because there were
many manifestations in Bogotá against the corruption of the conservative
government.
1. Bananera massacre
2. Mundial crisis – Great depression
3. Limited exportations
c. La Violencia
i. La Violencia was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958,
fought mainly in the countryside between the Colombian Conservative
Party and the Colombian Liberal Party.
1. La Violencia is considered to have begun with the assassination on
9 April 1948 of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a Liberal Party presidential
candidate for the 1949 November election.
2. His murder provoked the Bogotazo rioting, which lasted ten hours
and resulted in around 5,000 casualties.
ii. 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 the Colombian Liberal Party and the
Colombian Communist Party on the other side.
iii. Rural town police and political leaders encouraged Conservative-
supporting peasants to seize the agricultural lands of Liberal-supporting
peasants, which provoked peasant-to-peasant violence throughout
Colombia.
d. El Bogotazo
i. El Bogotazo refers to the massive riots that followed the assassination in
Bogotá, Colombia of Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge
Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948 during the government of President
Mariano Ospina Pérez.
ii. The 10-hour riot left much of downtown Bogotá destroyed.
iii. The 1946 presidential elections brought the downfall of the liberals
allowing conservative Mariano Ospina Pérez to win the presidency.
e. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla – (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975)
i. Military (Army) and Civil Engineer
ii. Dictator who ruled as 19th President of Colombia from June 1953 to May
1957.
iii. Rojas Pinilla gained prominence as a colonel during La Violencia
iv. In 1953, he mounted a successful coup d'état against Ospina's successor as
president, Laureano Gómez Castro, imposing martial law.
v. Seeking to reduce political violence, he ruled the country as a military
dictatorship, implementing infrastructure programs and extending female
suffrage.
vi. Rojas Pinilla founded the National Popular Alliance (ANAPO) in 1961
in opposition to the National Front, the power-sharing agreement which
the Conservatives and Liberals had brokered after he had been deposed.
 vii. He contested the 1970 presidential election but was defeated by the
National Front candidate, Conservative lawyer Misael Pastrana Borrero.
1. However, Rojas Pinilla and his supporters alleged that the election
had been fraudulent and illegitimate; the results caused ANAPO
supporters to form the M-19 guerilla movement
viii. Presidency
1. Rojas enacted legislation that gave women the right to vote.
2. He introduced television and constructed several hospitals,
universities, and the National Astronomic Observatory.
3. Rojas mounted a widespread censorship campaign against the
Colombian press.
4. Rojas established a national gun permit system, making it more
difficult to obtain a gun.
ix. On May 10, 1957, the people of Colombia, dissatisfied with the
government of Rojas, launched a massive national protest demanding his
resignation. Rojas was ousted and the events of this day were called a
“coup d'état of public opinion”. A military junta of five generals
assumed control of the nation.
2. National Front
3. The Origin of Guerrillas
4. The Origin of Drug Cartels
5. The Origin of Paramilitarism
6. Treaty of peace between the Government and the Guerrillas.
7. Uribism