Background
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was born on 12 March 1900 in Tunja, Boyacá.
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was born on 12 March 1900 in Tunja, Boyacá.
He was educated at the Colombian military academy, where he received his commission in 1920. He also studied in the United States.
Rojas served in various posts throughout the country. In 1950 he was named head of the armed forces during a period of intense rural violence. In 1953 leading Liberal and moderate Conservative politicians urged the military to act against the rightist Conservative president, Laureano Gómez. In June, the military ousted Gómez and installed Rojas for a four-year term as president.
In 1970, Rojas came close to regaining power, when he lost to the Conservative Misael Pastrana Borrero by less than 60,000 votes. Rojas charged that he was defrauded in the official count, which was a possibility. Failing health forced him to take a less active role in ANAPO. That, combined with restoration of political competition following the end of the National Front, resulted in AN- APO’s poor showing in the 1974 election.