Background
Alberto Lleras Camargo was born in Bogota on 3 July 1906.
government official journalist politician president
Alberto Lleras Camargo was born in Bogota on 3 July 1906.
Educated at the prestigious Colegio del Rosario and the Externado de Derecho.
He became a journalist for the leading Liberal daily El Tiempo. He was a member of the Directorate of the Liberal party during the administration of Enrique Olaya Herrera in the early 1930s. When Liberal reformer Alfonso López Pumarejo assumed the presidency in 1934, Lleras was appointed secretary to the presidency and later minister of government.
Lleras was again named minister of government during López’ second term. The administration came under increasing attack from Conservatives and dissident Liberals, and faced growing social unrest due to deteriorating economic conditions. Lleras became interim president in 1945, following López' resignation, and made possible orderly transfer of power to Mariano Ospina Pérez, the Conservative victor in the 1946 election.
Lleras represented Colombia abroad and served as secretary general of the Organization of American States in Washington from 1948 to 1954. When the military toppled the dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in 1957, he served as Liberal negotiator with exiled Conservative leader Laureano Gómez in discussions that led to creation of the bipartisan National Front. As the only candidate acceptable to the majority leadership in both parties. Lleras was elected president in 1958 of the first National Front government.
In 1959 he ended a ten-year state of siege in most of Colombia.
After leaving the presidency in 1962, Lleras continued as a respected elder statesman and sometime adviser to the National Front governments. He resided for years in the United States, where he directed the continental magazine Visión.
During the López government, Lleras took a leading role in designing legislation and in organizing the Confederación de Trabajadores Colombianos (CTC), the leading trade union confederation. López made him the chief spokesman and propagandist for the “Revolution on the March.” He founded the newspaper El Liberal in 1939.
When Lleras became a President, his administration started a program of civil action in reducing the level of violence. Agrarian reform legislation was passed, and the Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform was established. The National Planning Office was revitalized, and a ten-year economic and social development plan was drawn up in accordance with the Alliance for Progress. Politically, Lleras adhered to the bipartisanship of the National Front, encouraged democratic processes, and allowed the former dictator Rojas to return home.
