Álvaro Gómez Hurtado was a Colombian lawyer, politician, journalist and active member of the Colombian Conservative Party.
Background
Gómez was a son of the former President of Colombia, Laureano Gómez. Álvaro Gómez was born as the second of four children to Laureano Gómez, a newspaper publisher who later became president of Colombia. His mother was María Hurtado Cajiao.
The family grew up in Louisiana Candelaria, a traditional neighborhood of Bogotá.
Education
The children attended private schools in Brussels, Belgium and Buenos Aires, Argentina while their father served as a diplomat. He studied law at the Pontifical Xavierian University and graduated as a lawyer in 1941.
Career
He is mostly remembered for being one of the writers of the Colombian Constitution of 1991 and for running three times for the presidency, but without success. He served separate appointments as ambassador to Italy, the United States and France, beginning in the 1980s. After his family"s return to Bogotá, Gómez went to the Colegio de San Bartolomé, a preparatory school, graduating in 1936.
He began writing for the newspaper El Siglo, which was owned by his father.
He later founded a weekly business magazine called Síntesis Económica (Economic Synthesis) and created and produced a television news show called Noticiero 24 Horas ("24 Hours News"). Gómez Hurtado"s first political office was as elected councilman for the city of Bogotá.
He next ran for the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia and was elected for a four-year term. After finishing his term, he was elected to the Senate.
Gómez was appointed as a "plenipotentiary minister" several times.
He was also appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations, Switzerland, Italy, the United States and France. Presidential candidacies Gómez founded the National Salvation Movement. He ran (unsuccessfully) as its candidate for president three times: in 1974 against Alfonso López Michelsen, in 1986 against Virgilio Barco and in 1990 against César Gaviria.
President of the Constituent Assembly He was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which created the new Colombian Constitution of 1991.
He was elected as co-president of the Constituent Assembly along with Horacio Serpa and Antonio Navarro. After the Constitution had been written and ratified, Gómez left politics and focused on journalism and academia.
In 1988, Gómez was kidnapped by the M-19 guerrillas, then led by Antonio Navarro. Navarro released him after the intervention of Álvaro Leyva.
Álvaro Gómez was murdered by gunmen on November 2, 1995 in Bogotá while leaving the Sergio Arboleda University, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Views
His thesis was entitled Influencias del Estoicismo en el Derecho Romano ("The Influence of Stoicism in Roman Law").