He Bogotazo Occurred on April 9, 1948, after Orge Eliécer Gaitán, Liberal leader and Colombian presidential candidate, was murdered near his own office of work.
This episode resulted in the lynching of the alleged murderer of Gaitán, a young man of 20 years named Juan Roa Sierra, at the hands of the followers of the politician, who were mostly of the working class. In the heat of the facts, these people armed themselves with guns, machetes, tubes and axes.
In their fury, they attacked offices and police stations, as well as looting shops. The violence and destruction was such that the parties in dispute for power agreed that they should stop the mutiny.
And although they tried, the success was nil, so they decided to let the spirits calm down spontaneously. In fact, the riots ended the following morning.
Although it lasted for only one night in Bogotá, the death toll of this event was 3000 dead, while the material damages included devastated streets and churches, schools and government buildings totally destroyed. In addition, it gave rise to disturbances in other Colombian locations in which there were also damages and deaths.
However, the apparent spontaneity of this fact was not such and its causes have roots back in time, as their consequences seem to suffer even in Colombian society.
Causes of bogotazo
Although there is no open consensus on this, social and political exclusion has played a significant role in the conflicts that the country has experienced, including the bogotazo. For example, l Colombian political life has been dominated by two forces since the first half of the nineteenth century: the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.
The Conservative Party is made up of the wealthy and landowning class, very close to the Catholic Church, favors a centralized and hierarchical state.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party is made up of the mercantile class and favors a decentralized state, international trade and agricultural development of Colombia as well as the separation of Church and State.
Although they have been in power for many years, it is known that they do not represent the interest of the masses of Colombian society and there lies the argument that the political exclusion that has generated this situation has contributed to the Colombian conflict.
The Liberal Party dominated power between 1850 and 1875, and conservatives came to it in the mid-1880s.
Just under the administration of a conservative, Rafael Nunez, a new constitution was drafted in 1886, which institutionalized many of his party's values, leaving liberals and other political tendencies out of the game for the next 44 years.
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
The mood of war increased during this time because in practice there were two types of exclusion:
- That of the masses.
- That of the political opposition.
This exclusion was questioned in the late 1940s by the liberal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , Who promoted agrarian reform and social inclusion, both themes evaded by the dominant parties, but yearned for by the masses in Colombia who saw in Gaitán a defender, a savior.
Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, had become a populist leader within the liberal party that advocated for the Ospina government to meet the social needs of the nation, adopting social liberal policies.
In his demands, and with his charisma, Gaitan appealed to the masses and united urban workers and peasants. The number of supporters increased and everything seemed to indicate that he would win the next presidential election.
On April 9, when the community learned of his death, he reacted violently to the bogotazo, an outbreak of hatred between the working class and the oligarchy, which had been feeding since the War of the Thousand Days of 1899-1902, and In the governments that followed that date.
With the death of Gaitán, also the hopes of some change in the ways of managing the power in Colombia died and the bloodiest time that has lived that country and that is known like"the violence"was born.
Consequences
Violence was characterized by partisan political rivalry and rural banditry that took place between 1948 and 1958. Violent acts occurred throughout most of the country, especially in the Andes and the Llanos.
While this was happening, the Mariano Ospina Became more repressive; Banned public meetings, dismissed all liberal governors, and closed Congress.
Eventually all the liberals, from the ministerial level to the local, resigned their positions in protest and did not present their candidate for the presidential elections of 1949. As a result, Laureano Gomez was the only conservative candidate.
This government reduced civil liberties, decree pro-labor laws, abolished trade unions, censored the press and controlled the courts.
At the height of"violence", under Gomez's mandate, up to 1,000 deaths per month were counted.
This fact and the overwhelming repression were subtracted support to him Gómez, that in 1951 left to Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, like interim president while recovering of some health problems.
Before retiring in 1953, a coalition called the National Front and formed by moderate conservatives, the Liberal Party and the armed forces, gave a coup d'etat, giving Gustavo Rojas Pinilla the presidency.
It took them 5 years to control the"violence"that ended in 1958, after having claimed 200,000 lives and caused the exodus of thousands of people and fear in those who remained.
Although this Front ended the massacres, it also limited the formal aspects of Colombian democracy, generating the conditions for the emergence of armed groups that defied the authority of an elite government such as the Colombian guerrilla movements: the FARC and the ELN in 1964, and M-19 in 1970.
The current process of negotiations for a definitive peace in Colombia is the latest stage in this chain of events.
References
- Declassified file of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Bogotazo. Retrieved from: cia.gov.
- Gillin, Joel (2015). Understand the causes of Colombia's conflict: political exclusion. Retrieved from: colombiareports.com.
- Violence in Latin American Studies (s / f). Retrieved from: latinamericanstudies.org.
- Minster, Christopher (2017). The Bogotazo: April 9, 1948. Retrieved from: thoughtco.com.