Colombian Conservative Party

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Colombian Conservative Party Partido Conservador Colombiano
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partidoconservador.com
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The Colombian Conservative Party (

The Conservative Party along with the Colombian Liberal Party dominated the Colombian political scene from the end of the 19th century until 2002, in bipartisan political hegemony. The two parties were in direct military conflict between 1948 and 1958, during the civil war period known as La Violencia, after which they established the "National Front", agreeing to rotate power, intercalating for a period of four presidential terms. The election victory of independent candidate Álvaro Uribe in 2002 put an end to dominance of two party politics in Colombia.^[7]

The Conservative Party is the third largest political force in the country's legislature after the Liberals and the Historic Pact for Colombia. It was part of the coalition of Juan Manuel Santos from 2010 to 2014 and supported the conservative government of Álvaro Uribe from 2002 to 2010. It currently supports the leftist government of Gustavo Petro, despite noticeable differences in ideology.^[8]

History

Origins

Lawyer José Ignacio de Márquez was elected president of Colombia in 1837. During his government, tensions between civil politicians and generals grew into the first civil war in Colombia. Marquez's supporters in the conflict were called the "Liberales ministeriales". After the war, known as the War of the Supremes (Spanish: Guerra de los Supremos), General Pedro Alcántara Herrán won the presidency. Alcántara created a new constitution, with conservative and centralist characteristics. Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, a prominent member of Alcántara's government, supported the return of the Jesuits to the country and reformed the education system.^[9]

Alcántara was succeeded in office by General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, whose supporters created the Liberal Party in 1848. One year later, Mosquera's detractors Ospina Rodríguez and José Eusebio Caro formed the Conservative Party, which grouped the ministerial liberals, most of the authorities of the Catholic Church and important landowners. In the newspaper La Civilización of October 4, 1849, Ospina and Caro published the conservative program that became the ideological platform for the new party.

Núñez was re-elected in 1884 with the support of the Conservative Party, and began the process known as the Regeneration (Spanish: La Regeneración), in which a new constitution was written. The modern Republic of Colombia was founded with a centralized and protectionist government, and an education system managed by the Catholic Church.^[12] Universal suffrage, "contradictory with the hierarchical nature of the society", was abolished in 1880. Only those over the age of 21 with a "legitimate" trade or profession as means of subsistence, literate, earning at least $500 Pesos yearly (a substantial sum at the time) or owner of estates valued over $1500 Pesos could vote.^[13]

Conservative Hegemony

Following the events of the Regeneration, the Conservative Party remained in power in Colombia until 1930. During this period the country

In 1946, after sixteen years of liberal governments, the conservative candidate Mariano Ospina Pérez won the presidency because the Liberal Party presented two candidates Gabriel Turbay and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, neither of whom could gain a majority. Political violence had been on the rise during Ospina's term, and Gaitán became a victim of it during his second presidential bid. He was murdered in Bogotá on April 9, 1948. After his assassination, the period known as La Violencia began, in which popular unrest in cities caused uprisings like the Bogotazo riots. In the rural areas, members of the Liberal Party formed peasant guerrilla forces, which were then targeted by conservative and paramilitary forces. The Liberal Party boycotted the presidential election of 1950, which was won by the radical conservative Laureano Gómez. Gómez became the leader of the most radical faction of the Conservative Party, while Ospina formed a moderate faction friendly to the less extremist members of the Liberal Party.^[12][15]

National Front

In 1953 a coup d'état against Gómez was led by the conservative General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Rojas was close to Mariano Ospina Pérez and his faction of the Conservative Party, as well as to some moderate liberals. Rojas began his government with the support of prominent politicians of both parties, yet he decided to make his own political party in 1955, the Popular Action Movement. Rojas censored and closed important newspapers and began seeking re-election.

Fearing a possible dictatorship, members of the Conservative and Liberal parties created an alliance called the

Former attorney general Alejandro Ordóñez has become one of the most visible heads of the Conservative Party, and some groups inside the party supported a possible presidential campaign for him in 2014.[26] Ordóñez is remembered for his conservative positions on moral and religious issues. However, other conservative politicians have sympathized with a reelection of Juan Manuel Santos.

Since 2014, due to disagreements with

• Constitutional order over dictatorship.
• Legality against violent methods.
• Christian morality and its civilized doctrine over immorality and the corrupt doctrine of atheism and materialism.
• Rational liberty over despotism.
• Legal equality over academic or aristocratic privileges, religious tolerance.
• Private property and its protection over socialism and communism.
• Security over arbitrariness.
• Civilization over barbarism.[32]

Current program (self-proclaimed)

The party's current program includes several objectives: to continue the search for peace in Colombia (following the examples of former presidents

]

• Belief of God being the center of the universe.
• Belief in private systems.
• Belief in fighting communism and all its ideals.
• Belief in tradition.
• Belief in free trade.
• Belief in an organized society
• Belief in defending family and life before anything.
• Belief that these are the ideals that will provide a better future for the Colombian Society.

Electoral history

La Violencia
Prelude
Murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán El Bogotazo
Political parties
Liberal Party Conservative Party Colombian Communist Party
Presidents of Colombia
Mariano Ospina Pérez Laureano Gómez Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
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The Colombian Conservative Party is usually the second largest single party in the Colombian Congress, though far behind the numbers corresponding to the Colombian Liberal Party or those of multiple independent factions and candidates.

From 1958 to 1978 it, and the other major party, the Colombian Liberal Party, shared power as the result of the National Front agreement that followed the fall of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.

The Colombian Conservative Party has become a close political ally of President Álvaro Uribe, who was formerly a member of the opposing Liberal party. The party did not present its own candidate for the 2006 presidential elections, and instead supported President Uribe's reelection.

In 2010, the party held for the first time, primary elections to choose a candidate for presidency. Noemí Sanín was nominated presidential candidate of the Conservative Party, the first woman to do so.

In legislative elections of 2006 the party won 29 out of 166 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 18 out of 100 seats in the Senate.

In 2010, the party won 23 seats in Senate and 37 in the chamber of Representatives.

References