Carlos Gaviria Díaz

Carlos Gaviria Díaz ( born May 8, 1937 in Sopetrán, Antioquia ) is a Colombian lawyer, former Magistrate of the Constitutional Court, as well as an active politician.

May 28, 2006 Gaviria scored with 2,600,000 votes (ie 22.04 %), the largest to date election results for a left -wing party in Colombia. On 1 August 2006 Gaviria of the party Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA) was elected chairman. He now intends to make during the second term of President Álvaro Uribe as the leading opposition force his party.

Education

Gaviria has a doctorate in law and political science from the University of Antioquia and attended lectures at Harvard University as a special student in the areas of legal philosophy, constitutional law and political theory. He was dean and professor at the University of Antioquia. One of his former students is his today's political opponent, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

Political career

During the 1990s, he became president of Colombia's Constitutional Court. In 2002 he was elected Senator and represented the leftist Frente Social y Politico political formation, after he had achieved in the elections, the fifth-highest result.

He ran for the presidency of Colombia for the term 2006 to 2010 as a candidate of the party Polo Democrático Alternativo after he had won the nomination block against Antonio Navarro Wolff.

Polls towards the end of April 2006 showed Gaviria in second place behind the current President Álvaro Uribe, ie before Horacio Serpa Uribe from the Liberals, who ran for the third time in a row. Gaviria lost against President Uribe during the elections in May 2006 with a margin of 62 % to 22%.

Political concerns

One of his main political goal is to change the socio - economic model of Colombia, which in his opinion, some of the worst features of capitalism aufzeige, both at the global and at the local level. In this way, Gaviria has the right to reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Gaviria and many of his supporters argue that this gap had increased in the last decade and is still growing on information, particularly through the economical demands of President Álvaro Uribe's current government. Gaviria contradicts measures that aim to make local and foreign investment at the expense of the working class more attractive, while also increasing indirect taxes for the poor and the income taxes for the wealthy be reduced.

Gaviria is also a strong supporter of Colombia's Constitution of 1991, in principle at least, believes, however, that it was necessary to fully implement the chapter on human, ethnic and political rights, but at the same time restore partial control, of which he says, that they should have on the economy and society, the state or the government.