Carlos Lleras Restrepo

Carlos Lleras Restrepo ( born April 12, 1908 in Bogotá, † September 27, 1994 ) was a Colombian politician of the Partido Liberal Colombiano and 1966-1970 President of Colombia.

Biography

The son of well-known physician Federico Lleras studied post-school law at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and was after graduating in 1930 worked as a lawyer. In 1931 he was elected as an MP in the Parliament of the Department of Cundinamarca. In 1932 he was a member of the management of Bogotá. The following year he was represented in the government of the province of Cundinamarca and as a member of parliament, in which he was re-elected in 1936. In the meantime he was 1936-1937 President of the Court of Auditors ( Comptroller-General of Colombia República ). In August 1938 he was appointed by President Eduardo Santos for the first time as Minister of Finance and Public Credit ( Hacienda y Crédito Público Ministero de ) and held until March 1941 this function. During this time, in addition to a national coffee fund several organizations to improve the supply of money and credit have been created, including the Instituto de Credito Territorial (ICT), Instituto de Fomento Municipal, and the Instituto de Fomento Industrial ( IFI).

Lleras Restrepo was a staunch Liberal and was then first time in 1941 Chairman of the Partido Liberal Colombiano. In August 1941, he was Minister of Finance and Public Credit and belonged to the cabinet of President Santos until the end of his term in August 1942. In 1942 he was elected to the Senate. The finance minister, he held again from October 1943 to March 1944 in the cabinet of President Alfonso López Pumarejo. He was one of the delegations of Colombia in preparation for the United Nations and at the Bretton Woods Conference.

After the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, he was again in 1948 chairman of the party and remained in this position until 1950. Gaitan began with the murder of a decades-long violent conflict between the Liberal Party and the conservative Partido Conservador Colombiano. After his own house was completely destroyed in 1952 by a politically motivated arson, he went into exile in Mexico until 1954.

In 1966, he won his party's candidate as the presidential election, and was subsequently dated August 7, 1966 to August 7, 1970 President of Colombia. After the founding of the Institute of Agrarian Reform ( Incora ), there was 1968-1969 to an extensive land reform, during which 60,000 land titles to workers and peasants were awarded. During his presidency, he sat down also instrumental for the establishment of the Andean Pact in 1969 to promote the economic union in Latin America and one of the driving forces of this agreement between Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. During his tenure, however, was also the designation of Marta Traba because of their protest against the occupation of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia by the military.

In 1978 he was defeated in the presidential nomination of the Liberal Party the subsequent election winner Julio César Turbay Ayala. Nevertheless, he remained politically active after this defeat.

Carlos Lleras Restrepo was not only a cousin of former President Alberto Lleras Camargo, but also grandfather of Germán Vargas Lleras, a longtime senator, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2010 presidential election and by President Juan Manuel Santos on August 7, 2010 for the Interior and Justice Minister was appointed.

Lleras belonged to since 1941 the management of the newspaper El Tiempo, in which he also published regular amounts.

Lleras was married to Cecilia de la Fuente since March 25, 1933 from the couple had four children, Carlos, Clemencia, María Inés and Fernando.