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Colombia COLLAPSE OF THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM, 1946-58
The transfer of power in 1946 ignited tensions between
the two
parties, resulting in violent political conflict,
particularly in
rural areas. The loss of peace foreboded the return to
competitive
and exclusionary politics, similar to the situation
preceding the
War of a Thousand Days. In the 1940s and 1950s, however,
violence
and exclusion more than threatened the political system;
they
ruptured it. A democratically elected administration
became
repressive and dictatorial, which led to its overthrow by
the sole
military coup in the twentieth century. Only by having the
reins of
power taken from both of their hands did the traditional
elites
recognize that the most effective way to avoid interparty
civil
wars and possible military dictatorships was to join
forces and
restrain their competitive tendencies.
In 1946 Ospina assumed office and was faced with the
difficult
task of ruling from a minority position, as Liberals had
received
the majority of all presidential votes and continued to
control
Congress. Ospina tried to confront this situation by
incorporating
Liberals into a coalition government. Meanwhile, the level
of
political rivalry intensified in the countryside, where
Conservatives pursued a course of violence in an attempt
to
consolidate power after sixteen years out of office.
Liberals
retaliated and, under Gaitán's leadership, became highly
mobilized
in their demands that the Ospina government confront the
social
needs of the modernizing and urbanizing nation.
Gaitanism, the populist social movement led by Gaitán
as a
faction of the PL, increased dramatically between 1946 and
1948.
Gaitán supported the democratic rather than the
revolutionary path
to reforms. By advocating the passage of more socially
liberal
policies, he appealed to the masses and he united urban
workers and
campesinos. As the movement grew, observers believed that
Gaitán
would be elected president, which may have happened had he
lived to
see the next election.
Liberal victories in the 1947 congressional elections
demonstrated the party's strength among the electorate.
Ospina
became increasingly concerned with retaining Conservative
control
and provoked Liberals further by resorting frequently to
police
enforcement of Conservative privileges in the rural areas.
The
Liberal appointees in his government resigned in protest
in March
1948.
Data as of December 1988
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