Cesar Gaviria
César Augusto Gaviria Trujillo (Pereira, March 31, 1947) is a Colombian politician. He was the 36th president of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, the 7th secretary general of the Organization of the American States from 1994 to 2004, and national director of the Liberal Party from 2005 to 2009, a position he once again occupies. During his term as president, a National Constituent Assembly was convened that promulgated the Colombian Constitution of 1991.
In October 2021, his name was mentioned in the Pandora Papers as the owner of a company located in Panama, a country considered a tax haven, through which he acquired Colombian companies.
Biography
Family
César is the eldest son of Byron Gaviria Londoño and Mélida Trujillo Trujillo. He married Ana Milena Muñoz, the June 20, 1978, in Pereira. They have two children: Simón Gaviria Muñoz, who was the National Director of Planning, and María Paz Gaviria Muñoz, director of ArtBo.
Her brother, architect Juan Carlos Gaviria, was kidnapped on April 2, 1996, by a group called Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (JEGA). After mediation by the Cuban government, he was released. On April 27, 2006, César Gaviria's sister, Liliana Gaviria, was intercepted by several members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) when she was arriving at her home and after an exchange of fire between her bodyguards and those men, was murdered. Her brother, Luis Fernando Gaviria Trujillo, is a biologist at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and currently rector of the Technological University of Pereira.
He was the father-in-law of former conservative party senator David Barguil, who was married to his daughter María Paz.
Studies
Gaviria studied economics at the Universidad de los Andes.
Political career
Back in his hometown, he began his political career and directed the newspaper La Tarde de Pereira. He is also one of the presidents who gave "galanism" its name. after Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento.
In 1974, he was elected a member of the Colombian House of Representatives representing Risaralda, a corporation of which he became president in 1983. He was head of Planning in Risaralda; councilor of Pereira (1970-1974) and assistant of the National Planning Department (1970-1971); representative to the Chamber between 1974 and 1986; mayor of Pereira (1975-1976).
During the administration of Julio César Turbay Ayala (1978-1982), Gaviria entered national politics as Vice Minister of Economic Development.
Minister of Finance
President Virgilio Barco Vargas appointed him Finance Minister in 1986, a position he held until 1987, when he became the Government portfolio. As Minister of Finance, he presented two important projects to Congress: the Agrarian Reform and the Tax Reform. Then, as Minister of Government, he presented the Constitutional Reform project to Congress.
1990 Presidential Election
Gaviria resigned from the cabinet of President Virgilio Barco to take over as Head of Debate for the liberal candidate Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento. When Galán was assassinated on August 18, 1989, his son Juan Manuel Galán asked Gaviria to continue with the banners of New Liberalism, despite the fact that Gaviria, a pro-government liberal, had joined Galanism just a few months before.
On March 11, 1990, Gaviria achieved a resounding victory over Hernando Durán Dussán and Ernesto Samper (who finished practically tied) thanks to the feeling of pain and anger generated in the citizens by the murder.
By winning the internal consultation of the Liberal Party against rivals such as Hernando Durán Dussán and Ernesto Samper, Gaviria defeated in the presidential election the candidates Álvaro Gómez Hurtado of the National Salvation Movement, Antonio Navarro Wolff of the M-19 Democratic Alliance and Rodrigo Lloreda Caicedo of the Social Conservative Party.
It was an electoral contest marred by violence promoted by drug traffickers, which claimed the lives, in addition to Galán's, of the left-wing presidential candidates Carlos Pizarro Leongómez and Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa and in which Gaviria himself received death threats by Pablo Escobar. According to some versions, he could have been the object of the attack that on November 27, 1989, brought down Avianca flight 203 over Soacha, Cundinamarca, causing the death of its 107 occupants, since he was also scheduled to take that flight and only at the last minute. canceled the trip. Anecdotally because of the fact, some analysts have given him the nickname of the "guaquero" since he found the presidency at a funeral.
The results of the presidential election were:
- César Gaviria Trujillo - Partido Liberal Colombiano: 2,891.808 votes.
- Álvaro Gómez Hurtado - Movimiento de Salvación Nacional: 1,433.913 votes.
- Antonio Navarro Wolff - Democratic Alliance M-19: 754,740 votes.
- Rodrigo Lloreda Caicedo - Colombian Conservative Party: 735.374
Presidency
The government of César Gaviria began on August 7, 1990 and ended on August 7, 1994. Its predecessor was the government of Virgilio Barco Vargas and its successor was the government of Ernesto Samper.
Cabinet
National Constituent Assembly
The elections for the delegates to the Constituent Assembly were held on December 9, 1990. The National Constituent Assembly, meeting on July 4, 1991, less than a year after Gaviria completed his first year as president, achieved the drafting of the new Political Constitution of Colombia, which included new mechanisms for the protection of human rights, such as the Ombudsman's Office and the Tutela Action, within a set of reforms that opened spaces for forms of democratic participation, in addition to the justice reform, states of emergency, Transitory Article 8, and the status of the armed forces. During the sessions, the government was represented by Gaviria's Minister of Government, Humberto de la Calle.
The Constitution reformed the Judicial Branch, giving the president the power to appoint the Attorney General of the Nation (art. 249), the representative of the Judicial Chamber of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (art. 256) and the representative of the Court Constitutional (art. 239). The constitution adopted the accusatory system to replace the inquisitive system, granting powers to the figure of the attorney general. The rules of the States of Exception (art. 212-215) and the Statutory Law (Law 137 of 1994) and the "State of Internal Commotion" were changed.
Education Policy
Carlos Holmes Trujillo was appointed as Minister of Education of Colombia by then President César Gaviria for the period 1992 and 1994. Trujillo García was the promoter of the Educational Opening Plan (PAE), in order to create, before the end of the four-year period, new school places for secondary schools due to the need to expand educational coverage. This sought to guarantee the access of all children to primary school, that secondary education coverage grow by 25% and the extension of the preschool year gradually to all children.
For Higher Education, Trujillo García defended a special regime for public universities, which sought to promote research and establish financial mechanisms to ensure the entry of all people to higher education. In addition to this, he incorporated the technological component into the academic curriculum in order for the school student to master computing, electronics, electricity, mechanics, new materials and biotechnology.
During his administration, great advances were made in the creation of the General Education Law, since debates were promoted with various educational, scientific, and cultural establishments to seek new criteria that serve as a basis to govern education in Colombia. Likewise, the census of teachers and officials of the education sector was carried out for the first time, establishing the number of teachers, preparation and geographical location. The census was carried out as an instrument to modernize the sector and close the points of conflict with the teaching profession, since it made it possible to have the resume for each teacher and educational official in such a way that the necessary information on the distribution could be provided. staff in different regions.
As minister, Trujillo García executed the Plan to provide textbooks, libraries, desks, and new classrooms to the country's public institutions. With the Plan for the Universalization of Primary Basic Education there would be 600,000 new places and 9,500 more schools. Four million students benefited from free textbooks and new desks and libraries, which were distributed in 38,500 schools. School classrooms were also repaired and financial support was established for the hiring and permanence of teachers in rural areas and areas of difficult access and financing of educational research. The Plan included allocating 190 million pesos for the preparation of 80,000 primers for teaching the National Constitution and a book on the Quincentennial. During his ministry, the creation of the zero year began in the country's public schools. So that children between the ages of five and seven would have a year to prepare for school life, which would come to concentrate pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Trujillo García considered promoting the five-year university degree in teachers, even those from the provinces, in order to develop the mandate of professionalization and dignification of teaching activity, to improve the quality of education.
Likewise, the university rectors highlighted the creation of the accreditation system and the information system, where institutions must present exams to guarantee that they meet the quality requirements and that they fulfill their purposes and objectives. Holmes sought agreement with the religious sectors as religious education prevailed in schools and private institutions. At the time, Fecode highlighted the commitment of Minister Carlos Trujillo to relocate 700 threatened educators, as well as to convert hourly professors, paid by the Nation, into full-time teachers.
He promoted the dismantling of VAT collection to more than twelve thousand non-formal education establishments, these are institutes and educational centers that do not issue diplomas, but train people in many trades, such as floristry, carpentry, mechanics, electronics, and others; Trujillo García together with the Minister of Finance, Rudolf Hommes, reached an agreement to issue a new regulatory decree of Law 6 of this 1992, on tax reform, in which it is specified that no type of educational service will be taxed with VAT.
Economic policy
In economic matters, the Gaviria government is remembered for the "Economic Opening" more liberal led by its Finance Minister Rudolf Hommes. Although the opening began gradually in the predecessor government, from the beginning of his government, Gaviria increased the pace of the opening, with results that turned the country's economic history upside down; However, the opening led to the bankruptcy of small, medium and some large Colombian industries, and others in the public sector to privatization, as they were all unable to compete with foreign companies, although some private companies benefited positively, especially from the big industries. However, the accelerated economic opening of Gaviria led the country in general to an economic and social disaster that, even in the first decades of the 21st century, is still felt with the subsequent governments and their economic policies closer to neoliberalism, which is in synthesis of the Economic Opening.
One of his most notable changes was the increase in VAT from 10% to 12% and luxury goods to 45%, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Belisario Betancur who had extended this tax that since 1963 had only been charged to manufacturing and imports now extending its coverage to the consumer and retailers, now bringing the tax closer to one type of consumption.
The operation to privatize five ports in Colombia caused a gigantic fraud. Behind the figureheads who jump into the juicy business are the leaders of the two political parties (the Liberal and the Conservative), political leaders like Luis Eduardo Vidas Lacouture or Dávila, the powerful families of the Caribbean coast (such as Francisco Villas Cos), people close to power and those who owe favors to the President.
One of the most controversial actions of his Government, together with Rudolf Hommes and Maria Mercedes Cuellar de Martínez, was to have linked the variation of the UPAC (Constant Purchasing Power Unit) to the commercial interest rate -before it was linked to inflation, which protected banks, debtors and savers-, which made the installments of the properties financed by this system unpayable and led to nearly one million families (close to 5 million people) losing their homes, until when The constitutional court declared the measure unconstitutional and gave way to the creation of the UVR Unidad de Valor Real, very similar to the original UPAC, in the government of Andrés Pastrana. The government anticipating the number of demands for replacement of the money collected in excess, the tax on financial operations was temporarily created, this tax was increased and still continues 23 years later and the money was not returned to those who lost their savings and their houses, with some exceptions.
Security and Internal Armed Conflict
During his government, several negotiations were carried out with armed groups and the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) demobilized, as well as a fraction of the National Liberation Army. (ELN), the Quintín Lame Armed Indigenous Movement and the PRT facts that contrast with the suspension of talks with the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). In December 1990, Gaviria, through his Defense Minister Rafael Pardo, ordered the takeover of Casa Verde against the FARC-EP, in the municipality of La Uribe, and continued the frontal war. President Gaviria ruled out the possibility of international mediation in the Colombian armed conflict, although there was international verification in the demobilization and disarmament processes in the process with the EPL, the Quintín Lame Armed Movement and the CRS.
Among the problems that Gaviria had to face was the resurgence of narco-terrorism by Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and the other members of the group "Los Extraditables," which culminated in the death of Rodríguez Gacha -before his inauguration as president - in confrontations with the army and the submission to justice of Escobar along with other members of the Medellín Cartel. Three weeks after he was inaugurated as president of Colombia, Pablo Escobar kidnapped Diana Turbay along with five other journalists, followed by Francisco Santos, Maruja Pachón, Beatriz Villamizar and Marina Montoya. These kidnappings were designed for the president to annul the extradition treaty in addition to other benefits for drug traffickers, thus getting President Gaviria to launch the policy of submission to justice, which offered reduced sentences and preferential treatment to those who abandoned drug trafficking and hand themselves over to the judicial authorities, in exchange for not extraditing them to the United States. As this policy was difficult for the United States to accept, Gaviria took advantage of Colombia's presence in the United Nations Security Council and negotiated the country's favorable vote for the first war against Iraq in 1991, ordered by President George Bush., in exchange for the acceptance of the United States to the policy of submission to justice and non-extradition.
The La Catedral estate that Escobar himself had built according to his needs was adapted for his confinement. There were mounting accusations that Escobar continued to commit crimes from the lavish prison, leading to orders for the drug lord to be transferred to a military prison. This caused the escape of Escobar and some of his companions from the Cathedral. At that time, a search began amid an upsurge in violence when several of Escobar's former allies founded the organization Los PEPES (Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), an illegal organization that collaborated with the Search Block, a union of various Colombian law enforcement agencies. Finally, in 1993, Escobar was located through electronic intelligence and killed during the operation to capture him. During his administration, private security cooperatives, called CONVIVIR, were created.
The numbers of victims of the armed conflict in Colombia rose compared to the years prior to President Gaviria's term. Hit men, self-defense groups and paramilitaries developed to counteract the advance of the guerrillas, fed by drug trafficking mafias that had been making alliances since the mid-1980s.
Energy crisis
Other problems that arose during his tenure include the decline in water reserves that, aggravated by an El Niño Phenomenon and the lack of attention to the country's energy infrastructure, led to a reduction in the production of hydroelectric energy that was offset by a series of scheduled blackouts that lasted more than a year between 1992 and 1993. As a measure to counteract the blackout, the government decreed the advancement of the official Colombian time, which went from UTC −5 to UTC −4 (coinciding with the time of Venezuela at that time) midnight on May 2, 1992. Gaviria tried to continue with this early hour, informally known as the Gaviria Hour, but opposition from various sectors led to the reinstatement of the time zone. traditional 9 months later.
Secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) (1994-2004)
In 1994, Gaviria was appointed Secretary General of the OAS, the organization's highest position. His term as his secretary began at the end of his presidential term in August 1994, and he was re-elected to the OAS Secretariat in 1999. He finished his term in 2004.
His management at the head of the OAS was characterized by the adoption of the Democratic Charter, its consolidation and promotion, he is remembered for his mediation work in electoral conflicts, among which arbitration stood out between November 2002 and May 2003 of the Venezuelan crisis between President Hugo Chávez and the opposition during the oil strike.
Leadership of the Liberal Party
Gaviria returned to Colombia in early 2005, rejoining active politics. In June 2005, during the Second National Liberal Congress, Gaviria was proclaimed National Director of the Colombian Liberal Party under the premise of promoting the reunification of the party as a viable alternative to power in the face of the 2006 presidential elections. Thanks to his leadership, prominent leaders like Rafael Pardo and Andrés González Díaz.[citation required]
Gaviria has dedicated himself to reorganizing his Party,[citation needed], which was dismantled from its big names by the former president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who according to Gaviria, he dedicated himself to ending the Party by taking away its most prominent leaders, but the former president has had to face significant opposition within the community because his project is to bring liberalism to the center of the political arena,[citation required] while a sector demands that the social democratic and center-left orientation be maintained.[citation required]
At the Third National Liberal Congress, in April 2007, Gaviria was anointed again as National Director, although this time it was not by acclamation, he obtained just over 70% of the votes, a large majority. In the process of granting endorsements for the October 2007 elections, the former president implemented the election of candidates by popular consultation, which gave greater transparency to the selection process. The liberal party gained political ground in the 2007 regional elections, by acquiring the largest number of governors, mayors, deputies, and councilors, retaking some majorities lost by previous party leaders.
His son, Simón Gaviria, led the Liberal Party between 2011 and 2014 and then was national director of planning in the government of Juan Manuel Santos between 2014 and 2017. César Gaviria then assumed the leadership of the party. He supported the candidacy of Iván Duque for the 2018 presidential elections, which he won; and by 2022 he supports Federico Gutiérrez for the Presidency and Rodrigo Lara for the Vice Presidency of Colombia.
Tributes
Gaviria is one of the few living Colombian politicians who have given their name to monuments and constructions in the country, although his government left unfinished works.
In his case, he gives his name to a road work built in Risaralda, which connects Pereira with Dosquebradas: The César Gaviria Trujillo Viaduct. The work was inaugurated in 1997 by his successor, Ernesto Samper, and remains standing to date, despite the fact that in 1999 it suffered deterioration as a result of the earthquake in Armenia.
In his native Pereira, the César Gaviria Trujillo Theater was also built, where plays and musicals are presented.
In 2011, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce of Colombia (SIC) awarded him the Hernando Agudelo Villa Order of Merit, for the contributions he made during his presidency to business competition in Colombia. That same year, the Liberal Party held an event in honor of Gaviria, for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the sanction of the 1991 Constitution, during his presidency.
Acknowledgments
- W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, (2002)
- National Democratic Institute (NDI) Democracy Award (2002)
- The Washington Times International Courage in Leadership Award (2002)
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