Guillermo Leon Valencia

Guillermo León Valencia Muñoz (Popayán, April 27, 1909 - New York, November 4, 1971) was a Colombian lawyer, politician and diplomat, member of the Colombian Conservative Party.

Valencia held various public positions from Popayán councilor to president of his country. He represented Colombia before the United Nations Organization during the IV Session of the General Assembly held in 1949. He was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Spain on two occasions, one of them at the end of his presidential term.

He was president of Colombia from 1962 to 1966, the second president of the two-party system known as the National Front. As president, he had to face the rise of the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), whom he was unable to control, and for which reason the legal system of self-defense or self-defense groups was created. paramilitary groups protected by Decree 3398 of 1965.

Nicknamed by some as the "president of Peace," because through the policy of Plan Lazo (Operation Sovereignty) and "the policy of pacification& #3. 4; He eliminated several of the so-called bandits He is one of the Colombian politicians with the most tributes, distinctions and awards in the country's history.

Biography

He was born on April 27, 1909 in Popayán, into a wealthy family in the city, the son of the poet Guillermo Valencia Castillo.

He completed his first studies at the college of the University of Cauca, which was located in the cloister of Santo Domingo. From an early age he showed interest in the human sciences, in subjects such as philosophy, Spanish, history, Spanish grammar, among others. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Letters in 1926. Later, he entered the Law and Political Sciences career at the University of Cauca, from where he graduated in 1931. In 1956, his alma mater awarded him the title Doctor Honoris Causa in Law, Political and Social Sciences.

First Charges

As a member of the Colombian Conservative Party, to which his father also belonged, he held various public positions, at a regional, national and international level. He was a councilor for Popayán, deputy for the Cundinamarca Assembly, senator for Cauca, vice president of the Senate, was part of the Conservative Departmental Directory, and the National Directory.

He had a weekly in Popayán with the name “Claridad” between 1938 and 1943, where he analyzed the public and political problems of the region and the country; Valencia was the director of the newspaper, while the editorials were written by his father, the prestigious poet Guillermo Valencia.In his words, Valencia stated:

“Fiel to my journalistic vocation and my father’s insignia teachings in this most noble intellectual activity I have continued to believe, throughout my life, that the truth must always be told to the people, even at the risk of being conflictive...”

Support Ospina

Valencia stood out as a great speaker at the 1946 National Conservative Convention, through which the conservatism elected engineer Mariano Ospina Pérez as its presidential candidate. Ospina prevailed over his liberal rivals and was elected president of the country, after 3 periods of liberal governments.

Ospina's victory was due to the division among the liberals.

The Bogotazo

Tram burning in the Bogotazo.

During the events that triggered El Bogotazo (April 9, 1948) and according to the journalist Gabriel García Márquez, chaos took over the city, and it was even reported that one of the victims of the popular fury was the then Senator Guillermo León Valencia, who was allegedly stoned to death, and his body was hung in the Plaza de Bolívar, after being dragged through the streets.

When calm returned, it was known that it was just an unsubstantiated rumor.

Governments of Laureano Gómez and Roberto Urdaneta

In 1949, the Ospina government appointed him as the Colombian delegate to the IV Ordinary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held in October of that year. In May 1949 Valencia participated in the National Constituent Assembly organized by the elected president Laureano Gómez, to replace the Congress closed by the government in 1949.

In 1950, when Gómez took office, Valencia was appointed ambassador to Spain, between 1950 and 1953, establishing a friendship with the dictator Francisco Franco, whom Gómez had a special appreciation for. Once in Spain, Valencia entered into a Special Agreement Agreement cultural character between Colombia and that country, signed in Madrid on November 4, 1952. Through this agreement, the Spanish government undertook to cede land in the University City of Madrid, to build the Miguel Antonio Caro Hall of Residence, and to In turn, the Colombian government handed over a lot in Bogotá for the construction of the Colegio Reyes Católicos.

Dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

Red in 1953.

Despite his closeness to Ospina (who masterminded the 1953 coup), Valencia was one of the main opponents of the government of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who overthrew Gómez on June 13, 1953, when he attempted to retake control. power, after a 2-year absence due to illness.

Although he was an opponent of Rojas, his sister Josefina became the dictatorship's minister of education. At the end of that year, Minister Valencia led, together with Bertha Hernández de Ospina and Esmeralda Arboleda (of the Conservative and Liberal Party), a series of conferences at the Constitutional Studies Commission, with which they sought approval of the female vote in the country. Guillermo León always opposed the measure, but ended up supporting the measure from Congress, pressured by Rojas. However, his position never changed, since he came to sayː

"The female vote and the intervention of women in politics can destroy the homes and (...) break the peace of the Colombian families. "

In 1956, during an act in which the University of Cauca conferred on him the degree Honoris Causa in Law and Political and Social Sciences; Valencia sang a speech on the need for the Rule of Law and pronounced the defense of freedom, democracy and political parties, demanding the right of the people to freely elect the President of the Republic, in an electoral debate free of fraud and violence.

This was the first act of national union between the parties in defense of the institutions, whose political force overthrew the dictatorship and gave rise to the formation of the National Front, “using only the word, the will, the courage; but never violence. The figure of Valencia was established as the conservative head of that great movement. Due to his democratic activism, Valencia was placed under house arrest by orders of the dictatorship, on May 1, 1956 and served his confinement in the house where he was staying in Cali; he then was taken to Bogotá on May 3 of that year.

During the days of May 1957, hundreds of students mobilized through the streets of the country, to claim the abuses of power applied by the government of Rojas Pinilla. Valencia, supported these conferences and responded to the demands of the students, participating in several of these movements.

National Front

First presidential candidacy

On April 8, 1957, the parties -Conservative and Liberal National Directorates and Conservative and Liberal Directorates of Antioquia- issued a communiqué that included a letter to Valencia informing him that he had been chosen as a candidate:

By complying with the patriotic agreement held on March 20 of the current year, we have the honour to inform you, in perfect agreement, the Liberal and Conservative parties have chosen their illustrious name for national candidate for the Presidency of the Republic... In choosing your name we have taken into account not only your pointed virtues, your intellectual gifts, your personal disinterest and your love of the Republic, but also the fact that you have been one of the co-authors of the political agreement of 20 March and are therefore fully identified with your text and spirit

Valencia (on the right), with lawyer Carlos Galindo Pinilla (in the center), photo of The Century.

Valencia's candidacy arises, therefore, backed by the united Conservative Party, which included former president Ospina Pérez and the laureanista sector. Also by the Liberal Party, the support was reiterated on several occasions: Alberto Lleras, as director of the Liberal Party, and former President Alfonso López, ratified it in a meeting that was held at the house of Alberto Zuleta Ángel. The proclamation of the parties was quickly joined by other acts and proclamations in the cities of Colombia and the most eminent personalities of the Nation adhered to it.

Valencia's national candidacy continued to maintain strength; on June 2, 1957, the National Commission for Conservative Action, headed by Álvaro Gómez Hurtado and other important leaders such as Juan Uribe Holguín, Alfredo Araújo Grau, Manuel Coronado, Hernando de Velasco; together with the National Conservative Directorate: José Antonio Montalvo, Juan Uribe Cualla, Francisco de Paula Pérez, Hernán Jaramillo Ocampo, José Elías del Hierro, Rafael Azuero, Alfredo Carbonell, Alfredo Vásquez Carrizosa issued a conservative union document around the candidacy from Valenciaː

"We welcome with enthusiasm the national candidacy of Dr. Guillermo León Valencia, who was declared Colombian, to exercise the Presidency of the Republic in the constitutional period from 1958 to 1962. For having been proclaimed this candidacy in a situation of political abnormality which, fortunately, concluded as a result of the national reaction that culminated last May 10, the National Conservative Board and the National Conservative Action Commission will present it to the National Convention of the Party for ratification."

Valencia and President Lleras during a lunch at the Paletará farm, Cauca, 1961. Museo Nacional, Bogotá; and Museo Valencia, Popayán.

With the resignation of Rojas, former President Laureano Gómez returned to the country in October. His arrival began a sad process of recriminations among conservative sectors.

Despite the pact between the parties, which established that in the 1958 elections both parties would support a conservative for the Presidency, who would be succeeded in 1962 by a liberal, Gómez then proclaimed the liberal candidacy of Alberto Lleras, to replace the candidacy of Valencia. He did it, even against his own party, since there was no figure in conservatism capable of defeating the prestige that Valencia had built in its fight against the dictatorship. Valencia, however, remained loyal to his party, voting for Lleras and withdrawing his candidacy in favor of him. He was also loyal to the Lleras government, coming to support his progressive programs.

Second presidential candidacy

When Lleras' half-term approached, the conservatives were already profiling as their candidate the far-right leader and important supporter for the party's president -Laureano Gómez-, the thinker Gilberto Alzate Avendaño. Alzate was a senator when the party offered him to be the official candidate of the conservatives, but he died in November 1960 at the early age of 50, so the party decided to support a second candidacy for Valencia.

In part, the support was given by Ospina's intentions to return to power, for which Gómez interposed Valencia in his way; Ospina then supported conservative dissident Jorge Leyva Urdaneta, a relative of former President Roberto Urdaneta. The liberal dissident Alfonso López Michelsen, founder of the MRL, and former president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who had recovered his political rights in 1960, also appeared in the campaign.

The elections were held on Sunday, May 6, 1962, where Valencia was elected with an important advantage over his contenders, given that he received the votes of the liberals who were supporters of the alternation pact, with an approximate vote of 1'600,000 votes. In second place was López Michelsen and then Leyva Urdaneta and Rojas Pinilla, in third and fourth place, respectively.

Colombian Presidency (1962-1966)

The government of Guillermo León Valencia was characterized by policies of understanding, dialogue, reconciliation and peace among peoples. Likewise, he sought to strengthen security throughout the national territory, increase the budget for public health, improve education, housing, the economy, the media; He supported the agricultural sector, especially peasants, indigenous peoples, and Afro-Colombians. He was a great diplomat, managing to establish commercial, political, and cultural ties with various South American countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.

Ministerial Cabinet

In response to the policies of national reconciliation between parties, Valencia applied the concept of Millimetry, which consisted of electing a ministerial cabinet made up according to the distribution of seats in Congress, among the different groups of the Conservative and Liberal parties.

Security and public order

Map of independent republics

The main objective of President Valencia was to seek peace for the country through national security, in this sense, he modernized and professionalized the Military Forces, training officers and non-commissioned officers in courses at the national, regional, and international levels. He organized the National Police, for control in urban and departmental areas, in the same way he supported the civic-military actions, under Decree 1381 of 1963. These actions were aimed at strengthening social services to the most remote populations, increasing health care, housing, education and security. Thus, he proposed to fight by all legal means available to the total eradication of violence.

On December 25, 1965, he issued Decree 3398 (later Law 48 of 1968 during the government of Carlos Lleras Restrepo) that allows the military to hand over weapons for the private use of the Armed Forces to civilians and create armed groups of self-defense or paramilitaries coordinated by the National Army. During his government, on February 23, 1963, the Santa Bárbara Massacre (Antioquia) took place, when the National Army repressed a protest by cement workers: 11 dead.

In the context of the Cold War and the support of North American policies, Valencia carried out Operation Sovereignty devised by the Ministry of Defense, whose main objectives were to create intelligence groups, organization of locators and tracking, small combat units and rapprochement with the civilian population. In this context, the attacks began on the so-called "independent republics": Marquetalia (Tolima), Riochiquito (Cauca), El Pato (Huila), Sumapaz (Cundinamarca) and Guayabero (Meta), where the bandit groups and the first guerrillas. After the operation, by not finishing off the guerrillas led by Manuel Marulanda, Jacobo Arenas and Ciro Trujillo formed the Southern Bloc, which would be renamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1966.

On January 7, 1965, the National Liberation Army (ELN) appears with the capture of Simacota (Santander). The leading priest of Liberation Theology (condemned by Pope Paul VI) was also killed, and the Catholic hierarchy), sociologist and leader of the United People's Front: Camilo Torres Restrepo who had joined the ELN in the combat in Patio Cemento (Santander), and his body disappeared by the National Army The Military Forces and the National Police killed several of the leaders of the banditry Efraín González Téllez 'Siete Colores', Jacinto Cruz Usma alias 'Sangre Negra', José William Aranguren alias 'Desquite', Teófilo Rojas Varón alias 'Chispas' Among others who had been committing crimes since the period of La Violencia bipartisan.

Economy

A greater participation of the oil industry was achieved in the development of the national economy, through an increase in the production and export of crude oil. Mining activity increased. Electricity coverage was increased. In 1963, the National Institute of Radio and Television was established. Civil Defense was created. Advances were made in telephone communication, with the installation of the first automatic long-distance telephones. The Agricultural Development Fund was created, directed at the service of indigenous communities.

The celebration was arranged on the first Sunday of June each year (peasant's day), so that the nation would dedicate a day to the recognition and work of the peasant. The meaning of cooperativism was promoted, in the economic, labor, artisanal and communal spheres. Strengthening of the Community Action Boards, through which highways, bridges, roads and neighborhood roads were built; aqueducts, health posts, schools, among others. A broad popular housing policy was developed, with no down payment. The national education budget was raised from 10% to 20%. Technical education was supported through SENA (National Learning Service). The already established INEM schools were promoted throughout the country (National Institutions of Secondary Education).

Law 50 of December 31, 1964 was promulgated, which provided for the technical-administrative feasibility study, the route, and the cost of the Atrato canal. Through Legislative Act 1 of 1964, effective as of July 1, 1965, the Municipality of La Guajira was converted into a Department. Through Law 2 of 1966, the department of Quindío was created, segregating it from the department of Caldas.

He created the Monetary Board, to avoid inflation within the country. He anticipated the need to incorporate Colombia into the international economy in 1963. The board was replaced by the Banco de la República in 1991. He conceived the Vallejo Plan, which stimulated exports. He promoted the Labor Reform of 1963, taking an important step in understanding between employers and workers. The retroactivity of layoffs, was established in 1963 in the greatest demand of the workers.

In the field of social security, President Valencia approved and subsidized generic medicines for the entire population, especially the popular sectors. He improved communication routes, including Buga-Tuluá (Valle del Cauca) and the Bogotá-Medellín highway. He provided considerable resources for the works in the port of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca. He adapted and delivered the Guillermo León Valencia airport in Popayán. He paved the Popayán-Cali Pan-American Highway. He expanded the television signal in Popayán. He ratified the nationalization of the University of Cauca, in 1964.

Inaugurated the bridge over the Ariari River, in the department of Meta. The construction of the José Antonio Páez bridge over the Arauca river on the border with Venezuela began. For the development of trade and transportation of petroleum products.

Foreign Policy

International visits

During his tenure, he managed to establish several links abroad that helped in the social and economic policies of the nation. One of them was the ratification of the Alliance for Progress, which meant aid from the United States government for Latin American countries, strengthening the bond created by Lleras, who received John F. Kennedy in 1961. Valencia visited Washington D.C., to President Kennedy in June 1962. Regarding the Alliance, Valencia argued:

The Alliance for Progress comes primarily from those purposes that are essentially capable of changing the lives of the people to give them better living conditions, even if investments are not immediately economic performance. The Alliance ' s moneys are being invested especially in health, education, housing and those development works that directly refer to the change of essential conditions in the lives of the people.

Guillermo León Valencia, 1962.

At the end of September 1964, Valencia received a visit from General Charles De Gaulle in Bogotá; It was the first time that a French president visited Colombia. This visit made it possible to strengthen cultural, political, educational and economic ties with France. Among them: the creation of the Colombian-French institutes, exchange of students, teachers and researchers between universities of both countries. Valencia offered De Gaulle a dinner where he blurted out the famous "Viva Españaǃ". Without minor setbacks, the next day De Gaulle visited the Plaza de Bolívar, the Quinta de Bolívar and the French Lyceum in his convertible, and that night Valencia was decorated by De Gaulle at the French embassy.

Ties with other countries

President Valencia's foreign policy reached places as far away as: The Republic of China (Taiwan), the Federal Republic of Germany, Vatican City and Luanda-Angola. With each of these States, he managed to establish commercial and cultural links. Germany, for example, was one of the largest buyers of Colombian coffee, in addition to maintaining ties of a cultural and educational nature. With the Vatican, works were promoted in favor of the most needy in the country, in association with the Catholic Church Colombian.

Inter-American relations

In Latin America, he established good economic, political, and cultural relations. He visited the president of Venezuela Rómulo Betancourt on August 7, 1963, thus establishing the exchange of products between the two nations. The José Antonio Páez bridge was also built between the two countries on the border in the department of Arauca. Valencia met with the president of Venezuela Raúl Leoni on February 18, 1966, ratifying the diplomatic ties.

On March 12, 1966, he met with the Military Junta of the Government of Ecuador on the border at the Rumichaca bridge. At this meeting, the Rumichaca Act was signed, establishing a five-year development plan promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Both governments pledged to reach bilateral agreements for the improvement of economic and social relations.

Other countries, with which he had a good relationship were: Peru and Chile, with whom he was able to make economic agreements, for the trade of products, through the Pacific Ocean and the Pan-American highways. Thus, in the 1960s, the support that the Colombian Government gave to the Marginal de la Selva Highway project should be highlighted, in order to promote the construction of this road in its own territory, as well as its leadership in the creation of the Pact Andino, on August 16, 1966. Similarly, Valencia supported the Cultural Agreement of June 30, 1961 and its Additional Agreement of March 30, 1979, are the most important and, furthermore, currently in force.

Valencia supported inter-Latin American policies, mainly the Montevideo Treaty of 1960, the basis of the Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC) which, twenty years later, became ALADI, Latin American Integration Association. Originally this Treaty was signed by Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. Colombia joined later. However, the lack of dynamics of ALALC, the asymmetries and disparities between the different economies, as well as the integrationist conception of presidents such as Eduardo Frei and Carlos Lleras, gave rise to the Andean Pact.

Controversies and ramblings

War Ministry Crisis

His minister of war, General Alberto Ruiz Novoa, figured as one of the most important people in his government, not only because of the success of Operation Sovereignty (which led to the emergence of the FARC), but also because of his proselytizing political, prohibited in Colombia for the military and police. He was the promoter of Plan Lazo, with which he applied the pacification directive, which despite giving excellent results, was not enough to confront the nascent communist guerrillas. With the retake of Marquetalia, the site was renamed Villa Susana, in homage to the deceased first lady, Susana López.

Ruiz Novoa dared to publicly criticize the president in January 1965, suggesting important changes, but always in line with the interests of the Colombian aristocracy, who also did not like the Valencia government. These criticisms outlined him as an important rival of the government, and there were even sectors that supported an eventual candidacy of Ruiz. Eventually, with rumors of a coup circulating throughout the country, Valencia removed Ruiz from the ministry, appointing General Gabriel Revéiz Pizarro as Minister of War in his place, to complete Ruiz's remaining term. In 1965, Valencia relieved Ruiz of his duties in the National Army.

Relationship with the press and El gorilato

Valencia became known for his false starts with the press; In fact, his opponents used to say that he "put his legs in", in addition to his supposed fame of distraction and bad luck (including the premature death of his wife in 1964). However, he was a favorite of other journalists, to such an extent that he became friends with 4 journalists who followed him everywhere, and who became popularly known as Los Gorilas ː Iáder Giraldo, from The Spectator ; Camilo López, from El Tiempo; Alberto Giraldo, from El Siglo, and Darío Hoyos, from La República.

The name Los Gorilas, also known as El Gorilato, was given as a result of Charles de Gaulle's visit to Colombia, also in 1964. French president were seen as "gorillas" by people from the Colombian diplomatic group, to which one of the Colombians statedː

"A lot of careful companions who will immediately arrive their gorilla escorts"; (then) Silvio Villegas (...) exclaimed, "pues Arturo, they are also gorillas, gorillas journalists, but very close to the president Valencia". "

September 1964

His lapses

Among his false starts, for example, when he was asked to compare the new president Lyndon B. Johnson, regarding the assassination of Kennedy in 1963 and his attendance at the funeral in Arlington -where he laid a flower honoring the deceased-, He went so far as to say that he did not believe that they could be similar, affirming that

"That would be like comparing an eagle to a hen."

On another occasion, it is recounted that during a presidential address in December 1964 -when the takeover of Marquetalia was still recent- he stated that the bad character of Colombians was derived from their lack of vacations. Despite the fact that his intentions were to promote tourism for the country's middle-class population, paying special interest in maritime destinations, the comment is today viewed with contempt.

Another of his "blunders", and for which he went down in history, occurred in September 1964. The anecdote in which Valencia, in the middle of a toast at a dinner in honor to De Gaulle, after giving his welcome speech for the French president and in the middle of a lapse he even said "¡Viva Españaǃ". The person in charge of the translation took the pertinent measures and apparently the French president did not notice the "diplomatic bear". In reality, according to the press at the time, what really happened was that in In the middle of the welcome dinner, Valencia let this comment slipː

"Ladies and gentlemen, accompany me to offer this cup for the future and greatness of Spain, for the health and venture of General De Gaulle and his illustrious comitiva"

Guillermo León Valencia, September 1964.

Post-government

You're getting power in 1966.

On August 7, 1966, he handed over his position as President of the Republic, to the liberal Carlos Lleras Restrepo. It is known that when he was on his way to the Capitol for the handover ceremony, people applauded him as he passed through the street, thanking him for his work for peace. In fact, he is remembered as "the president of peace". Valencia continued to support the agreements of the National Front and harmony between the parties. He promoted the union of the Conservative Party and the policies of mutual understanding.

In 1968, the Colombian government appointed him for the second time, Ambassador Plenipotentiary in Spain. He also received the invitation from the Spanish Government, a position he held until 1970. Thus, his last public position. As Ambassador, he finally achieved the construction of the Miguel Antonio Caro Residence Hall within the campus of the Complutense University of Madrid, the school was inaugurated in 1971, and has served to date as a place of residence for scholarship students from Colombia, who begin their programs in Spain.

On the other hand, the Colombian Navy Training Ship “Gloria” was delivered in September 1968 in Bilbao, Spain. The ship was authorized in January 1966 according to Decree No. 111, while Guillermo León Valencia was still President of Colombia. She is today the flagship and representative of Colombia for the seas of the world. She is the oldest of the four sister sailboats, built by the same shipyard, rigged to Bricbarca.

Last years

In 1970, he finished his embassy in Spain, his last public office. Back in Colombia, he supported the conservative candidate Belisario Betancourt for the presidential elections of April 19, 1970, which Betancur lost to the pro-government candidate Misael Pastrana, in a notorious scandal over alleged electoral fraud against former President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla de la National Popular Alliance (Anapo). During the tour another mess escaped him, when he confused Cauca with Caldas, going so far as to say after they made him realize the mistake ː

"You guys forgive, but I want this department so much to confuse it with mine."

In 1971, he presented health complications, which worsened at the end of this year, so he decided to travel to have some medical check-ups at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, United States. After medical check-ups, he traveled to New York accompanied by his son Ignacio, where he finally died of a heart attack on November 4, 1971, at the age of 62, at Rochester Hospital. He died without being able to return to Colombia, since days before his death he had declared his desire to return to the country.

His body was repatriated to Colombia, and in Bogota they held the funeral for Head of State; He was then transferred to his native Popayán, being buried first in his birthplace, today the Guillermo Valencia National Museum. In 2008, his remains and those of his wife were transferred to the Guillermo León Valencia House Museum located in Popayán, where tribute is paid to his memory.

Private life

Face

Despite being an important journalist and the son of a prominent poet, Valencia was not a good writer and not an avid reader. However, his speeches were fiery and loaded with obsolete literary figures, even for the time.There is little evidence of his writings, which feeds the version that he was lazy to read and write.

His false starts didn't just happen during his presidency. It is remembered once, in the mid-30s, that the liberal senator Gabriel Turbay exposed the assassination of liberal leaders in the country at the hands of conservatives. The "goths", seeing themselves attacked, turned to Valencia, who at that time was also a congressman, and noticing that he was unfazed by the accusations, he jokingly said, referring to his origin and the fame of merchants of the descendants of Arabs in Colombiaː

"Leave him, he's Turkish and he's a sale."

Guillermo León Valencia, measured in the 1930s.

In addition to his notoriety with the press, Valencia was a man who was seen as "to take up arms." His character was strong and there are several anecdotes that are remembered about him in unkind terms with other people in his private or professional environment. In one of them, it is known that he tried to shoot the general. Ruiz when he read his resignation letter from the Ministry of War, after the matter of political militancy. Valencia himself confirmed the incident in an interview from 1969, recovered by El Tiempoː

"(In the pocket of the trousers) I had the revolver already taken from the bowl and with the trigger in the hand (...) If he intimated me to prison, I shot him, because it seemed to me that it was a military insurrection, which I was in duty to conjure, even by force."

Guillermo León Valencia, 1969

However, the two characters met again on good terms some time later, and the following anecdote was givenː

"The exchange of words was brief: "Mr. President, I notice that the dress is a little loose, because it has thinned," Ruíz said. Answer to the Valencian: “Instead, General, you are divinely left by the Everfit.”

Hobby to hunt

One of his great passions was hunting. From a very young age he practiced this activity in the company of his friends and family, his favorite places were Hacienda Belalcázar, the páramos and the mountains of the Department of Cauca. Within this practice, which led him to visit various regions of the country such as the Atlantic Coast, the Amazon, the Orinoquía, the Andean and the Pacific; Valencia knew the needs of the peasant, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, which he took into account in the development of his policies as President of Colombia regarding subsidies, housing, health, education, among others.

Valencia developed a friendship with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and is said to have gone deer hunting together when Valencia lived in Madrid as a diplomat serving the Gómez government. The place chosen for the hunting days was the Palacio del Pardo.

Family

Ancestry

Guillermo León Valencia belonged to the powerful Valencia family, whose family center is Popayán. Although there is information that links Valencia to successful businessmen of the independence era, it is known that he himself claimed to be the descendant of national heroes. The following anecdote is recalled in this regardː

A coterráneo told him in a dispute, "is that you believe you are authorized to humiliate the people because you descend from the proceres, because you know that I also go from the proceres", to what Guillermo León Valencia replied, "what happens my dear friend, is that you descended too much."

"Eyros de Guillermo León"

The most recent ancestor of the family was the nobleman from New Granada, philanthropist and successful banker Pedro Agustín de Valencia, who founded the current Casa de la Moneda de Popayán. His descendants carried the title of Counts of Valencia.

Two of his grandsons were prominent in the early years of the republic. Marcelino Pérez de Arroyo, was a priest, architect and part of the independence campaign of Simón Bolívar, and Santiago Pérez de Arroyo, is considered a hero of independence.

Guillermo's father was the poet, conservative politician and presidential candidate in 1922, Guillermo Valencia. His mother was Josefina Muñoz Muñoz, daughter of Ignacio Muñoz, a merchant, rancher, coffee grower and miner from Cauca, who helped economic development at the regional and national level. Despite his family's affiliation with the Conservative party, two of the brothers of Guillermo León were of communist ideology.

Her sister, Josefina Valencia de Hubach, was the first woman in Latin America to hold public office (Minister of Education), the first female governor in Colombia, and also one of the first to have a citizenship card. Her activism was vital to the achievement of women's political rights in Colombia, despite the fact that her brother Guillermo León was against women's political participation.

For his part, his brother Álvaro Pío Valencia stood out in the academic field, having graduated as a lawyer from the University of Cauca. He was rector and professor of this institution and of the Liceo, rector of the Santiago de Cali University and rector of the Autonomous University of the West in Cali. Mayor of Popayán and councilor, in 1944, as well as a diplomat in Brazil alongside his father. Curiously, he was of Marxist ideology, being an important leftist activist, in contrast to the conservative ideals of his brother, and in general of his entire family, and in fact Guillermo came to say of him ː

"(...) my brother read the poem "Anarkos" without the last word: Jesus Christ! Instead, I read it whole."

Marriage and offspring

Guillermo married Susana López Navia on January 31, 1931. Pedro Felipe, Alma, Ignacio and Diana Valencia López were born from the marriage.

His eldest son, Pedro Felipe Valencia López, was a politician and Colombian ambassador to Japan in the government of Ernesto Samper. Ignacio Valencia López, the third son of Guillermo and Susana, married the daughter of politician Mario Laserna Pinzón, founder of the Universidad de los Andes, from which Ignacio's daughter graduated, and therefore Guillermo's granddaughter, the lawyer, writer and senator of Colombia, Paloma Valencia.

Another daughter of Ignacio, Cayetana Valencia, is the wife of conservative politician and journalist Juan Carlos Pastrana, brother of former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana Arango, and son of Misael Pastrana Borrero, president of Colombia (1970-1974), a close friend by Guillermo Leon. Diana Valencia married the politician Aurelio Iragorri Hormaza, and their son, Aurelio Iragorri Valencia, was a minister in the government of Juan Manuel Santos.

Tributes

Bust of Valencia

Guillermo León Valencia Museum

As a tribute to his legacy, Law 70 of 1973 was sanctioned, through which the Guillermo León Valencia House-Museum was created, located in Popayán, where his mortal remains and those of his wife rest. The museum was opened to the public in 2008 and reopened in 2009 as a tribute to his birth.

It has three permanent exhibition rooms that account for the life and work of Guillermo León Valencia through the photographic record of moments of his family life and the political exercise that led him to occupy different public positions, which he held before and after the Presidency of the Republic.

Likewise, it has a room for temporary exhibitions, an interactive room, an auditorium for events, a painting room and a music room for boys and girls, with the aim of becoming a cultural center for the city within the reach of the visiting public.

Awards

Throughout his public life he obtained several regional, national and international recognitions, including medals, titles, bands, plaques and others. Some of them are the following:

Regionals

• Gran Cruz de Esmeraldas de la Orden Civil Cundinamarquesa Antonio Nariño (Department of Cundinamarca).
• Gran Cruz de Belalcázar (Popayán - Cauca).
• Gold Star Medal of Antioquia (Department of Antioquia).
• Medalla Confederate Cities of Valle del Cauca (Department of Valle del Cauca).
• Medal Labor and Civilization (Armenia Quindío).
• Medalla Cámara Júnior de Cali (Cali Valle del Cauca).
• Medalla Alejandro Cabal Pombo (Cali Valle del Cauca).
• Llave decoration of the SENA (Atlantic Barrette).

Nationals

• Presidential Band (First candidature)
• Presidential Band (President of Colombia)
• Order of Boyacá at the Grade of Grand Cross (Colombia)
• Medal National Police Grand Civic Star – Extraordinary Category (Colombia).
• Medalla Guardia Presidencial (Colombia).
• Medalla Cruz de La Fuerzas Aire al Mérito Aeronáutico (Colombia).
• Medalla al Mérito General José María Córdoba (Colombia).
• Medalla del Mérito Naval Almirante Padilla (Colombia).
• Medalla Cruz Roja Colombiana (Colombia).
• Medalla Sociedad Bolivarian Colombiana (Colombia).
• Medalla al Mérito Cooperativo (Colombia)
• Medalla Orden al Mérito de las Comunicaciones (Colombia).
• Medalla Cooperativa de Trabajadores Ferroviarios (Colombia).
• Medalla Colombian Confederation of Family Fathers (Colombia).
• Currency Antonio Nariño Colombian Academy of History (Colombia).
• Placa Asociación Colombiana de Amigos del Árbol (Colombia).
• Table III General Assembly Assistance of Confecamaras (Colombia).

International

I listen as a gentleman of Carlos III.

• Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, Gran Cruz (Spain).
• Royal Order of Isabel La Católica Gran Cruz (Spain).
• Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X El Sabio (Spain).
• Placa Club Hunters of Angola. (Luanda - Angola).
• Colegio Mayor Colombiano "Miguel Antonio Caro" Placa memoriativa (Spain).
• Currency commemorative of the delivery of the Buque Gloria in Bilbao (Bilbao - Spain).
• Commemorative currency of the 150 years of creation of the City Bank (1812 - 1962) (New York – United States).
• Radio España Currency commemorative of the 40th anniversary (Spain).
• Medalla Club de Leones Internacional.
• Medalla Cruz Cultural de Ibarra (Ibarra - Ecuador).
• Medalla Orden al Mérito Civil (Spain).
• Order the “Sol of Peru” in the grade of Gran Cruz (Peru).
• Medalla Instituto de Cultura Hispánica (Spain).
• Medalla Iberoamericana William Prescott (United States).
• Medalla Cruz Roja Española (Spain).
• Grand Collar of the Order Piano XII (Vatican City).
• Order to the Merit of Chile – Gran Collar (first class) (Chile).
• Special Cord in the Order of Clouds Propitiates (Republic of China).
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany).
• Legion of Honor Gran Cruz (France).
• Grand Collar of the Order of Freedom in First Class (Venezuela).

Honorary and academic degrees

• Doctor Honoris Causa in Law Political and Social Sciences. (Universidad del Cauca).
• Academia Doctores de Madrid - Académico de Honor (Spain).
• Instituto de Cultura Hispánica - Member of Honor (Spain).
• Honorary Major Brother of the Royal and Ilustre Brotherhood of the Blessed Christ of the Expiration and Our Lady of the Sponsorship of Seville (Spain).

Dedications

• Resolution No, 001 of 1971. Municipal Conservative Directory of Popayán.
• Proposition No. 51. On the tenth anniversary of the death of Dr. Guillermo León Valencia. Senate of the Republic.
• Poem “Hombre de Paz”. By Jorge Robledo Ortiz.
• Poema “Colombia a Guillermo León Valencia”. To Gonzalo Arango.
• Drawing of the face of Guillermo León Valencia. To Oswaldo Guayasamín.