Julius Cesar Turbay
Julio César Turbay Ayala (Bogotá, June 18, 1916-ibid., September 13, 2005) was a Colombian politician and diplomat of Lebanese descent, a member of the Liberal Party. He was elected president of Colombia for the period 1978-1982.
Before the presidency, he held various public positions such as senator of the republic, representative to the chamber for Bogotá, minister of mines and oil, minister of foreign affairs and diplomats in various governments. He was also multiple times director of his party.
He took office with little education, since he did not have a university degree, which earned him criticism, in addition to the fact that his false starts with the press and his physical appearance made him the target of jokes and ridicule even after of his mandate.
During his government, the urban guerrilla Movement April 19 (M-19) carried out some of its best-known incursions, which led him to promote an institutional guideline known as the Security Statute. He governed during the end of the marimbera bonanza and the beginning of drug trafficking in Colombia, he inaugurated color television in Colombia, presented a failed constitutional reform in 1979 and allowed the foundation of the first military university in Colombia: the Nueva Granada Military University.
From the leadership of his party, he exerted a wide influence on his successors Virgilio Barco, César Gaviria, Ernesto Samper and Álvaro Uribe. His initial rigid positions soon softened, until he became a facilitator of dialogue between the government and armed actors of all kinds. He clashed ideologically with other sectors of his party, headed by Carlos Lleras Restrepo and his political wing Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, and the New Liberalism.
He is the father of former comptroller and former congressman Julio César Turbay Quintero and journalist Diana Turbay, who died in a rescue attempt at the hands of the Medellín Cartel, and grandfather of journalist María Carolina Hoyos Turbay, and politician Miguel Uribe Turbay. He starred in one of Colombia's most famous divorces, in which Pope John Paul II personally dissolved his union with former first lady Nydia Quintero.
Biography
He was born in Bogotá on June 18, 1916, in the home of Lebanese immigrants who had settled in the country decades before.
He completed his first studies at the school of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Instituto San Bernardo de La Salle, then at the National School of Commerce and at the University College, where he finished his baccalaureate studies, despite the fact that he was later educated by his sister Hortensia and became self-taught, as a result of his family's financial difficulties.
Political career
Turbay began his political career within the Liberal Party, as a councilor for Usme in 1936, then he was mayor of Girardot in 1937 (the town where his mother was from) and a councilor for Engativá in 1938. He joined this corporation together with the also novice Alfonso López Michelsen (son of former president Alfonso López Pumarejo) and the conservative Álvaro Gómez Hurtado (son of deputy Laureano Gómez). That same year he entered the Cundinamarca Assembly, where he held a seat until 1942.
In 1943 he was appointed as Representative to the Chamber for Cundinamarca, supporting the legislative measures of the second government of López, Echandía and the first of Lleras, until the party lost power in 1946, becoming a fierce critic of the government conservative. By 1949, when the conservative president Mariano Ospina Pérez closed the Congress, he had already presided over the Chamber on two occasions. As leader of the opposition to the conservative governments, he was part of the National Directorate of Liberalism in 1953, and in 1957, after the rise of the Military Junta, he was appointed Minister of Mines and Petroleum.
Diplomatic posts
In 1958, during the second government of Alberto Lleras Camargo, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Relations, a position he held until July 1, 1961. A well-known defender of the National Front, he was elected Senator of the Republic successively between terms 1962-1966, 1966-1970, 1970-1974 and 1974-1978.
In 1967 he was appointed Designated to the Presidency and exercised the executive power for a few days, due to the absence of the liberal president Carlos Lleras Restrepo. Lleras also appointed him as ambassador to the United Nations (UN), from 1967 to 1969, one of his most outstanding achievements being the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, which had been broken since the Bogotazo, at the instigation of USA.
In 1973, Conservative President Misael Pastrana Borrero appointed him ambassador to the United Kingdom, until 1974. Then, in 1975, his former colleague, President López Michelsen, appointed him ambassador to the United States, until 1976.
1974 Election
By the 1974 elections, Turbay was already considered one of the three possible presidential candidates of liberalism, along with former president Lleras Restrepo and Alfonso López Michelsen. Seeing himself at a disadvantage, Turbay supported López, who won the nomination and ultimately the presidential elections, finding himself up against the sons of two historical rivals: Álvaro Gómez, as a conservative representative and son of former president Laureano Gómez, and María Eugenia Rojas, daughter of former President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, for the Popular National Alliance (Anapo).
On the day of López's inauguration, August 7, 1974, Turbay, who was acting as president of the Senate, was the one who imposed the presidential sash on him, and took the oath from him.
Presidential campaign
For the 1978 presidential campaign, Turbay, being a senator of the republic, announced his campaign to aspire to the presidency for his party. The Lopista sector of the party joined his campaign, and the dissident faction supported former president Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who was seeking a second term. Despite the strong support of the Lopista liberals for Turbay, President López himself had lost credibility and support from civil society as a result of the 1977 National Strike and the economic disaster caused by inflation.
He also faced the conservative Belisario Betancur, also supported by ANAPO, liberal dissidents and the Colombian Christian Democrats. Less important were the campaigns of the leftist Julio César Pernía, supported by dissident anapistas and the communists; Jaime Piedrahita Cardona of the workers' coalition and the Socialist Workers Party; and the former commander of the National Army Álvaro Valencia Tovar.
In his campaign, Turbay promised a strong hand against the insurgency and measures to prevent the riots that paralyzed the country the previous year during the civic strike. He also received the support of other sectors of the population, such as the influential mystic Regina 11, who, as a result of several previous scandals related to his mystical activities, including the veto of his successful radio program by President López himself, summoned his followers so that they would support Turbay, since he promised to lift the veto. Turbay remained a personal friend of Regina 11 for several years.
Ultimately, Turbay defeated Betancur in a hard-fought political campaign, since "the mainstream press" openly supported the candidacy of Lleras (the large press was the conglomerate in which Turbay himself classified El Tiempo and El Espectador). He also had to face the bad image that a report from the US program 60 Minutes left him, which linked him to drug trafficking, despite the fact that the American embassy itself publicly rejected the statements.
Despite the defeat, Lleras, through Luis Carlos Galán (whom he was a mentor), represented a strong opposition to the Turbay government, who founded the New Liberalism party, key during the following decade.
Presidency (1978-1982)
Turbay assumed the presidency without a higher education degree, a fact that earned him numerous criticisms throughout his political career. Later, the Free University, the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, and the Universidad del Rosario, awarded him a doctorate Honoris Causa in Law and Social Sciences.
Days before his inauguration, on July 21, 1978, he was decorated by outgoing President López Michelsen with the Cruz de Boyacá, in a ceremony attended by the outgoing and incoming first ladies of the nation.
Turbay Ayala's presidential term coincided with the growth of the guerrilla movement of the April 19 Movement (M-19); as well as the rise of violence and kidnapping related to illicit drug trafficking. The attack he launched against the insurgency led to numerous violations of human rights, but also allowed drug trafficking to grow out of control due to the lack of action by the Colombian state.
Cabinet
Economic measures
His government emphasized production, security and employment, with significant advances in infrastructure, particularly in the electricity sector. However, his economic policies were not successful: coffee prices fell, while inflation and foreign debt increased, while employment only grew in the informal sector.
Security and internal armed conflict
Security Charter
He stood out during his tenure for the controversial Security Statute, called to counter the different rebel movements that emerged in the previous decade. Torture, forced disappearances and other human rights violations were carried out, which led to the exile of numerous intellectuals, including the writer Gabriel García Márquez. Freedom of expression and mobilization were limited, the framework of the Military Penal Code was expanded on civilians and the violation of Habeas Corpus was enshrined.
Article 28 of the Colombian Constitution of 1886 was dusted off, which allowed the detention for up to 10 days of people suspected of disturbing public order. In addition, such legal resources facilitated the excesses of the public force, by allowing them to carry out arbitrary and prolonged detentions, interrogations with torture and military processes without guarantees of defense. There were violations of Human Rights, an offensive against the unions and the labor unions. His statements are also famousː "In Colombia there is not a single political prisoner". The only political prisoner in Colombia is me.
War against the M-19
In the new year of 1979, the M-19 carried out the Robbery of weapons from the North Canton in Bogotá and they stole 5000 weapons. The operation was dubbed Blue Whale. The guerrillas rented a house near the battalion, and for several months they dug a tunnel to the warehouse. On December 31, 1978, they vacated the warehouse, leaving graffiti on the walls claiming responsibility for the act. In retaliation, the National Army dismantled the networks of M-19 militants and recovered part of the lost arsenal.
In February 1980, the M-19 took over the embassy of the Dominican Republic and kidnapped 15 diplomats: 67 days later, after negotiations with the rebels, they traveled to Cuba with some of the hostages and there they released them, ending the takeover. It was later said that the kidnappers had been paid for the release of the hostages, a version that the government denied. Part of public opinion expressed its approval of the proposals for a national agreement of the members of the M-19 from jail. The M-19 carried out the failed invasion of the Pacific Coast by a column of 150 men, stopped by the FF.MM Operation Córdoba. The M-19, on March 11, 1981, took Mocoa (Putumayo).
In August, the M-19 took Belén de los Andaquíes and attacked the Casa de Nariño with mortar fire on July 20, 1981. In September 1981, the president formed a National Peace Commission, made up of 9 members and headed by Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who failed in the dialogue with the insurgents. On October 20, 1981, the M-19 hijacked an Aeropesca plane in Medellín, loaded it with weapons in La Guajira and finally made it land in the Orteguaza River (Caquetá). On November 15, the sinking of The Karina (M-19 vessel) by the National Navy, when it intended to bring weapons along the Pacific coast.
The National Peace Commission continued with its work and proposed an amnesty, issued by Decree Law 474 of 1982, it received a new refusal in response. In the same way, the ELN, the EPL and the growth of the FARC-EP were reorganized, going from 6 fronts in 1978 to 27 in 1982, which carried out the Attack on Puerto Crevo (Meta) on August 18, 1980, (the so-called Operation Cisne Tres for subversion) was the first in which a complete unit of the Military Forces is reduced.
Drug trafficking and paramilitarism
During his government, drug trafficking underwent a rapid transformation and its influence on society began to become evident. A year before assuming the presidency, the Medellín drug lords came together to create what he called the DEA in 1983 Medellín Cartel. The lack of action by his government allowed the growth of cocaine trafficking, influenced by the end of the so-called marimbera bonanza. Some scholars indicate that this negligence occurred due to the government's obsession with eradicating the left, in addition to the bribes received by the authorities and politicians.
The pressure exerted by the government of Jimmy Carter and the accusations of complicity with drug trafficking led Turbay to begin the persecution of illicit crops. They carried out the Withering Operation against the Marimbera Bonanza. In 1979, both governments signed the first extradition treaty in the history of Colombia. It was ratified in the early 1980s although it did not carry the president's signature, which led to its invalidity in 1986.
In 1981, the Medellín Cartel, among others, created Death to Kidnappers (MAS), the first narco-paramilitary group in Colombia. The paramilitary self-defense organization with the support of the Military Forces, such as in Magdalena Medio, where the Peasant Association was born of Ranchers and Farmers of Magdalena Medio (ACDEGAM). The American Anti-Communist Alliance (AAA).
Society
Color television
The establishment of color television stands out among his works on Saturday, December 1, 1979, despite the fact that the first time a color signal was seen in Colombia was on June 13, 1974, during the World Cup in Federal Germany, in the confrontation between Brazil and Yugoslavia (0-0). The first broadcast was made on the outskirts of the headquarters of the National Institute of Radio and Television (Inravisión), and although it was aimed at 25 million of Colombian homes, the service was gradually arriving since not all the population had adequate televisions for it, and those who had them years ago were people with high economic resources.
The broadcast showed President Turbay, and his minister José Manuel Arias Carrizosa, along with images of the Casa de Nariño and the Colombian geography, was the special programming for that day. Turbay also became the first president in making a presidential address televised in color, through Channel 7 (frequency of the First Inravision Network), who made the first transmission of this type.
Other works
He also presented the National Integration Plan, in which the infrastructure had a very significant boost. In 1979 he also presented a bill to reform the 1886 constitution, which sought to modify the judicial system and the functioning of Congress, but the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice declared it unenforceable (contrary to the constitution and therefore illegal), in 1981.
His then wife and first lady Nydia Quintero had a non-profit foundation known as Solidaridad por Colombia since 1975, which under his tenure became very popular thanks to the walks he took along with guest artists and international stars through the streets from Bogota. Despite the social support and the prestige that its director was the first lady, Turbay did not directly participate in the foundation.
Turbay created the Nueva Granada Military University, a special public institution days before he handed over power, and which at first was aimed at professionalizing members of the public force.
Foreign Relations
In terms of foreign policy, the country moved to the right, showing itself as an ally of the United States, first with President Jimmy Carter, and then with his successor, Ronald Reagan; The latter was the one who began to demand results from the Colombian government on the control of drug trafficking. Despite this pressure, Turbay aligned the country around the conservative policies of Ronald Reagan, which caused him problems with neighboring American nations. He also clashed, in 1980, with the Nicaraguan contras, claiming territorial rights over maritime zones. in dispute.
Turbay also became involved with the United Kingdom, supporting the British cause during the Falklands War, a position that isolated the country from other Latin American nations, which were decidedly on the side of the Argentine dictatorship. The controversy did not stop there, since under the Turbay administration, Colombia cut diplomatic relations with Cuba, due to Fidel Castro's support for the Colombian guerrillas, and in open complacency with the United States, an ironic fact, since Turbay was the Colombian ambassador who reestablished relations diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1968.
Controversies
Turbay was the subject of numerous jokes and humorous imitations due to his nasal voice and his custom of wearing bow ties, which he recovered from his predecessor's father, and one of his mentors, Alfonso López Pumarejo. Also for his apparent calmness and his lack of consistency when responding to the press. The bad reputation that accompanied him also transcended borders, since the CIA, in declassified documents, reported that because of his Lebanese ancestry (they called him "El Turco") and his lack of university education was not taken seriously among the Colombian elites.
He is still remembered as one of the most unpopular presidents Colombia has ever had, particularly given his tacit acceptance that a government apparently "requires" of a certain level of illegality in order to function, and/or that bureaucratic loot in official entities is a kind of "necessary evil". Likewise, the unfortunate promise he made in his campaign ː & # 34; I will reduce corruption to its fair proportions & # 34;, in which he supposedly was determined to live, is particularly well known. with corruption.
Post government
His government became so unpopular that former President Alfonso López Michelsen (who was running for a second term in 1982) was defeated by the conservative Belisario Betancur, Turbay's previous rival in the 1978 race., Turbay continued to be a strong authority in his party, even becoming considered one of the most powerful ex-presidents of his time, along with the conservative Misael Pastrana.
In 1985, he supported the candidacy of his fellow party member Virgilio Barco, who defeated the liberal dissident Luis Carlos Galán (supported by former liberal president Carlos Lleras Restrepo) and the conservative Álvaro Gómez Hurtado in the elections. Barco's health problems, his diagnosis of Alzheimer's, his advanced age and the decision to marginalize the conservatives in power led the new president to be the target of all kinds of criticism, which even implied that Turbay, along with Germán Montoya Vélez, was the one who made the decisions in the government.
He was ambassador to the Holy See between 1987 and 1989 at the request of President Barco, ironically since he managed to have his Catholic marriage annulled in 1983; and to Italy, at the request of President César Gaviria. Both diplomatic missions were interrupted when he was called by the Liberal Party to be its National Director, in the framework of the 1990 and 1994 presidential elections, to support the campaigns of Luis Carlos Galán (who was assassinated in 1989 and with whom he had agreed to a reunification for 1990), and then that of César Gaviria and Ernesto Samper, both elected presidents.
Despite the fact that in the past he had been a persecutor of the M-19, in 1990 he was linked to the peace talks that the Barco government carried out with the insurgency, resulting in the peace agreement of March 1990, which allowed Carlos Pizarro to run as presidential candidate, a candidacy that was frustrated after Pizarro's assassination in an airplane, in April 1990. In fact, Turbay was the architect of an agreement between the pre-candidates and the M-19, so that the process would not backed off when Barco left power, and went so far as to sayː
"If the M-19 did the war seriously, it can also make peace serious."Julius Caesar Turbay, 1990
His only daughter and his right-hand man, the journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped on August 30, 1990 by the Los Extraditables group, who wanted to put pressure on the government of President Gaviria to eliminate the extradition agreements with the USA. Turbay wrote a letter to President Gaviria asking that his daughter's rescue not be sought by force. Despite this and a multitude of other requests in the same sense by other members of his family, the National Army made a rescue operation between the towns of Copacabana and Guarne in Antioquia, in the midst of which Diana received a bullet wound that ended her life on January 25, 1991. Turbay Ayala never publicly complained about the fact.
Last years and death
Tired of liberal governments and faced with the failure of the peace talks between the government of Andrés Pastrana and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP), Turbay supported the presidential candidacy of the former governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez in 2002, who founded the Patria Nueva Movement, where he brought together all the dissident liberals who supported the uribista project. Until the moment of his death, Turbay continued to support the Uribe government, even suggesting to him in its time to appoint Pastrana as ambassador to the United States. In contrast to his rigid stance as president, during the last years of his life he was recognized as a pacifist, conciliatory and mediating man.
Julio César Turbay died in Bogotá on September 13, 2005, victim of cardiorespiratory arrest, at the age of 89. His funeral ceremonies were carried out with the honors that correspond to a Head of State and were headed by then President Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Private life
Family
Turbay was the son of Lebanese immigrants. His father was the sheikh Antonio Amín Turbay. Turbay was a Christian nobleman, a native of Tanaoure, Lebanon, who arrived in Colombia in 1880, where he settled in Cartagena, before moving to Bogotá, where he married Rosaura Ayala, a Colombian, in 1903. The couple also had Adhalía, Aníbal and Hortensia Turbay Ayala and four other children. During his stay in Cartagena, Turbay became a personal friend of then-President Rafel Núñez.
Julio César Turbay was a distant cousin of the Lebanese politician and soldier José Antonio Turbay, also a native of Tanaourin, who immigrated to Colombia at the turn of the century XX to take refuge from the persecution of the Ottoman Empire.
Marriages
Turbay was married twice.
His first wife Nydia Quintero was his niece, as she was the daughter of his sister Adhalía Turbay Ayala. They had been married since 1948, when Turbay was 32 and Nydia was just 16. For personal reasons, the couple decided to end their marriage while Turbay was still in power. The dissolution of Catholic marriage came in 1983, given its incestuous nature, a year after handing over the government to the conservative Belisario Betancur. The couple's lawyers managed to get Pope John Paul II to declare the marriage dissolved due to their consanguinity.Turbay later married Amparo Canal and Mrs. Nydia married Gustavo Balcázar Monzón, his current spouse.
His brother Aníbal Turbay Ayala was a notary and lawyer, and his son, Aníbal Turbay Bernal, was the sentimental partner of the journalist and model Virginia Vallejo, later the lover of Pablo Escobar, whom Turbay Bernal got to know personally in 1982. His sister Hortencia Turbay Ayala was his tutor when he finished high school, since he could not graduate due to lack of resources.
A great-niece of hers, Paola Turbay, graduated as a psychologist, is a journalist, actress and presenter. She was Miss Colombia in 1991 and first runner-up in Miss Universe 1992. She is the director of the IndieBo independent film festival. He is also related to politician and former congressman Jorge Gechem Turbay, kidnapped by the FARC-EP in 2002 and released in 2008.
Offspring
His four children were conceived from his first marriage to Nydia Quintero. His eldest son Julio César Turbay Quintero was a congressman and comptroller general of Colombia in the period 2005 - 2009. He was a candidate for the Governor of Cundinamarca in 2003 and is the father of the congressional candidate for the Liberal Party Julio César Turbay III. His second daughter, Diana Turbay, was a journalist and his personal secretary while he was president of Colombia. She died in January 1991, after being fatally wounded during the rescue attempt at the hands of the Medellín Cartel.
Diana was married to the politician and businessman Miguel Uribe with whom she had today's politician Miguel Uribe Turbay. From his first marriage he had María Carolina Hoyos Turbay, vice minister of ICT in the government of Juan Manuel Santos, and director of the Solidarity Foundation for Colombia, created by his grandmother in 1975. She was director of the Matamoros Foundation, which helps to veterans of the Colombian armed conflict.
Claudia Turbay, their third daughter, is a journalist and was ambassador to Uruguay in the first government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez. María Victoria Turbay, her fourth daughter, is a lawyer and politician. She was a candidate for the Bogotá Council for Radical Change in 2003.
In fiction
Víctor Hugo Morant played the politician in the 2012 series Escobar el Patron del Mal. His performance coincided with the kidnapping scenes of Diana Turbay, played by Liesel Potdevin.