Julio César Turbay Ayala

Infobox_President
name=Julio César Turbay
nationality=Lebanese


order=33th President of the Republic of Colombia
term_start=August 7, 1978
term_end=August 7, 1982
predecessor=Alfonso López Michelsen
successor=Belisario Betancur
birth_date=June 18, 1916
birth_place=Bogotá, DC
death_date=September 13, 2005
death_place=Bogotá, DC
party=Liberal Party

Julio César Turbay Ayala (June 18, 1916 – September 13, 2005) son of Antonio Turbay, businessman from Tanourine, Lebanon [ [http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/09/13/obituarios/1126619391.html Julio César Turbay Ayala, ex presidente de Colombia - obituarios - elmundo.es ] ] , was president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982, as a member (and later leader) of the Colombian Liberal Party. A noteworthy personal idiosyncrasy was his custom of wearing bow ties, a sartorial habit extremely uncommon in Colombia.

Presidency

1978 Security Statute

In response to an increase in guerrilla activity from the 19th of April Movement and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, as well as to the Colombian Communist Party's attempts to extend its political influence and a 1977 national strike, a 1978 decree, known as the Security Statute, was implemented by Turbay's administration.

The Security Statute gave the military an increased degree of freedom of action, especially in urban areas, to detain, interrogate and eventually judge suspected guerrillas or their collaborators before military tribunals. Human rights organizations, newspaper columnists, political personalities and opposition groups complained about an increase in the number of arbitrary detentions and acts of torture as a result.

Although the Security Statute allegedly benefitted some of the counterinsurgency operations of the security forces, such as the capture of most of the M-19's command structure and many of the guerrilla group's urban cells, the measure became highly unpopular inside and outside Colombia, promoting some measure of public sympathy for the victims of the real or perceived military abuses whether they were guerrillas or not, and was phased out towards the end of the Turbay administration.

1980 Dominican embassy crisis

The M-19's late 1980 takeover of the Dominican Republic's embassy, during which sixteen ambassadors were held hostage for 61 days, presented a complicated challenge to the Turbay administration.

The incident soon spread throughout worldwide headlines, as ambassadors from the United States of America, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Israel and Venezuela had been taken hostage, as well as Colombia's top representative to the Holy See.

Turbay, despite pressure from military and political sectors, avoided deciding to solve the crisis through the use of direct military force, and instead eventually agreed to let the M-19 rebels travel to Cuba. Allegedly, the rebels also received USD $1 million as payment, instead of the initial $50 million that they had originally demanded from the government.

That a mostly peaceful resolution to the crisis was found has been generally considered as a positive aspect of Turbay's administration, as seen by later and contemporary commentators and historians.

In particular, former M-19 members, including Rosemberg Pabón, the commander of the guerrilla group's operative unit at the time, later recognized and respected Turbay's handling of the situation.

Post-presidency

Turbay was a supporter of president Álvaro Uribe. He initially opposed the possibility of presidential reelection in Colombia, but he later changed his views, contributing to founding a movement known as "Patria Nueva" ("New Homeland") in order to help promote Uribe's 2006 reelection aspirations.

Support for a prisoner exchange with the FARC

Turbay was seen as at odds with some of Uribe's policies, however, in particular due to his activism in favor of the implementation and negotiation of a prisoner exchange with the FARC guerrilla group. As part of this effort, Turbay participated in several meetings with the relatives of FARC hostages and signed several declarations of support, together with other former presidents such as Alfonso López Michelsen and Ernesto Samper.

On August 31 2005, Turbay proposed that the government could exchange each jailed guerrilla for ten "economic" hostages (those held for extortion purposes) and one "political" hostage (those held by the FARC in order to pressure the Colombian government to release its jailed members).

Personal life

Turbay married his niece, Nydia Quintero Turbay, on July 1, 1948. They had four children together: Julio César, Diana, Claudia, and María Victoria. However, their marriage was annulled by the Catholic Church, and in 1986 he married his longtime companion Ámparo Canal, to whom he remained married until his death.

In January 1991, Turbay's daughter, the journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped by orders of the Medellin Cartel and died during a failed police rescue operation not sanctioned by her family. Her kidnapping is chronicled in the Nobel Prize-winning book News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Turbay died on September 13, 2005. Despite his alleged human rights violations, he was honored by a state funeral personally led by President Álvaro Uribe. He was buried at the 'Sacromonte Caves' at Canton Norte, an army base in Bogota.

References

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11740772 Find-A-Grave biography]