- Colombian Conservative Party
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Colombian Conservative Party
Partido Conservador Colombiano
President José Darío Salazar Senate leader Roberto Gerlein Echeverría House leader Alfredo Cuello Baute Founded October 4, 1849 Headquarters Avenida 22 37–09, Barrio La Soledad, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia Ideology Traditionalist Conservatism, Liberal Conservatism Political position Centre-Right International affiliation International Democrat Union Regional affiliation Union of Latin American Parties Official colours Blue[1] Seats in the Chamber of Representatives 38 / 166Seats in the Senate 23 / 102Website http://www.partidoconservador.org/ Politics of Colombia
Political parties
ElectionsThe Colombian Conservative Party (Spanish: Partido Conservador Colombiano), is a conservative political party in Colombia. The party was unofficially founded by a group of Revolutionary Commoners during the Revolutionary War for Independence from the Spanish Monarchy and later formally established during the Greater Colombia formation.
The Conservative party along with the Colombian Liberal Party, dominated the Colombian political scene from the end of the 19th century until 2002, in bipartisan political hegemony. In the mid 20th century, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party established the "National Front" after deposing President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and shared by turns the presidential terms.
Contents
Origins
In 1848, the Liberal Party was founded. However, a dissident group inside the party, called the "ministerial liberals" left the party with the objective of creating a new one. In 1849, Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and José Eusebio Caro, after months of deliberations, wrote the ideological platform and fundamental programs of the Colombian Conservative Party. They both created the newspaper called “La Civilización” to promote their political ideas. The Colombian Conservative party was formally founded on October 4, 1849, when a declaration of political principles was published in the "La Civilización" newspaper.[2] The party's original program called for the defense of constitutional order and legality against dictatorship and monarchy, the protection of property rights against communism, that of Roman Catholic morality against atheism, the equality of citizens before the law, and the victory of civilization against barbarism.
Ideology
Colombian conservative party supporters
The party's current programme includes several objectives: to continue the search for peace in Colombia (following the examples of former presidents Guillermo León Valencia, Belisario Betancur and Andrés Pastrana, as members of the party), to preserve national unity and the continuing belief in God held by the majority of Colombians, the need for a reform of the 1991 constitution in order to correct some of its flaws to promote the modernization of the state, to fight unemployment, poverty, and lack of security and to extend and defend property rights for all Colombians.
- Belief of God being the center of the universe.
- Belief in private systems.
- Belief in Fighting Communism and all its ideals.
- Belief in Tradition.
- Belief in Free Trade.
- Belief in an Organized Society
- Belief in defending family and life before anything.
- Belief that these are the ideals that will provide a better future for the Colombian Society.
Political history
La Violencia 
Prelude Murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán El Bogotazo Political Parties Liberal Party Conservative Party Colombian Communist Party Presidents of Colombia Mariano Ospina Pérez Laureano Gómez Gustavo Rojas Pinilla The Colombian Conservative Party is usually the second largest single party in the Colombian Congress, though far behind the numbers corresponding to the Colombian Liberal Party or those of multiple independent factions and candidates.
From 1958 to 1978 it, and the other major party, the Colombian Liberal Party, shared power as the result of the National Front agreement that followed the fall of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.
The Colombian Conservative Party has become a close political ally of President Álvaro Uribe, who was formerly a member of the opposing Liberal party. The party did not present its own candidate for the 2006 presidential elections, and instead supported President Uribe's reelection.
In 2010, the party held for the first time, primary elections to choose a candidate for presidency. Noemí Sanín was nominated presidential candidate of the Conservative Party, the first woman to do so.
Electoral Results
In legislative elections of 2006 the party won 29 out of 166 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 18 out of 100 seats in the Senate.
In 2010, the party won 23 seats in senate.
Further events
In 1998, Andres Pastrana Arango, a conservative, was elected president of Colombia, setting a conservative tendency that would catch on with the Colombian politics, after achieving the approval for the Plan Colombia.
References
External links
- Partido Conservador (Homepage, Spanish)
- Democracia a distancia: Elecciones 2006 (Portalcol.com) (Information about the party's list of candidates to the Colombian Senate, Spanish).
- Conservatism in Colombia Information of conservatism and its development in Colombia
Categories:- International Democrat Union member parties
- La Violencia
- Political parties in Colombia
- Political parties established in 1848
- Conservative parties in Columbia
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