ANAPO (NATIONAL POPULAR ALLIANCE): HISTORY, IDEOLOGY, LEADERS - HISTORY - 2025

The ANAPO (Alianza Nacional Popular) was a political party founded Colombia in 1961. Its creator was Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, a military man and politician who had established a dictatorship from the years 1953-1957.

At the end of the dictatorship, the traditional Colombian parties, liberal and conservative, decided to reach an agreement that would put an end to the polarization of the country. One of the first actions was to take Rojas Pinilla to trial.

Flag of the Popular National Alliance, «ANAPO» - Source: GTRus under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license

In the early 1960s, the former president returned to political activity and founded the National People's Alliance. His first electoral results were positive and in the presidential elections of 1970 he was on the point of proclaiming himself the winner. Rojas also denounced voting fraud.

ANAPO has been considered as a left-wing nationalist organization, although various sensitivities coexisted within it. In the 1980s, with Rojas' daughter at the helm, she decided to support the conservative candidate and, in the 1990s, she formed a coalition with the former components of the M-19.

The party was officially dissolved in 2003, when it joined the left-wing alliance Polo Democrático Independiente.

History

The coup d'état of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla had broken the dominance that the two traditional Colombian parties had maintained and which had been characterized by frequent confrontations.

When the dictatorship was overthrown, liberals and conservatives tried to stop the conflict between them, which caused thousands of deaths. The result was a pact known as the National Front, by which both organizations agreed to take turns as president and share the administration.

Trial of Rojas Pinilla

One of the first measures taken by the National Front government, in 1958, was to put Rojas Pinilla on trial. The latter, who was abroad, returned to the country and appeared in the Senate to defend himself.

Finally, in March of the following year, the politician was convicted and his political rights were withdrawn. However, seven years later, in 1967, the Supreme Court of Justice accepted his claim and restored those rights to him.

Return to politics with ANAPO

Gustavo Rojas, despite his disqualification from politics, decided to found in 1961 a new movement to confront the National Front. On February 6 of the following year, in Duitama, that movement became the National People's Alliance, ANAPO.

That same year, the new party participated in the presidential elections, with Rojas as a candidate. His candidacy was in fourth place, although the justice annulled his votes due to the suspension of his rights.

In 1964, in the following general elections, ANAPO became the main opposition party.

Party strengthening

In 1965, ANAPO founded a newspaper that, according to all experts, was a great help to consolidate. The publication was baptized as Aiza Popular, Diario del Pueblo and was the main critical communication medium with the government.

1970 presidential election

The presidential elections of 1970 marked the greatest electoral success of the Popular National Alliance. The candidate was once again Rojas Pinilla, to whom the Supreme Court of Justice had restored his political rights.

ANAPO received the support of opponents of the government of different ideologies. Thus, both liberals and conservatives opposed to the National Front participated in the coalition, including the military and left-wing groups.

The campaign was carried out in an atmosphere of great tension and the votes produced a very tight result. According to the count, the official candidate, Misael Pastrana, won with 1,625,025 votes, while Rojas won 1,561,468.

Rojas immediately denounced that there had been electoral fraud, something that, according to some analysts, could be true.

M-19

As has been pointed out, several ideological currents coexisted within ANAPO. Among them, some located quite to the left. These were the ones who left the party unhappy with the, according to them, a lukewarm reaction by Rojas to the fraud in the elections.

In 1973, several of these former Anapians created the April 19 Movement, from which emerged the guerrilla group M-19.

Leadership change

The next elections were scheduled for 1974. By that year, Rojas Pinilla suffered serious health problems and her daughter took over the leadership of the party. With a more leftist program, María Eugenia Rojas obtained third place in the elections.

Later tour

Under the leadership of Maria Eugenia Rojas, the party took a conservative turn in the early 1980s. In this way, ANAPO decided to support Belisario Betancur, of the Conservative Party, in the 1982 elections.

Already in the 1990s, ANAPO allied with former M-19 guerrillas to present a candidacy under the name of the M-19 Democratic Alliance. This candidacy rose to second place in the votes for the National Constituent Assembly held in 1991.

Dissolution

Colombia totally reformed its political system in 2003 and one of the consequences was the formal dissolution of ANAPO. Its members joined an alliance of leftist political organizations called the Independent Democratic Pole.

Ideology

When the party was founded, it was based on two fundamental premises: opposition to the National Front and the charisma of the figure of Rojas Pinilla. Thus, in those early moments, ANAPO integrated supporters of various ideological currents: liberals, conservatives, military, socialists, etc.

Traditionally, ANAPO has been classified as a left party. However, its leaders always pointed out that their economic positions, especially on private property, were not the same as those of socialists or communists.

Nationalist movement

One of the main ideological characteristics of ANAPO was its nationalism. Since its inception, the party's program was based on nationalist proposals, whether in health, economics or education.

Exit of the most leftist sectors

As has been pointed out, the alleged fraud in the 1970 elections ended up causing sectors further to the left to leave the party. The result was the creation, a few years later, of the April 19 Movement, from which the M-19 emerged. At first, this guerrilla group presented itself as the armed movement of the Anapians.

Turn in the 80s

When General Rojas' daughter, María Eugenia, took the reins of the party, everyone expected her to strengthen it as the main opposition to the ruling party.

However, in 1982, ANAPO preferred to support the conservative candidate Belisario Betancur for the elections, which caused sectors to the left of the party to abandon it.

Top leaders

The Rojas family held the leadership of the party for most of its existence. This caudillismo, according to some political scientists, was one of the reasons why it was not fully consolidated.

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

The founder of the Popular National Alliance was Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who had reached the presidency of the country in 1953 after giving a coup.

During his government, which lasted four years, Rojas prioritized the construction of infrastructure. Likewise, he sought to end the bipartisan violence that Colombia had suffered for decades.

Faced with these achievements, the Rojas government implemented censorship of the press and developed repressive campaigns against its opponents, both liberal and conservative. Their response was to establish an alliance to end the regime. Continuous demonstrations and protests caused the dictator to leave power in 1957.

Although he was disqualified by the justice, Rojas Pinilla returned to political life in 1961, when he founded the movement from which ANAPO would emerge.

In 1970, with his political rights recovered, Rojas Pinillas was on the verge of regaining the presidency when he was just a few votes from the winner of the elections.

Although there were many complaints of fraud, this was the last time that Rojas had the option of returning to power, since in 1974 he was replaced by his daughter at the head of the party due to health problems.

Maria Eugenia Rojas

María Eugenia Rojas Correa de Moreno Díaz was the daughter of Gustavo Rojas Pinillas and his successor at the head of ANAPO.

During the dictatorship established by her father, Rojas Correa was appointed director of Sendas (National Secretariat for Social Assistance), in addition to being a member of the country's police. At that time she had a decisive influence on the government allowing female suffrage.

After the founding of ANAPO, María Eugenia Rojas was a representative in Congress and, in 1966, she took a seat in the Senate. In 1974, when her father began to suffer from serious health problems, she was chosen to be the candidate for the presidency. She was the first woman to compete for that position.

Rojas Correa achieved third place in those votes and preferred to leave Congress. The next 16 years he spent as a councilor in Bogotá, although he was unable to win the mayoralty in the 1988 elections.

María Eugenia Reyes directed ANAPO for twenty years, until 1994. Her replacement was her son, Samuel Moreno.

References

1. Vega Cantor, Renán. Very extensive history of the Anapo. Recovered from publications.banrepcultural.org
2. Spitaletta, Reinaldo. That scandalous electoral fraud. Obtained from elespectador.com
3. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. National Popular Alliance (ANAPO). Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
4. Revolvy. National Popular Alliance. Retrieved from revolvy.com
5. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Retrieved from britannica.com