ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN COLOMBIA - HISTORY - 2025

The history of political parties in Colombia is basically the history of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. Both formations sink their roots in the first moments of Colombia as an independent country, when the ideological positions that would later characterize them appeared.

One of the aspects that divided the independence leaders was how to organize the country. Some preferred a federal state, while others were in favor of centralism. This issue, plus others related to the economy, the role of the Church or the support of the privileged classes, led to the creation of two different parties.

El Capitolio Nacional (headquarters of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia) - Source: Rikimedia under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution / Share-Alike 3.0 license

The Liberal Party was born in 1848, when José Ezequiel Rojas endowed it with a political program. The following year, José Eusebio Caro and Mariano Ospina Rodríguez did the same with those of the Conservative Party.

From that moment on, Colombian political history has been that of the confrontation between both parties. On many occasions, their differences ended up provoking bloody civil wars and, on others, they managed to reach agreements to govern. The appearance of new important formations had to wait until well into the 20th century.

Origin of Colombian political parties

Although its official birth would still take a few decades to occur, since the independence of the Spanish Crown two groups appeared with different projects on how to organize the country. Already in those early years, disputes occurred between the supporters of the federal system and the defenders of centralism.

The federalists, with intellectuals such as Camilo Torres or Jorge Tadeo, advocated the formation of provinces that enjoyed a certain autonomy. The centralists, led by Antonio Nariño, preferred a centralized country with a strong government.

In time, each group would give rise to one of Colombia's two traditional political parties. The centralists would be the seed of the Conservative Party, while the Federalists would found the Liberal Party.

Ideological differences in its beginnings

The division between federalism and centralism was not the only thing that differentiated these groups. Among the conservatives there were many supporters of slavery, landowners, high-ranking military personnel, or prominent members of the Church.

For their part, the federalists were against slavery, they wanted to give rights to the indigenous people, and merchants and artisans abounded.

These discrepancies, as well as ideological, had a great economic basis. Conservatives, usually upper class, landowners and slave owners, preferred to maintain the same way of life as during the colonial era and which favored their enrichment.

Quite the opposite sought the liberals. This group wanted to totally change society, with egalitarian laws that drank from the enlightened tradition.

Bipartisanship in Colombia

Once the two parties were constituted, Colombia lived a political system based on bipartisanship. This, however, was not as closed as the American one, since in both groups there were different factions that fought each other.

From 1853 to 1991, the two traditional parties won all the elections held. In 1886 and 1910, however, the victors were dissidents from both parties who sought to form new parties.

Conservative Party

The antecedent of the Conservative Party was the so-called Retrograde Party, which appeared during the presidency of Santander (1832-1837). Their program was to return to the structures of the colony and they opposed any group that tried to introduce the ideas of the Enlightenment.

In 1837, the Retrograde Party and an anti-Santander sector of the Progressive Party united and created the Ministerial Party. Its candidate, José Ignacio de Márquez, was elected president of Nueva Granada. Other prominent members were José Eusebio Caro and Mariano Ospina Rodriguez.

The confrontations with the Santander supporters were constant. This led to former Bolivarians ending up supporting the government to end the reforms that Santander himself had enacted.

The ministerials achieved reelection and promulgated the Constitution of 1843, considered the most conservative in Colombian history.

The next president was Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. Despite being from the same Ministerial Party, the president tried to reach agreements with the liberals. This caused the rejection of part of its formation and the division of the party between moderates, with Mosquera himself at the head, and radicals, opposed to any rapprochement with the liberals.

Creation of the party

José Eusebio Caro and Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, both from the most radical faction, decided to found the Conservative Party. They published their program on October 4, 1849, in the newspaper La Civilización. They were joined by opponents of Mosquera, the high clergy, and many landowners and mine owners.

Regeneration

The Constitution of Rionegro, established by a liberal government in 1863, included a series of reforms that harmed traditionally conservative sectors. In addition, it established the federal organization of the country.

The consequence was a highly unstable period, with four civil wars between Liberals and Conservatives.

After several decades without being able to reach power, the Conservative Party supported in 1884 the candidacy of Rafael Nuñez, who, four years earlier, had been elected president as the candidate of the Liberal Party.

Nuñez and the Conservatives drafted a new constitution that repealed most of the reforms enacted by the Liberals. Colombia was once again a centralized country, with a protectionist economy and with education in the hands of the Catholic Church. This period received the name of Regeneration.

The Conservative Hegemony

The Regeneration began a historical stage marked by continuous conservative governments. The party remained in power until 1930, although that does not mean that stability came to the country.

During that stage, Colombia suffered the loss of Panama, the Thousand Day War and the massacre of the banana plantations. The growth of the workers' vote caused the Liberals to regain the presidency in 1930.

The National Front

A coup led by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in 1953 caused a regime change in the country. Rojas was, in principle, a liberal military man, but he maintained good relations with the conservative sector headed by Ospina Pérez.

Moderate members of both parties supported the military in the first moments of his mandate. Later, Rojas founded his own party, the Popular Action Movement, and began to antagonize the traditional parties.

Faced with the dictatorial drift of Rojas, conservatives and liberals reached an unprecedented agreement in Colombia: to share power. This system, called the National Front, was a pact in which both parties took turns in the presidency and shared the governing bodies.

Some dissidents, both conservatives and liberals, tried to stand in the elections to break the National Front, but without success. The agreement lasted until 1974.

Liberal Party

The Colombian Liberal Party was founded before the Conservative, making it the oldest in Colombia. Its creator was José Ezequiel Rojas, who shaped his program on July 16, 1848.

However, the term liberal had already been used previously to define a political group. Specifically, during the Ocaña Convention it was used to designate the followers of Santander who opposed Bolívar.

Between 1832 and 1837, with Santander as president, part of his supporters founded the Progressive Party. Their ideas sought for Colombia to progress socially and materially and, for this, they considered that it was necessary to enact important reforms.

This party suffered a division in 1936 between the democratic progressives, led by Obando and supported by Santander, and the doctrinaire progressives, led by Azuero.

Both sides barely differed from each other, so they soon agreed to oppose the conservative government of Márquez. This reaction preventing several progressive leaders, including Obando, from exercising any political activity.

Foundation

Years later, Ezequiel Rojas published an article in El Notice in which he explained the causes of his support for José Hilario López in the following elections.

This writing, which was published on July 16, 1848, is considered the origin of the Liberal Party. Rojas explained what he was looking for from liberal ideas and established a series of principles that became an authentic electoral program.

Constitution of 1863

The best period of the Liberal Party in the nineteenth century occurred between 1863 and 1886. During those years, radical liberalism ruled uninterruptedly, in a stage that has received the name of Radical Olympus.

Liberal governments implemented policies that promoted secularism in the State, which was very badly received by the Catholic Church. Likewise, they carried out a reform that made the country a federal state.

A good part of its measures were included in the Constitution of 1863. Under the name of the United States of Colombia, the country was made up of nine states with broad autonomy.

Ostracism in the Conservative Hegemony

After the two decades of liberal government, the conservatives would return to occupy the presidency. The Liberal Party was divided and one sector preferred to ally itself with the Conservatives.

The situation was so tense that in 1885 a bloody civil war began between both sides. The winners were those in favor of returning to political centralism. In 1886, a new constitution ended federal Colombia.

That date marked the beginning of the Conservative Hegemony, although the instability did not disappear. Between 1899 and 1902, a new conflict called the War of the Thousand Days, returned to face liberals and conservatives, with a new victory for the latter.

The Liberal Party, although some of its members were part of conservative government cabinets, did not return to the presidency until 1930.

Second Liberal Republic

Internal confrontations within conservatism made it easier for the Liberals to return to government in 1930. At that time its leader was Alfonso López Pumarejo, although the first president of this formation was Enrique Olaya Herrera.

After this, López Pumarejo himself was elected president. The liberal governments continued with the presidencies of Eduardo Santos, another term of López and one of Alberto Lleras Camargo. In total, there were 16 years of liberal majorities.

During this period, known as the Second Liberal Republic, reforms were enacted in the protection of workers, the formation of unions, and state intervention in the economy.

In 1846, the Conservatives returned to power thanks to differences within the Liberal Party.

After a few years in the opposition and a temporary support for the government of Gustavo Rojas Pinillas, in 1953, the Liberals negotiated with the Conservatives an alliance to divide the government and alternate in the presidency.

Late 20th century and other Colombian parties

In 1974, the two traditional parties in Colombia decided to end the National Front. One of the consequences of this agreement was that ideological differences had been reduced to a minimum.

The two political formations suffered several splits in the following years. In addition, new parties began to appear, such as the National Salvation Movement, the National Conservative Movement or the New Democratic Force.

Multi-party system

Despite the emergence of these new formations, experts believe that the true multi-party system appeared in 1991, with the constitution promulgated that year.

However, Liberals and Conservatives have continued to be the most important parties, although dissident figures with different names have sometimes come to power.

References

1. Colombian Liberal Party. History of the Liberal Party. Obtained from partidoliberal.org.co
2. Colombian Conservative Party. History. Obtained from matchconservador.com
3. Cultural Network of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia. History of Political Parties in Colombia. Obtained from encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org
4. Avoid, Bertie. The political parties in Colombia. Retrieved from thebogotapost.com
5. Buchot, Emmanuel. Political parties in Colombia. Retrieved from voyagesphotosmanu.com
6. William Paul McGreevey, Harvey F. Kline. Colombia. Retrieved from britannica.com
7. Encyclopedia of the Nations. Colombia - Political parties. Retrieved from nationsencyclopedia.com