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Colombian Liberal Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Partido Liberal Colombiano)

Colombian Liberal Party
Partido Liberal Colombiano
PresidentCésar Gaviria
Founded16 July 1848;
178 years ago (1848-07-16)
HeadquartersAv. Caracas, Teusaquillo, calle 36, Bogotá, Colombia
Think tankLiberal Thinking Institute [es]
Youth wingONJL [es]
Women's wingNational Organization of Liberals' Women
Ideology
Political positionCentre to centre-left
International affiliation
Regional affiliationCOPPPAL
Colors  Red
SloganPara que vivas mejor
Anthem"Himno del Partido Liberal Colombiano"
"Hymn of Colombian Liberal Party"
Seats in the Chamber of Representatives
32 / 188
Seats in the Senate
14 / 108
Governors
6 / 32
Mayors
181 / 1,102
Party flag
Website
www.partidoliberal.org.co Edit this at Wikidata

The Colombian Liberal Party (Spanish: Partido Liberal Colombiano; PLC), also referred to as the Liberal Party (Spanish: Partido Liberal; PL),[3][4][5] is a centrist to centre-left political party in Colombia. It was founded as a classical liberal party but later developed a more social-democratic tradition, joining the Socialist International in 1999.[6]

The Liberal Party along with the Colombian Conservative Party dominated the Colombian political scene from the end of the 19th century until 2002, in bipartisan political hegemony. The two parties were in direct military conflict between 1948 and 1958, during the civil war period known as La Violencia, after which they established the "National Front", agreeing to rotate power, intercalating for a period of four presidential terms. The election victory of independent candidate Álvaro Uribe in 2002 put an end to dominance of two party politics in Colombia.[7]

Currently, the Liberal Party is the largest party in Congress and supported the left-wing presidency of Gustavo Petro until leaving Petro's coalition on 28 November 2023.[8][9]

History

[edit]

The party was founded in 1848 and, in opposition to the Colombian Conservative Party, became one of the two main political forces in the country for over a century. The two parties frequently engaged in armed conflict with one another, precipitating several civil wars.[citation needed]

Under the influence of leading liberal Rafael Uribe Uribe,[10] an advocate of labor rights[11] and what has been described as "a modernized version of liberalism, favorable to state intervention,"[12] the Liberal Party moved towards a progressive ideological direction. As noted by one study, "Uribe Uribe's ideas gradually gained followers among the members of his liberal party, especially among its youth, until they crystallized into the political program of 1912."[13] This progressive program, known as the "March Plan," called for (as noted in its text) "Adaptation to the peculiar conditions of Colombia of the principles of labor legislation in force in other countries, such as work accidents, housing for workers, savings funds and protection for the helpless elderly."[14]

In the 1940s, the liberal party turned towards socialism under the influence of the charismatic lawyer Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, despite the antipathy it provoked among party members and liberal leaders.[15] In the rural area, Gaitanism faced a bloody repression to which its scrupulous respect for legality did not prepare it: 15,000 militants were murdered between 1945 and 1948 by death squads supposedly close to the conservatives. Gaitán himself, who was a likely winner of the next presidential election, was assassinated in 1948.[16]

After the period known as La Violencia the Liberals and the Conservative Party reached an agreement to share power from 1958 to 1974 in the so-called National Front agreement that followed the fall of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Nowadays there are many critics of the 16-year agreement but it greatly reduced the intensity of the violent political warfare that preceded it.[citation needed]

Following the end of the National Front agreement in 1974, the Liberal Party dominated Colombian politics until 2002; Liberal candidates won five of the seven Presidential elections and the party was the largest in both the Chamber of Representatives and Senate throughout the entire period.[citation needed]

In the 1994 election the Liberal Party's Ernesto Samper was narrowly elected president. Immediately afterwards he was accused of accepting millions from the Cali Cartel to fund his campaign. While Samper had immunity to prosecution as president, a number of his close associates were convicted of involvement in the so-called Proceso 8000 scandal, including Defence Minister Fernando Botero Zea. Partly due to the scandal the Liberal Party lost seats in the 1998 parliamentary election, although it remained easily the largest party. More seriously, the Liberals were defeated in the presidential election held the same year.[citation needed]

The Liberal Party suffered a major split in the lead-up to the 2002 elections. Horacio Serpa Uribe, the party's unsuccessful 1998 presidential candidate was nominated to run again. However Álvaro Uribe, a former senator and governor from the party launched an independent presidential campaign, backed by the Conservatives and dissident Liberals. Whereas Serpa supported the ongoing idea of negotiations with FARC, Uribe advocated confronting the guerrillas. Uribe was victorious in the elections, securing a majority in the first round. In the aftermath, the "Government endorsed" leadership of the party continued to oppose Uribe's administration, but many senators and representatives supported the government, becoming known as the "Uribist" faction. As a compromise, former president César Gaviria Trujillo was elected party leader in 2005.[citation needed]

At the 2006 legislative election, the Liberals lost around half their seats. While they remained the largest party in the Chamber of Representatives, they finished third in the Senate. Horacio Serpa was again nominated as the Liberal candidate for the subsequent presidential elections of 28 May 2006 and won 11.84% of the popular vote, placing him third, the worst ever result for a Liberal candidate.[citation needed]

During the parliamentary elections of 14 March 2010, the Liberal Party obtained 17 senators and 37 representatives, placing third in both the Chamber of Representatives and Senate. At the 2010 presidential election Liberal candidate Rafael Pardo finished sixth with 4.38% of the vote, worse than Horacio Serpa's 2006 vote. The Liberal Party went on to join the governing coalition of President Juan Manuel Santos, and supported his bid for reelection in the 2014 Colombian presidential election.[citation needed]

For the 2018 Colombian presidential election, the party nominated former Vice President from 1994-1996 Humberto De la Calle.[17] De La Calle was eliminated in the first round, and for the second round declined to endorse either of the candidates, announcing he would cast a blank vote instead.[18]

The party did not run a presidential candidate for the 2022 Colombian presidential election, and instead endorsed the candidacy of Federico Gutiérrez.[19] For the second round, the party endorsed Rodolfo Hernández Suárez.[20]

The party supported Paloma Valencia in the first round of the 2026 presidential election and Abelardo de la Espriella in the second round.[21]

Ideology and position

[edit]

The PLC has been described as liberal,[22][23] social liberal,[25] social democratic,[29] socialist,[23][28] progressive,[2] and big tent[30] with positions on the political scale ranging from being in the centre,[33] centre-left,[35] being on the left,[36] centre-right,[37][38] and right-wing.[37] The Liberal Party supports a progressive[22] and mixed economy,[34] but the party has also been described as neoliberal.[39]

Historically, it has been classically liberal.[23][36] Helen Delpar said that there were two factions in the PLC, the radical faction supporting federalism, anti-clericalism, and laissez-faire with the goal of turning the country into some form of utopia quickly, and the moderate Independents, who opposed the radicals' program by citing that it didn't fit Colombia's case and will thwart economic and political advancement.[40] Anders Rudqvist on the otherhand claims that all of the PLC was secularist and federalist.[41]

Electoral history

[edit]

Presidential elections

[edit]
Election Year Candidate First Round Second Round Result
Votes Percentage Votes Percentage
1974 Alfonso López Michelsen 2,929,719 56.35 (#1) Won
1978 Julio César Turbay Ayala 2,503,681 49.50 (#1) Won
1982 Alfonso López Michelsen 2,797,627 41.01 (#2) Lost
1986 Virgilio Barco Vargas 4,214,510 58.36 (#1) Won
1990 César Gaviria 2,891,808 48.18 (#1) Won
1994 Ernesto Samper 2,623,210 45.30 (#1) 3,733,336 50.57 (#1) Won
1998 Horacio Serpa 3,696,334 34.78 (#1) 5,658,518 46.58 (#2) Lost
2002 3,514,779 31.80 (#2) Lost
2006 1,404,235 11.84 (#3) Lost
2010 Rafael Pardo 638,302 4.38 (#6) Lost
2014 Did not run —
2018 Humberto de la Calle 396,151 2.05 (#5) Lost
2022 Supported Federico Gutiérrez 5,069,526 23.94 (#3) Lost
2026 Did not run —

See also

[edit]
[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Full member parties". Socialist International. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Colombian Liberal Party (Political Party)". Study Guides. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  3. ↑ "Liberal Party | political party, Colombia | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 6 November 2025. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  4. ↑ "Colombia Government and Politics". CountryReports. Colombian Communist Party or PCC [Jaime CAICEDO]; Conservative Party or PSC [Carlos HOLGUIN Sardi]; Democratic Pole or PDI [Samuel MORENO Rojas]; Liberal Party or PL [Cesar GAVIRIA] note: Colombia has about 60 formally recognized political parties, most of which do not have a presence in either house of Congress
  5. ↑ Wills-Otero, Laura (4 July 2024). "The Colombian Party System, 1991–2022: Deinstitutionalized but Flexible and Resilient". Oxford Academic. pp. 310–331. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198888734.003.0015. Retrieved 25 June 2026. These included traditional parties such as the Partido Liberal (PL) and the Partido Conservador (PC) that have existed for over 150 years and that were the dominant actors within the restrictive two-party system that operated until 1991.
  6. 1 2 Lamb, Peter; Docherty, James C. (2006), Historical Dictionary of Socialism (Second ed.), Scarecrow Press, pp. 211, 278, ISBN 978-0-8108-6477-1
  7. ↑ "Termina el sistema bipartidista en Colombia luego de casi dos siglos - La Jornada". La Jornada. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "Colombia: Petro busca mayorías en el Congreso con liberales". Independent en Español (in Spanish). 23 June 2022. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023.
  9. ↑ "Colombia's Liberal Party leaves Petro Government coalition". The City Paper Bogotá. 28 November 2023. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "Gaitán of Colombia A Political Biography By Richard E. Sharpless, 1978, P.24". Archived from the original on 11 December 2025. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
  11. ↑ The Early Colombian Labor Movement Artisans and Politics in Bogotá, 1832-1919 By David Sowell, 1992, P.140
  12. ↑ Labor Justice Across the Americas, Editors: Leon Fink, Juan Manuel Palacio, 2017
  13. ↑ Introducción al derecho del trabajo By Guillermo Guerrero Figueroa, 1980, P.67
  14. ↑ Veritas (Buenos Aires, Argentina : 1931) Volume 15, Issues 169-179, 1945, P.272
  15. ↑ Mora Vélez, Antonio (11 May 1998). "JORGE ELIÉCER GAITAN OPINIÓN". El Tiempo. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  16. ↑ "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2018.
  17. ↑ Marcos, Ana (22 May 2018). "Humberto de la Calle, el candidato de la paz". El País. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  18. ↑ "Humberto de la Calle anuncia que votará en blanco en la segunda vuelta presidencial". 31 May 2018. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  19. ↑ "El Partido Liberal se entrega a Fico Gutiérrez en la campaña por la presidencia de Colombia". 27 April 2022. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  20. ↑ "Rodolfo Hernández sigue sumando apoyos de políticos de partidos tradicionales". 3 June 2022. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  21. ↑ "Partido Liberal invitó a su colectivo a votar por Abelardo de la Espriella en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales". infobae (in Spanish). 6 June 2026. Archived from the original on 23 June 2026.
  22. 1 2 3 "Understanding Colombian Political Parties: Left, Right, Center, and Independent". colombiaone.com. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Partido Liberal — Plataforma, Políticas Y Posturas Políticas". VOTA (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 25 June 2026. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  24. 1 2 3 "The political framework of Colombia - International Trade Portal". www.lloydsbanktrade.com. - Colombian Liberal Party (PLC): centre-left, social liberalism, social democracy
  25. ↑ [2][23][24]
  26. 1 2 3 "Cuál es la posición ideológica de los partidos políticos en Colombia?". 22 August 2019. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  27. ↑ "The political parties in Colombia". The Bogotá Post. 22 May 2018. Archived from the original on 13 April 2026. Retrieved 24 June 2026. In recent years the party has attached its ideology to social democracy after becoming a member of the Socialist International in 1999.
  28. 1 2 3 "COLOMBIA EN LA SOCIALDEMOCRACIA". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 18 July 1999.
  29. ↑ [6][23][24][26][27][28]
  30. 1 2 "Colombia in Detail". Justice for Colombia. Archived from the original on 5 February 2026. Retrieved 25 June 2026. Liberal Party (Partido Liberal): Politically centrist, but very broad church – Uribe and leftwing leader Piedad Cordoba both came from its ranks.Second largest party in Congress.Were divided over support for Uribe, but not so split over Santos. Generally supportive of peace process.
  31. ↑ "Así están las fuerzas de centro derecha en Colombia". 21 September 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  32. 1 2 "Liberalismo: Seriedad o aniquilamiento". 8 February 2020. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  33. ↑ [23][26][30][31][32]
  34. 1 2 Ospino, Luis (28 July 2023). "The Political Landscape of Colombia: An Overview of the Main Political Parties". Colombia One: News from Colombia and the World. Archived from the original on 6 December 2025. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  35. ↑ [2][22][24][26][28][32][34]
  36. 1 2 Barnes, Kate (2025). From the Pandemic to the Polls: How the Social and Economic Consequences of Iván Duque’s Lockdowns Led to Colombia’s Leftward Political Shift (Thesis). University of Pennsylvania. Although the Liberal Party's name carries a contemporary connotation of falling to the left of the political spectrum, the party was rather originally created as a general opposition movement to the conservative movement within Colombia, and it historically promoted classical liberalism as opposed to social liberalism.
  37. 1 2 "Colombia: Peace does not drive the left vote - Global Affairs and Strategic Studies - Universidad de Navarra". Global Affairs and Strategic Studies. The right wing, represented by the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, won 41.1% of the Senate seats. ... Thus, several experts came to classify the Partido de la U as center-right, a label that they also began to grant to the Partido Liberal, in a political space shared with Cambio Radical; these three parties formed the "Unidad Nacional" (Castillo, 2018).
  38. ↑ Turan, Bawer (8 September 2025). "Colombia's traditional center-right parties face internal rebellions ahead of elections". Colombia News. Retrieved 9 July 2026. Congressmen of the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, U Party, and Cambio Radical have been openly defying the bosses of their political machines.
  39. ↑ ""Partido Neoliberal de Colombia"". 17 April 2007. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022.
  40. ↑ Delpar, Helen (1 May 1971). "Aspects of Liberal Factionalism in Colombia, 1875-1885". Hispanic American Historical Review. 51 (2): 250–274. doi:10.1215/00182168-51.2.250. ISSN 0018-2168. Archived from the original on 19 March 2025. Retrieved 26 June 2026. The Radicals are usually depicted as overzealous reformers who sought to convert Colombia into a utopian republic overnight and were, in particular, committed to policies of extreme anti-clericalism, federalism, and laissez-faire. The Independents, on the other hand, are described as moderates who realized that the Radical program was inappropriate for a country like Colombia and served only to retard its political and economic progress.
  41. ↑ Anders Rudqvist (May 2002). "Popular Participation in Colombia" (PDF). Uppsala University. Retrieved 2 July 2026. The Liberal party was in favour of federalism, abolition and separation of the church from the state while the conservatives defended centralism, close links between state and church and the leading role of the church in social and educational spheres. These differences often drew the church into partisan politics on the conservative side and intensified political conflicts, which often resulted in prolonged violent confrontations along party lines.
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