por ANAPO (National Popular Alliance) was a Colombian political party founded in 1961. Its creator was Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, a military man and politician who had established a dictatorship from 1953 to 1957.
At the end of the dictatorship, the traditional Colombian liberal and conservative parties 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.
In the early 1960s, the former president returned to political activity and founded the Alianza Nacional Popular. His first electoral results were positive and in the 1970 presidential elections he was on the verge of proclaiming himself the winner. Rojas also denounced voting fraud.
ANAPO has been considered a left-wing nationalist organization, although various sensibilities coexisted within it. In the 1980s, with Rojas’s daughter at the helm, he decided to support the conservative candidate and, in the 1990s, he formed a coalition with the former members of the M-19.
The party was officially dissolved in 2003, when it joined the left-wing Polo Democrático Independiente alliance.
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History
The coup d’état by 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, through which both organizations agreed to take turns in the presidency and share out 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. This, 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Finally, in March of the following year, the politician was sentenced and his political rights were withdrawn. However, seven years later, in 1967, the Supreme Court of Justice accepted his claim and returned those rights.
Return to politics with ANAPO
Gustavo Rojas, despite his disqualification from politics, decided to found a new movement in 1961 to confront the National Front. On February 6 of the following year, in Duitama, that movement became the National Popular Alliance, ANAPO.
That same year, the new party contested the presidential elections, with Rojas as its candidate. His candidacy came in fourth place, although the courts 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 the experts, was a great help to consolidate itself. The publication was baptized as Aiza Popular, People’s Daily and was the main means of communication critical of the government.
1970 presidential election
The 1970 presidential elections were the greatest electoral success of the Popular National Alliance. The candidate was once again Rojas Pinilla, to whom the Supreme Court of Justice had returned 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 leftist groups.
The campaign took place in an atmosphere of great tension and the voting gave a very close result. According to the count, the official candidate, Misael Pastrana, won with 1,625,025 votes, while Rojas obtained 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, various ideological currents coexisted within ANAPO. Among them, some located quite to the left. They were the ones who left the party discontented by the, according to them, Rojas’ lukewarm reaction to the fraud in the elections.
In 1973, several of these former Anapists created the April 19 Movement, from which the M-19 guerrilla group emerged.
leadership change
The next elections were scheduled for 1974. For that year, Rojas Pinilla suffered from serious health problems and his daughter took over the leadership of the party. With a more leftist program, María Eugenia Rojas obtained third place in the elections.
back 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 the former M-19 guerrillas to present a candidacy under the name of Alianza Democrática M-19. This candidacy won second place in the voting 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 left-wing 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 first moments, ANAPO integrated supporters of various ideological currents: liberals, conservatives, military, socialists, etc.
Traditionally, ANAPO has been classified as a leftist 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 creation, the party’s program was based on nationalist proposals, whether in health, the economy or education.
Departure of the most leftist sectors
As has been pointed out, the alleged fraud in the 1970 elections ended up causing the sectors furthest 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 anapistas.
spin in the 80s
When the daughter of General Rojas, María Eugenia, took the reins of the party, everyone hoped that she would 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 the left-most sectors of the party to abandon him.
top leaders
The Rojas family held the leadership of the party for almost its entire 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 carrying out a coup.
During his government, which lasted four years, Rojas prioritized the construction of infrastructures. Likewise, he sought to end the bipartisan violence that Colombia had suffered for decades.
Faced with these achievements, the Rojas government implemented press censorship and developed repressive campaigns against its opponents, both liberal and conservative. Their response was to establish an alliance to end the regime. The continuous demonstrations and protests made the dictator leave power in 1957.
Although he was disqualified by the courts, Rojas Pinilla returned to political life in 1961, when he founded the movement from which ANAPO would emerge.
In 1970, already with his political rights recovered, Rojas Pinillas was on the verge of recovering the presidency by falling just a few votes from the winner of the elections.
Although there were many allegations 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.
Mary Eugenia Rojas
María Eugenia Rojas Correa de Moreno Díaz was the daughter of Gustavo Rojas Pinillas and his successor at the head of ANAPO.
Already 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 force. At that time she was instrumental in getting the government to allow women’s suffrage.
After the founding of ANAPO, María Eugenia Rojas was a representative in Congress and, in 1966, she went on to occupy 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 failed 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
Vega Cantor, Renan. Extensive history of Anapo. Retrieved from publications.banrepcultural.org
Spitaletta, Reinaldo. That scandalous electoral fraud. Retrieved from elespectador.com
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. National Popular Alliance (ANAPO). Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
revolvy. National Popular Alliance. Retrieved from revolvy.com
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Retrieved from britannica.com