Smoldering Colombia

Report Outline
Strains on Colombia's Coalition System
Colombian Politics Since Independence
I.S. Support of Development Programs

Strains on Colombia's Coalition System

A unique experiment in coalition government, devised in 1957 in Colombia as a substitute for military dictatorship, faces a new and perhaps critical testing period. Various political leaders and factions are already jockeying for position in congressional elections scheduled to take place next March and presidential balloting due in May. In the meantime, the government of President Guillermo Leon Valencia appears unable to administer effectively the national affairs of the land that is called the gateway to South America. Valencia is confronted by a large budget deficit and lagging economic growth, by difficulties within his cabinet, and by outbreaks of violence in both urban and rural areas of the country.

Plan For Party Sharing of Government Power

President Valencia, a member of the Conservative Party of Colombia, was chosen to lead the nation three years ago largely because his party and the opposition Liberal Party believed he would do little to alter the status quo. Under the coalition agreement entered into in 1957, the two parties share governmental power. Both the Senate and the National Assembly are divided equally between the parties, as are cabinet portfolios; the presidency alternates between a Liberal and a Conservative.

Alberto Lleras Camargo, a Liberal leader and one of South America's most prominent statesmen, was the first President to take ofiice under this arrangement, governing from 1958 to 1962. At the end of Lleras Camargo's term, Liberal leaders supported Valencia because they believed him to be the only Conservative who would agree to return the presidency to the Liberals in 1966. The coalition agreement provides for joint rule until the elections of 1974.