Jorge Eliécer Gaitán

He was criticized by the more orthodox sectors of the Colombian Liberal Party, which considered him too unruly, most of the Colombian Conservative Party; and the leadership of the Colombian Communist Party, which saw him as a competitor for the political affections of the masses. Gaitán was warned by US Ambassador Beaulac on 24 March 1948 that Communists were planning a disruption of the impending conference and that his Liberal Party would likely be blamed.

It is widely speculated that Gaitán would likely have been elected President had he not been assassinated on 9 April 1948. That occurred immediately prior to the armed insurrection or Bogotazo. Gaitán was then the leading opponent of the use of violence and had determined to pursue the strategy of electing a left-wing government, and he had repudiated the violent communist revolutionary approach that was typical of the Cold War era. His assassination directly led to a period of great violence between conservatives and liberals and also facilitated the rise of the existing communist guerrillas. Over the next fifteen years as many as 200,000 people died from the disorder that followed his assassination.

Gaitán became leader of the Colombian Liberal Party in 1947, when his supporters gained the upper hand in the elections for seats in Congress. This would have allowed for the Liberal Party to present a single candidate for the 1950 elections.

In particular, he repeatedly divided the country into the oligarchy and the people and called the former corrupt and the latter admirable, worthy, and deserving of Colombia's moral restoration. He stirred the audience's emotions by aggressively denouncing social, moral and economical evils stemming both from the Liberal and Conservative Parties and promised his supporters that a better future was possible if they all worked together. In 1946, Gaitán referred to the difference between what he called the "political country" and the "national country". Accordingly, the "political country" was controlled by the interests of the oligarchy and its internal struggles and do did not properly respond to the real demands of the "national country" of citizens in need of better socioeconomic conditions and greater sociopolitical freedom.

The Liberal Party was defeated in the May 1946 elections by the Conservatives' Mariano Ospina Pérez (565,939 votes, president from 1946 to 1950) due to its own internal divisions, evidenced by its presenting two different candidates, Gaitán (358,957 votes) and Gabriel Turbay (441,199 votes), in that year's race.

At the conclusion of the Liberal Party's national convention in 1945 he was proclaimed as "the people's candidate" in a public square, an unusual setting under the political customs at the time.

Gaitán was named Minister of Education in 1940 under the administration of the Liberal Party's Eduardo Santos (1938–1942), where he promoted an extensive literacy campaign as well as cultural activities.

After formally rejoining the Liberal Party in 1935, Gaitán was selected as mayor of Bogotá in June 1936, a position he held for eight months. During his administration, he tried to implement a number of programs in areas such as education, health, urban development and housing. His attempted reforms were cut short by political pressure groups and conflicts due to some of his policies (for example, an attempt to provide uniforms to taxi and bus service drivers). In September 1937 his daughter Gloria Gaitán was born.

In 1933, he created the "Unión Nacional Izquierdista Revolucionaria" ("National Leftist Revolutionary Union"), or UNIR, as his own dissident political movement after he had broken with the Liberal Party.

Gaitán used his skills as a lawyer and as an emerging politician in order to defend workers' rights and called for accountability to those involved in the Santa Marta Massacre. Public support soon shifted toward Gaitán; Gaitán's Liberal Party won the 1930 presidential election.

Gaitán increased his nationwide popularity following a banana workers' strike in Magdalena in 1928.

Against the wishes of his father, Gaitán enrolled in the National University in Bogotá. With a group of fellow students, he founded the University Center of Cultural Propaganda in May 1920. He drew inspiration from university students in Lima, Peru who were successful in their attempts for an educational extension program formulated for workers. As President of the University Center, Gaitán traveled throughout the city expressing the goals of the organization, focusing on social and proletariat apprehensions. Following the feminist rhetoric of his mother, Gaitán made speeches urging the uplift of the role of women in Colombian society. Moreover, he extended the Center's work to rural workers, public school children, and education for prisoners.

Gaitán was active in politics in the early 1920s, when he was part of a protest movement against the president Marco Fidel Suárez.

Gaitán entered into formal education at the age of 12. His disdain towards conventional authority began during his time at school. He was unreceptive towards strict discipline and traditional curricula. Gaitán was expelled from a school for tossing an inkwell at a teaching Christian Brother. Later in 1913, Gaitán received a scholarship to attend Colegio Araújo, a liberal school whose students were predominantly upper-class offspring of members of the liberal party. The school was founded by Simon Araújo who was a champion of progressive views. He provided the medium for students to receive a liberal education in a country dominantly conservative at the time. In 1918, Gaitán drafted a letter to the Colombian newspaper, El Tiempo, emphasizing the importance of higher education. He was advocating for teaching the disadvantaged populace subjects outside of traditional curricula, including topics such as hygiene. These classes were to be held at a Sunday school and provided a medium to further provide education to a wider range of people. Through his student leadership roles and intellectual ambitions, Gaitán shaped his dreams of becoming Colombian President to combat political, social, and economic inequality. Gaitán transferred from Colegio Araújo because it did not possess the necessary accreditations to ensure success in his academic and career ambitions. Gaitán graduated as one of the top students in his new school, Colegio of Martín Restrepo Mejía in 1919.

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala (23 January 1903 – 9 April 1948) was a left-wing Colombian politician and charismatic leader of the Liberal Party. He served as the mayor of Bogotá from 1936–37, the national Education Minister from 1940–41, and the Labor Minister from 1943–44. He was assassinated during his second presidential campaign in 1948, setting off the Bogotazo  and leading to a violent period of political unrest in Colombian history known as La Violencia (approx. 1948 to 1958).

Born in Bogotá to parents who were rank-and-file members of the Liberal Party, Gaitán and his family had a tenuous hold in the middle class. His birth date is given variously as 1898 and 1903. Gaitán was born in a house in Las Cruces, a neighborhood situated in the center of Bogotá, Colombia. The house has a plaque commemorating Gaitán as a legendary caudillo.