74 A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLOMBIA
López, who was reelected in 1942. This second López administration was dogged
by scandals publicized by the Conservative press; and a few military officers
briefly held López captive during an attempted coup in 1944. He resigned the
presidency in 1945, leaving his close advisor, Alberto Lleras Camargo, to finish
his final year. By this time, a popular movement led by the charismatic Jorge
Eliécer Gaitán was animating the Liberal base while splitting the party
leadership.
Gaitán, born into a humble lower middle class family, had risen to become an
effective lawyer and an active left-wing politician. He was a talented organizer,
and in 1945-1946 he assembled a popular movement under his leadership,
promising greater political participation and economic opportunity for the new
urban middle and working classes (while not forgetting the small farmers).
Gaitán ran for president in 1946 against the official Liberal Party candidate and
the Conservatives regained the presidency against the divided Liberals. The new
president, Mariano Ospina Pérez, appointed governors from his party in a few
key departments, police forces switched from Liberal to Conservative, and by
1947 a virtual civil war was once again flaring in Boyacá and Santander — and in
several other departments as well. This time, however, the violence was
different. It was not enough to control elections: Liberals had to be eliminated in
order to defend Christian civilization in Colombia and elsewhere — which led
Liberals to organize self-defense units, some of which went on the offensive,
especially in traditionally Liberal regions. Since party identification was believed
to be passed on genetically, the cry of armed partisan bands was "to leave not
even the seed" — women and children were massacred, along with the men
(who, after all, were the only ones with the right to vote at the time).
International events had inspired and influenced Colombian politicians — not
only World War Two and the Cold War, but also, and especially, the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939), during which Liberals identified with the Republic, while
Conservatives felt a kinship with Franco and the Nationalists. Rumors of coups
and uprisings ran rampant in the partisan press, which always expected the