Word: pastrana
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...together the cozy National Front coalition through which the Conservatives and the Liberals alternate the presidency every four years. Last year, however, the former dictator-contrary to the gentleman's agreement of the National Front-entered the race as a Conservative-and lost to the official candidate, Misael Pastrana Barrero, by only 1.5% of the total vote...
...alone, offers free medical and dental care to members. With 24 cities of 100,000 or more people in Colombia (overall population: 21 million), that kind of urban organization could lead to an ANAPO victory in the 1974 elections. The established parties are painfully aware of that, and President Pastrana is pressing Congress for basic educational, agrarian and urban reorms. Meanwhile, inflation is increasing while the price of Colombia's prime export, coffee, is down to 40? a pound, v. $1 during...
Last week when Colombians went to the polls to choose a successor to President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, a Liberal whose four-year term ends in August, the price of poor memory was near chaos. The early favorite was Economist Misael Pastrana, 46, the "official" Conservative party candidate under the National Front system. The Front was created in 1958, when the warring Liberal and Conservative parties sought to defuse Colombia's explosive politics by passing into law a unique arrangement: until 1974, the parties could campaign for the presidency only in alternate election years...
Almost any number can play, however, and this year-the Conservatives' "on" year-the strongest of Pastrana's three opponents turned out to be old Dictator Rojas, who had conveniently become a splinter Conservative for the occasion. With little support from the basically apolitical army, Rojas, now 70, effectively drummed up enthusiasm among the peasants. Touring the barrios, he played the populist, promising cars for everybody and warning of a "dialogue of daggers" with the ruling elite...
...first returns came in last week, Rojas quickly claimed victory-but then so did Pastrana. When Lleras Restrepo announced that the close vote would take several days to tally, Rojas charged "bald robbery," and thousands of Rojistas swarmed into Bogota's main intersection. Lleras Restrepo declared a state of siege and threw a cordon of troops around Rojas' house as "protection." After a few tense hours, well-trained riot police managed to clear the streets with no fatalities and few injuries. At week's end Pastrana led by 66,000 votes. The slim margin surprised those...