Word: pinilla
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Died. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, 74, Colombian caudillo (1953-57); of a heart attack; in Malgar, Colombia. Installed as President in a bloodless 1953 golpe, Rojas ruled in dictatorial fashion until an appetite for graft (he acquired at least nine ranches as President) eroded army support and led to his ouster in 1957. The next year he returned from exile and became the focus of opposition to the ruling Liberal-Conservative National Front, nearly returning to power in the hotly contested election...
...time Rojas Pinilla returned to Colombia in 1958, the politicos had stitched 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...
...large degree against foreign investment. ANAPO, using the same technique, calls for a state takeover of all mineral wealth, the import-export trade and the banking system. A probable target might be some of the $700 million private U.S. stake in Colombia, half of it in oil. But Rojas Pinilla himself does not openly oppose foreign investment...
Actually, ANAPO's eclectic platform, formalized earlier this year by a Marxist, a moderate leftist and a conservative, promises to reform everything but goes into few specifics. Rojas Pinilla is a conservative on land reform; he still owns substantial acreage picked up during his days as dictator. Thus, instead of calling for land expropriation, he speaks of "colonizing" new lands to increase production. Much of his party's appeal is rooted in the frustrations of the lower classes, and the party's overall thrust is to the left. But the magnetism of the old dictator...
Switch in Gender. If age, diabetes and a heart pulsed by a pacemaker keep Rojas Pinilla from running in 1974, Maria Eugenia would most certainly pick up the ANAPO banner. There is some question whether Colombians would vote for a woman; famous women in Latin America tend to be the mistresses of famous men. But a surprising number of Colombians, when asked about a woman President, told TIME'S David Lee: "Ah, but Maria Eugenia is muy macha"-a switch in gender of the word describing a virile...