Virgilio Barco Vargas

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Virgilio Barco Vargas - Wikipedia

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Virgilio Barco Vargas
Barco in 1991

27th President of Colombia
In office 7 August 1986 (1986-08-07) – 7 August 1990 (1990-08-07)
Preceded by	Belisario Betancur
Succeeded by	César Gaviria
20th Colombia Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office 9 November 1990 (1990-11-09) – 1992
President	César Gaviria
Preceded by	Fernando Cepeda Ulloa
Succeeded by	Luis Prieto Ocampo
18th Colombia Ambassador to the United States
In office 24 June 1977 (1977-06-24) – 11 December 1980 (1980-12-11)
President	Alfonso López Michelsen
Preceded by	Julio César Turbay
Succeeded by	Jorge Mario Eastman
6th Mayor of Bogotá
In office 1966–1969
President	Carlos Lleras Restrepo
Preceded by	Jorge Gaitán Cortés
Succeeded by	Emilio Urrea Delgado
Minister of Agriculture
In office 23 April 1963 (1963-04-23) – 6 October 1963 (1963-10-06)
President	Guillermo León Valencia
Preceded by	Cornelio Reyes Reyes
Succeeded by	Gustavo Balcázar Monzón
Minister of Finance and Public Credit
In office 7 August 1962 (1962-08-07) – 5 September 1962 (1962-09-05)
President	Guillermo León Valencia
Preceded by	Jorge Mejía Palacio
Succeeded by	Carlos Sanz de Santamaría
8th Colombia Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office 16 June 1961 (1961-06-16) – 1962
President	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Preceded by	Alfonso López Pumarejo
Succeeded by	Alfredo Araújo Grau
Minister of Public Works
In office 7 August 1958 (1958-08-07) – 9 November 1960 (1960-11-09)
President	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Preceded by	Roberto Salazar Gómez
Succeeded by	Misael Pastrana Borrero

Personal details
Born	Virgilio Barco Vargas (1921-09-17)17 September 1921 Cúcuta, North Santander, Colombia
Died	20 May 1997(1997-05-20) (aged 75) Bogotá, Colombia
Resting place	Central Cemetery of Bogotá
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Carolina Isakson Proctor (m. 1950)
Children	María Carolina Barco Isakson Julia Barco Isakson Diana Barco Isakson Virgilio Barco Isakson
Alma mater	National University of Colombia (Lic, 1942) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MScCE, 1943; PhD 1953) Boston University (MScS, 1952)
Profession	Civil engineer
Website	Official website

Virgilio Barco Vargas (17 September 1921 – 20 May 1997) was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 27th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990.

Early life

Barco was born in Cúcuta in the Norte de Santander Department of Colombia to Jorge Enrique Barco Maldonado and Julieta Vargas Durán. He studied Civil Engineering at the National University of Colombia and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he graduated in 1943.^[1] He entered politics in 1943 when he became a city council member for the Liberal Party in the town of Durania. He was then elected to the lower house of Congress, but went into exile to the US in 1950 because of violence between liberals and conservatives. His daughter, Carolina Barco Isakson (who would later become a Colombian politician herself) was born there. He obtained an M.A. in economics at MIT, where he took classes under Nobel prize winners Robert Solow and Paul Samuelson in 1952. In 1954 he obtained a PhD in economics from Boston University.^[2]

Barco is the grandson of Colombian General Virgilio Barco M., who developed one of the country's largest oil concessions in 1905.

Political career

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Barco returned to Colombia in 1954 to help negotiate the peace process which allowed the formation of the National Front between liberals and conservatives, which lasted two decades. He became a member of the Senate, the upper house of Congress in 1958, left to become the ambassador to Britain in 1961, and returned to Colombia in 1962. He served another term in the Senate until 1966, when he was elected mayor of Colombia's capital, Bogotá. He served in that position until 1969, when he became a director of the World Bank until 1974. He then served as ambassador to the United States from 1977 until 1980.

Presidency

Barco was elected president of Colombia with 58% of the vote in 1986. He supported anti-poverty programs, renewed dialogue with leftist guerillas and fought drug traffickers. Though he was popular within the international community, he became less popular in Colombia because the drug traffickers became more violent after he started to move against them. His restrictive economic policies at first doomed the country. After two years of this, The Economic Openness program was initiated by his administration, which would open Colombian markets to the world and recharge the country's economy. He served one 4-year term.

Post-Presidency and death

When he left the Presidency in 1990, he served as ambassador to Britain again until 1992.

Barco was diagnosed with cancer and he died on May 20, 1997, in Bogotá when he was 75. He is now buried in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá.

Popular culture

Barco is portrayed by the colombian actor Jorge Zúñiga as the character of Ramiro Vargas in TV series Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord.

References

^ "Virgilio Barco Vargas". Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. June 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
^ "Virgilio Barco Vargas" (PDF). cidob.org (in Spanish). 2002-10-01. Retrieved 2023-04-02.

External links

Biography and tenure of Virgilio Barco by CIDOB

Political offices
Preceded by Belisario Betancur Cuartas	President of Colombia 1986–1990	Succeeded by César Gaviria

Presidents of Colombia

Presidents and
presidencies

v t e Mayors of Bogotá
Municipal mayors	Javier Tobar Ahumada (1910–1911) Manuel María Mallarino (1911–1913) Emilio Cuervo Márquez (1913–1914) Andrés Marroquín Osorio (1914–1917) Raimundo Rivas (1917) Gerardo Arrubla (1917–1918) Santiago de Castro (1918–1920) Tadeo de Castro (1920) Cenón Escobar (1920) Ernesto Sánz de Santamaría (1920–1925) Leonidas Ojeda (1925) José Posada Tavera (1925–1926) José María Piedrahita (1926–1929) Luis Borrero Mercado (1929) Luis Augusto Cuervo (1929) Alfonso Robledo (1929) Hernando Carrizosa (1929–1930) Luis Carlos Páez (1930) Enrique Vargas Nariño (1930–1931) Francisco Umaña Bernal (1931) Enrique Vargas Nariño (1931) Luis Patiño Galvis (November 1931 – December 1933) Alfonso Esguerra (December 1933 – March 1934) Julio Pardo Dávila (March 1934 – January 1935) Diego Montaña Cuéllar (January 1935 – February 1935) Jorge Merchán (February 1935 – October 1935) Carlos Arango Vélez (October 1935 – March 1936) Francisco José Arévalo (March 1936 – June 1936) Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala (June 1936 – March 1937) Gonzalo Restrepo (March 1937 – May 1937) Manuel Rueda Vargas (May 1937 – March 1938) Gustavo Santos (March 1938 – October 1938) Germán Zea Hernández (October 1938 – April 1941) Julio Pardo Dávila (May 1941 – August 1942) Carlos Sanz de Santamaría (August 1942 – March 1944) Jorge Soto del Corral (March 1944 – November 1944) Gabriel Paredes (November 1944 – January 1945) Juan Pablo Llinás (January 1945 – June 1945) Ramón Muñoz Toledo (June 1945 – September 1946) Juan Salgar Martín (October 1946 – March 1947) Francisco José Arévalo (April 1947 – March 1948) Fernando Mazuera Villegas (April 1948 – October 1948) Carlos Reyes Posada (October 1948 – December 1948) Fernando Mazuera Villegas (December 1948 – May 1949) Carlos Reyes Posada (May 1949 – June 1949) Gregorio Obregón (June 1949 – September 1949) Marco Tulio Amaya (September 1949 – October 1949) Santiago Trujillo (October 1949 – July 1952) Manuel Briceño (July 1952 – June 1953) José Rodríguez Mantilla (June 1953 – July 1953) Col. Julio Cervantes (July 1953 – September 1954)
Mayors of the Special District	Roberto Salazar Gómez (1954–1955) Andrés Rodríguez Gómez (1955–1957) Fernando Mazuera Villegas (1957–1958) Juan Pablo Llinás (1958–1961) Jorge Gaitán Cortés (1961–1966) Virgilio Barco Vargas (1966–1969) Emilio Urrea Delgado (1969–1970) Carlos Albán Holguín (1970–1973) Aníbal Fernández de Soto (1973–1974) Alfonso Palacio Rudas (1974–1975) Luis Prieto Ocampo (1975–1976) Bernardo Gaitán Mahecha (1976–1978) Hernando Durán Dussán (1978–1982) Augusto Ramírez Ocampo (1982–1984) Hisnardo Ardila (1984–1985) Diego Pardo Koppel (1985–1986) Julio César Sánchez (1986–1988) Andrés Pastrana Arango (1988–1990) Juan Martín Caicedo Ferrer (1990–1991)
Mayors of the Capital District of Santa Fe de Bogotá	Juan Martín Caicedo Ferrer (1991–1992) Sonia Durán de Infante (ad-hoc) (1992–1992) Jaime Castro Castro (1992–1994) Antanas Mockus (1995–1996) Paul Bromberg Silverstein (1996–1997)
Mayors of the Capital District of Bogotá	Enrique Peñalosa (1998–2000) Antanas Mockus (2001–2003) Luis Eduardo Garzón (2004–2007) Samuel Moreno Rojas (2008 – June 2011) María Fernanda Campo Saavedra (Acting Mayor, May 2011 – June 2011) Clara López Obregón (Acting Mayor, June 2011 – December 2011) Gustavo Petro (2012 – March 2014) Rafael Pardo (Acting Mayor, March 2014 – April 2014) María Mercedes Maldonado (Acting Mayor, April 2014) Gustavo Petro (April 2014 – 2015) Enrique Peñalosa (2016–2019) Claudia López (2020–2023) Carlos Fernando Galán (2024—Present)

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