Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (March 12, 1900 - January 17, 1975) was a Colombian Army general, civil engineer, and dictator who served as Colombia's 19th President from June 1953 to May 1957. He is among the most important historical figures in Colombia.

During La Violencia, a period of civil strife in Colombia during the late 1940s that saw infighting between the ruling Conservatives and Liberal guerillas, Rojas Pinilla rose to prominence as a colonel and was appointed to the cabinet of Conservative President Mariano Ospina Pérez. He staged a successful coup d'état against Ospina's successor as president, Laureano Gómez Castro, in 1953, imposing martial law. He ruled the country as a military dictatorship, implementing infrastructure programs and extending female suffrage in order to reduce political violence. In 1957, he was forced to resign due to public pressure.

In 1961, Rojas Pinilla founded the National Popular Alliance (ANAPO) in opposition to the National Front, the power-sharing agreement negotiated by the Conservatives and Liberals after he was deposed. He ran for president in 1970, but was defeated by the National Front's candidate, Conservative lawyer Misael Pastrana Borrero. However, Rojas Pinilla and his supporters claimed that the election was fraudulent and illegitimate; as a result, ANAPO supporters formed the M-19 guerilla movement, which contributed to the country's insurgency unrest in the second half of the twentieth century.