La Violencia & Dictatorship Era (1948 - 1958)

La Violencia, a partisan civil war between the Conservative and Liberal parties erupts as a consequence of the assassination of Gaitán a very popular presidential candidate. La Violencia spanned 10 years of a bloodthirsty civil war that took over the countryside with bands of both Liberal and Conservative armies and guerrillas fighting each other. Over 200,000 people were killed and many more are forcibly displaced.

In reaction to the current regime and with the aid of the two political parties General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla head of the armed forces leads the coup to oust President Laureano Gómez. The coup was intended to lead to democratic elections but Rojas Pinilla ruled as a dictator brutally suppressing all opposition.

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