Jaime Pardo Leal (March 28, 1941 October 11, 1987) was a Colombian lawyer, union leader, and politician, who ran as candidate of the
Patriotic Union party for the
presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...
of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
in the
1986 elections, and was later assassinated.
Biography and political career
Pardo Leal studied law in
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz, ...
, where he graduated as a lawyer in 1963. As a student he became active in the Colombian Communist Youth (JUCO) and was an active part in the student movement.
After obtaining his degree he started a long career in the judicial branch of the government, where he worked as judge for town and regional courts, and then in the Superior tribunal and as a magistrate in the Superior Tribunal of Bogotá. As such, Pardo Leal was instrumental in the creation of the judicial branch union Asonal Judicial, and leader of many strikes to push for better work conditions for the employees of the judicial branch. This leadership brought him the enmity of many in the branch. This led to his not being reelected as a magistrate, which became the origin for his political aspirations.
Following the peace conversations between the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
and the government of
Belisario Betancur, the
Unión Patriótica political party was formed, and Pardo was called as an advisor. At the time, he was also involved in the
Colombian Communist Party and in the formation of the
Central Union of Workers of Colombia.
On February 4, 1986, he decided to make official his aspirations as a presidential candidate for the just formed party. He ended up third, behind
Virgilio Barco and
Alvaro Gómez Hurtado, with a total of 328.752 votes. The UP party soon became a target for paramilitary organizations who started killing local leaders throughout the country. As party president, Pardo became vocal in denouncing this selective killings and accusing the government of overlooking those crimes, or even committing them. When he started denouncing the collaboration of members of the government and from the military with these assassinations, he became a target as well.
Assassination
By the time of his death, 471 members of UP had already been assassinated throughout the country. According to his obituary from Semana, "Jaime Pardo Leal knew he would be killed. His family knew he would be killed. Patriotic Union knew he would be killed. Journalists knew he would be killed. The whole country knew he would be killed. And finally, he was killed. It was 3:45 in the afternoon on Sunday, October 11."
Pardo had received many death threats, and although he initially refused protection from the government he ended up accepting it finally as the threat level increased. On the day of his death he had decided to dispatch his security and kept only one of his bodyguards as he went to his farm in the
La Mesa town, near to Bogota. As he drove back to Bogota, men shot at him from another car. Although he was transported immediately to the nearby hospital, he died before he could be helped.
Aftermath
Four people were convicted for his assassination, brothers William and Jaime Infante, Oliveria Acuña Infante and Beyer Yesid Barrera. William Infante had been released and was then captured and sentenced to life for drug trafficking in the United States. Barrera was captured and condemned to 24 years in prison for the crime. Drug lord
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, also known as "the Mexican", was apparently involved in the murder as a sponsor.
The
Colombian Communist Party newspaper ''Voz'' published a report in which it linked members of the
Colombian military
The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Colombia, Republic of Colombia. They consist of the National Army of Colombia, Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian ...
to Rodríguez Gacha.
Pardo Leal was replaced by
Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa as president of UP. Jaramillo was also assassinated during the presidential campaign of 1990.
By 1988, the UP announced that more than 500 of its members, including Pardo Leal and four congressmen, had been assassinated to date. Unidentified gunmen later attacked more than 100 of the UP's local candidates in the six months preceding the March 1988 elections. An April 1988 report by
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
charged that members of the Colombian military and government would be involved in what was called a "deliberate policy of political murder" of UP militants and others. The terms of that accusation were rejected and deemed to be an inaccurate exaggeration by the administration of
Virgilio Barco Vargas
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 Nort ...
.
By 2003–2004, the official legal representatives of a partial number of UP victims presented a concrete death toll of about 1,163 to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'' ...
(IACHR), of which 450 (38%) were attributed directly to paramilitary groups. The breakdown of the remainder was not publicly specified.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pardo Leal, Jaime
1941 births
1987 deaths
People from Cundinamarca Department
Colombian Communist Party politicians
Patriotic Union (Colombia) politicians
Colombian revolutionaries
People murdered by Colombian organized crime
Burials at Central Cemetery of Bogotá
Assassinated Colombian politicians