Germán Vargas Lleras (; born 19 February 1962) is a Colombian politician who recently served as
Vice President of Colombia
The vice president of Colombia (Vice president of the Republic) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government, after the president of Colombia, and ranks first in the Colombian presiden ...
under
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. A member of the
Radical Change
Radical Change (, CR, stylised with a backwards "R") is a conservative liberal political party in Colombia.
After the elections on 12 March 2006, the party became one of the most important in the new Congress, receiving 20 seats in the lower ho ...
political party, he served four consecutive terms in the Senate, having been elected in 1994. German Vargas also served in the Cabinet as the
Minister of Interior and then as the
Minister of Housing, City and Territory. He was elected Vice President of Colombia in 2014, running alongside Juan Manuel Santos who was seeking re-election for a second term as president. On 15 March 2017, Vargas Lleras resigned as vice president in order to be eligible to run for president in the
2018 presidential elections. He finished in fourth place.
Background
Germán was born on 19 February 1962 in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
to Germán Vargas Espinosa and Clemencia Lleras de la Fuente. He comes from one of the country's most prominent political families, with his mother being the daughter of former president
Carlos Lleras Restrepo, and he is the nephew of former presidential candidate Carlos Lleras de la Fuente. Former president
Alberto Lleras Camargo is also related to the family.
Vargas Lleras graduated from
Universidad del Rosario in Bogota where he received his
Bachelor of Laws
A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
degree. Afterwards he went to Spain to study Government and Political Science at the Ortega and Gasset Institute of the
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...
.
Political career
Germán Vargas Lleras began his political career while in college at 19 years of age in a successful campaign that got him elected as councilman of Bojacá,
Cundinamarca, in 1981 under the flags of the
New Liberalism, a dissident political movement founded by the then young Senator
Luis Carlos Galán. Right after the election, Galan appointed him political coordinator for the district of
Los Mártires
Los Mártires (Spanish for "The Martyrs") is the 14th locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is located near the city's downtown to its west. This district is mostly inhabited by lower middle and working class residents. It takes its name in ...
in the capital city of Bogotá. The experience he acquired during his tenure led him to run for city councilman of Bogotá in 1988. After the assassination of his political mentor in 1989, the New Liberalism began to crumble, and Vargas Lleras, who was then private secretary at the
Ministry of Agriculture, joined the ranks of the
Colombian Liberal Party
The Colombian Liberal Party (; PLC) is a centre to centre-left political party in Colombia. It was founded as a classical liberal party but later developed a more social-democratic tradition, joining the Socialist International in 1999.
Th ...
.
Once he had joined the party he retook his tasks in the capital district of Los Mártires and assembled a team that helped him get elected for two consecutive terms as City Councilman (1990–1994). He then ran successfully for the
Colombian Senate in 1994 under the auspices of the Liberal Party.
In 1999 Vargas Lleras became the visible head of the opposition in the Senate to the government of president Andrés Pastrana, mainly due to the ill-fated
1999–2002 FARC–Government peace process. His staunch opposition to ongoing peace talks in midst of those circumstances, brought him nearer to
Álvaro Uribe Vélez Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish language, Spanish, Galician language, Galician and Portuguese language, Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin.
The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez (surname), ...
, a dissident liberal candidate for the
presidential election of 2002 who was calling for the end of the Demilitarized Zone of
San Vicente del Caguán. Vargas Lleras moved to support Uribe's candidacy, a decision that forced him to go against the Liberal party and its official candidate for the presidency
Horacio Serpa.
In 2002 he ran for his third term of office in the Senate on the ticket of the political movement
Colombia Always, a dissident of the Liberal Party, founded by Juan Lozano. He not only got re-elected but thanks to the high number of votes received, carried another candidate in the same ticket to get elected along him, with the third highest ballot count in the country. Five months into his third term, Senator Vargas Lleras was the victim of a terrorist attack, a bomb hidden in a book wrapped in gift paper. As a result of the attack, Vargas Lleras lost some fingers in his left hand. Still recovering from his wounds, Vargas Lleras returned to the Senate's floor in 2003, consolidating himself as one of the leaders of President Uribe's Senate coalition. In 2003, Vargas Lleras was elected Senate President.
In July 2005, the national news magazine ''
Semana
''Semana'' (Spanish: ''Week'') is a weekly magazine in Colombia.
History
''Semana'' was founded in 1946 by Alberto Lleras Camargo (who would become president of Colombia in 1958) and that folded in 1961. It was relaunched by journalist in ...
'' published a report stating that the
Office of the Attorney General of Colombia pointed a man called Joaquín Vergara Mojica, an ex guerilla member of the
ELN terrorist organization as the one behind the bomb-attack against Senator Vargas Lleras. The report stated that the accused – along with two other "''reinsertados''" (deserters who had been pardoned) from the terrorist organization
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasan ...
, staged a plan to send explosive devices to high-profile individuals – Senator Vargas Lleras among them, to then seek rewards from the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
by tipping them of the terrorist attacks before the devices exploded. According to Vergara's version, the bomb inside the book aimed for Senator Vargas Lleras exploded before the law enforcers made it to his office.
In October 2003, Juan Lozano was defeated into his run for mayor of Bogotá under the Colombia Always party. Senator Vargas Lleras then decided to join the
Radical Change
Radical Change (, CR, stylised with a backwards "R") is a conservative liberal political party in Colombia.
After the elections on 12 March 2006, the party became one of the most important in the new Congress, receiving 20 seats in the lower ho ...
party, he rose among its ranks and in 2004 became its chairman and director.
In the second half of 2005 a group of Uribists led by
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by training and a journalist by trade, S ...
founded the
Party of the U
The Union Party for the People (), or Party of the U (), is a liberal political party in Colombia. The Party is led by former president Juan Manuel Santos.
After supporting the presidencies of Álvaro Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos and Iván Duque, ...
, and publicly invited Senator Vargas Lleras to merge both parties looking to ensure the majorities in the following elections. The Senator declined the invitation arguing that both parties represented different political sectors. Soon after the elections, the infiltration of the Party of the U by extreme right paramilitary organizations became public, triggering a storm of indignation among many Colombians.
Senator Vargas Lleras suffered another terrorist attack, this time with a
car-bomb. Vargas Lleras escaped the attack unharmed but a few of his bodyguards were seriously injured. The attack led to a confrontation between the Senator and President Uribe when the latter accused the FARC terrorist organization for the attack, disregarding leads attained by the Senator, pointing towards a possible alliance of politicians and the paramilitary organizations. The Colombian Attorney General's Office has not concluded that investigation, to date.
The 2006 elections consolidated Radical Change as a major political party by getting 15 Senators and 22 Congressmen elected. Senator Vargas Lleras achieved the highest number of ballots for the Senate (223.330) with a 50% advantage margin over the second runner up. Beginning 2008 Vargas Lleras went on a temporary leave of absence from the Senate to pursue studies in Europe. He was replaced by Rodrigo Lara Restrepo. However, on June of the same year he resigned his senate seat in a move to try to save the political reform law, in face of the crisis triggered by the fact that Lara Restrepo could not vote it for risk of being accused of legal bias. He was then replaced by Elsa Gladys Cifuentes, but regardless of this bold move by Vargas Lleras, the law did not pass in the Senate.
Vargas Lleras is cited in the
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...
scandal.
Parapolitics scandal
The Cambio Radical party was implicated in a so-called "parapolitics" scandal when there were allegations og ties between the paramilitary group
AUC and politicians. In the wake of this scandal, Vargas reportedly "resigned from the Senate 'to study' and announced his opposition to a second re-election of Uribe, which was being led by Santos' U Party. Instead, Vargas announced to be running for president himself in 2009 creating increasing tensions between the then-president and his former ally."
In 2012 the "parapolitics" scandal was reported on again when Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez announced that there would be an investigation into the alleged ties between Vargas and jailed warlord Martin Llanos.
2010 presidential elections
Vargas Lleras launched his presidential bid on June 25, 2009. During the event, he stated that he would stay on the race regardless of whether incumbent president Uribe would run for a third term. The messaging of the former senator has always been very clear on intending to continue with the policies of Uribe's Administration, but without Uribe.
After a long campaign trail where he visited 30 of the 32
Departments of Colombia
Colombia is a unitary state, unitary republic made up of thirty-two administrative divisions referred to as departments (Spanish language, Spanish: ''departamentos'', sing. ) and one Capital District (''Capital districts and territories, Distri ...
, Vargas Lleras gradually launched his government plan, calling for a number of politically important reforms. Regardless of the offers of alliances made by a number of political parties, Vargas Lleras decided to wait for the political landscape to become clear, he became emphatic on stating that only at the right time and under the right conditions, he would be willing to participate in a coalition government.
The election was won by Uribe's chosen successor, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. Vargas won 10% of the vote and placed third, and later became a minister in Santos' coalition in August 2010.
2018 presidential elections
German Vargas Lleras launched his presidential bid on August 29, 2017. In a video published in his Facebook account he thank the group of citizens who launched his presidential bid through the registration of a committee to collect signatures towards running for the presidency. The Citizen committee was formed by
Simón Vélez (architect expert on
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
), Eduardo Pacheco (President of Grupo Colpatria and economist) and Jeison Aristizábal (founder of Asodivalle and chosen in 2016 as a
CNN Heroes of the year] . The citizens committee launched the hashtag #MejorVargasLLeras to promote the presidential bid.
This launch of the campaign surprised many politicians because he didn't use his political party to run (Radical Change) but instead started to collect signatures from citizens all around Colombia. A political tactic criticized by his opponents but validated by the constitution. One of the strategies that the campaign used was the usage of message to make Colombians to reflect about the situation of neighbor country
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
and how electing him could avoid that from happening. The strategy from Vargas Lleras to run by signatures could be a technique to avoid the bad image that his own party has had for corruption acts committed by many of his members including members of the parliament and attorneys
Vargas Lleras began his campaign with a favorable image of 41% against a dis-favorable image of 48% according to Gallup poll on August 30, 2017. The polls of July 2017 put him in the first position reaching 14% of the popular opinion if the presidential elections would be to be held according to Cifras y Conceptos. However, most of the electors are not sure who are they going to vote for reaching 17%. He finished the race in fourth place with 7.30% of the votes.
In 2019, 65% of the population surveyed said they had an unfavourable image of Germán Vargas Lleras, while 25% said they had a favourable image.
References
External links
Official site of Germán Vargas LlerasGermán Vargas Lleras' Fan Page on FacebookGermán Vargas Lleras' TwitterPolitical biography of Vargas Lleras
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vargas Lleras, German
1962 births
Living people
Politicians from Bogotá
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Del Rosario University alumni
20th-century Colombian lawyers
Members of the Senate of Colombia
Presidents of the Senate of Colombia
Candidates for President of Colombia
Ministers of the interior and justice of Colombia
Ministers of the interior of Colombia
Ministers of housing, city and territory of Colombia
Radical Change politicians
Colombian Liberal Party politicians
Colombia Always politicians
Vice presidents of Colombia