Gabriel Paris

Gabriel París Gordillo (Ibagué, March 8, 1910-Girardot, March 21, 2008) was a Colombian soldier and politician, a member of the Colombian Conservative Party. General of the National Army of Colombia. He held the ministries of justice, war, government, mines and foreign relations in the government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla; and he was in charge of the Presidency of the Republic twice. During his tenure as President of the Military Government Junta, París sought rapprochement between the traditional parties and measures for the gradual return of democracy to Colombia, women exercising the right to vote for the first time during the plebiscite that was called to implement the National Front. He resisted four overthrow attempts propitiated within the Military Forces.

Biography

He was born in Ibagué on March 8, 1910. He began his studies at a boys' college in his hometown, receiving a bachelor's degree at the San Simón College in the same city.

Military career

París entered the Bogotá Military School of Cadet in 1928 to obtain the rank of second lieutenant of cavalry on December 11, 1929. He held a position in cavalry group 1 'Páez' based in Concepcion. In 1933 he was promoted to lieutenant and participated in the war with Peru on the Baraya-La Tagua line. In 1936 he was promoted to captain and appointed riding teacher at the Military School of Cadet in Bogotá.

He graduated as an officer of the General Staff at the Escuela Superior de Guerra in Bogotá and was promoted to Major in 1941. He returned to the Páez group in 1943 as commander. He later became Deputy Director of the General Santander Police Cadet School in Bogotá, during the administration of Miguel Lleras Pizarro. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1946 and completed the staff course at Fort Leavenworth, USA.

Upon his return to Colombia, París received the order of Boyacá in the rank of commander on August 6, 1946, from the outgoing president of the country, Alberto Lleras Camargo. Paris also served as a professor at the Superior War College and head of the Remount and Veterinary Service.

In 1949 he was commander of group number 2 Rondón and by decree 3255 of October 18, he assumed command of the Cavalry School replacing Colonel Mariano Ospina Rodríguez. The following year he became chief of staff of the II brigade based in Barranquilla and later commander. From there he went to command the IV brigade based in Medellín. On February 28, 1953, París was promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the National Army by President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez. In 1956 he reached the rank of Major General.

Coup of 1953

When the coup took place, General París was serving as Colombia's extraordinary and plenipotentiary minister before the United Nations Security Council. The new government called him to occupy the Ministry of Justice, a position he held from February 9 to August 7, 1954, when he became Minister of War. Between February and June 1954, he was in charge of the Ministry of Mines and Oil; of the Ministry of Government from June 30, 1956 to February 28, 1957; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between July 24 and September 2, 1956.

First presidential exercise

Before the official trip that President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla made to Ecuador with several of his ministers, General París was in charge of the executive power between July 30 and August 2, 1955, a position he assumed before the Supreme Court of Justice.

President of the Military Government Junta

The announcement by the military high command to support the government of General Rojas for 20 years, caused a national strike that demanded the resignation of the President. Among the ways out of the crisis, Rojas Pinilla proposed naming General París as presidential appointee to imply a transition of power, a possibility that was not accepted. The only way out approved by the union and political leaders of the strike was the handing over of power from Rojas to a Military Government Junta in charge of restoring democracy to the country, at whose head General París was appointed and complemented by Brigadier Generals Deogracias Fonseca, Luis Ernesto Ordóñez and Rafael Navas and Rear Admiral Rubén Piedrahita.

The Military Junta restored freedom of the press, created the National Learning Service (SENA), paid the foreign debt, promoted the Plan Vallejo to stimulate exports, called elections for the Congress of the Republic suspended for nine years, separated the Police Forces from the military establishment and held the popular plebiscite on December 1, 1957, with which the National Front was legalized and women exercised the right to vote for the first time, approved during the government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.

Disputes

General París thwarted three military coup projects against him, orchestrated by factions of the Armed Forces, dissatisfied with the handing over of executive power to political parties. The first was led by Major General Alfredo Duarte Blum, General Commander of the Military Forces; the second was an attempt to sabotage the plebiscite on December 1; and the third was set up by Brigadier General Rafael Navas Pardo, who used the stations of the National Army to promote discontent against the government and voices in favor of it.

A fourth coup project led by the commander of the Military Police, Colonel Hernando Forero Gómez, achieved the arrest and confinement in the Military Canton of Puente Aranda of Generals París, Fonseca, Ordóñez and Navas; the presidential candidate Alberto Lleras, and the commander of the National Army Iván Berrío. Vice Admiral Piedrahita managed to avoid capture and assumed control of the government to thwart the coup. Colonel Forero released the members of the Military Junta and managed to take refuge in the Bolivian Embassy in Bogotá. His accomplices were prosecuted by a Special War Council chaired by Brigadier General Enrique París Durán. Documented versions point to General Ordóñez as the instigator of the coup, to impose a triumvirate made up of the commanders of the National Police and the Air Force -Generals Quintín Gustavo Gómez and Alberto Pauwels- and Colonel Luis María González of the I Brigade, in charge of returning the power to General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.

Withdrawal

On July 20, 1958, General París installed the Congress of the Republic, which had been closed since 1949. On August 7, he signed a decree in which the members of the Military Junta were discharged from active service to hand over power to him to the president-elect Alberto Lleras and immediately pass to the use of good retirement.

General París remained a member of the Center for Colombian Studies, the think tank of the Conservative Party, and was elected between 1965 and 1967 as the first commander of the San Jorge Cavalry Regiment. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of Boyacá by President Virgilio Barco Vargas, in 1996 the Order of José Acevedo y Gómez from the Council of Bogotá, and on December 8, 2002 the Third Sun of General from President Andrés Pastrana. His last appearances in public occurred on August 7, 2002 in the possession of Álvaro Uribe and on February 7, 2008 at the inauguration of a neighborhood with 30 luxury cabins that bears his name, in Nilo (Cundinamarca)..

Death

An uncontrollable respiratory condition forced the confinement of General París in the San Sebastián de Girardot Clinic on March 10, 2008, and he died on Good Friday after eleven days of medical care. He was 98 years old.

Tributes

He was veiled on March 22, 2008 in the chapel of the Military School and officially dismissed by the military bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis and speeches by General Gabriel Puyana García and Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. He received honors as General and Head of State and his remains were taken to the ridge of the Presidents of the Central Cemetery of Bogotá. His tomb is located between those of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. Paris was then the longest-serving ex-president of Colombia in history, followed by General Deogracias Fonseca Espinosa and Belisario Betancur.

Family

Gabriel París was a member of one of the most important military families in Colombia, which has contributed 72 Generals and an Admiral to the Republic. He was the son of Alberto París Montalvo and his second wife, Isabel Gordillo Díaz; paternal grandson of the doctor Esteban París Ortega, Major of the legitimist army in the civil war of 1860; great-grandson of the captain and hero of independence José Ignacio París Ricaurte, brother in turn of other heroes such as General Joaquín and colonels Manuel, Antonio and Mariano París Ricaurte.

The París Ricaurte brothers were the sons of the Spanish soldier José Martín París Álvarez and Genoveva Ricaurte Mauris and first cousins of Brigadier Antonio Baraya and Captain Antonio Ricaurte Lozano. General París's grandfather was the founder of his last name in the city of Ibagué, where he was a magistrate and married Juana María Montalvo Barón, a member of the family of the owners of the historic La Primavera hacienda.

Marriage

Gabriel París married in Bogotá on September 28, 1936, with María Felisa Quevedo París, daughter of Ricardo Quevedo Galindo and his cousin Ismenia París Durán. His children were Gabriel, Gloria, Jaime and Carolina París Quevedo.

Posthumous Tributes

The course for National Army officers who graduated on June 5, 2008 was baptized with his name. The then President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez stated on that occasion:

"I would like to pay tribute to General Gabriel Paris, former President of the Republic, who helped so much in that transition from democratic consolidation, who always proceeded with prudence, with patriotism, with full surrender to the Nation. We are very honored that this magnificent course that today graduates, bears its name. "

In 2010, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies issued a stamp alluding to General París within the series of Colombian presidents. And on January 25, 2013, the General Command of the Colombian Military Forces activated the Special Energy and Road Battalion number 20, "General Gabriel París", dependent on the XXIII brigade and operating in the department from Narino.