Pastrana Borrero, Misael (1923–1997)

Misael Pastrana Borrero (b. 14 November 1923; d. 21 August 1997), president of Colombia (1970–1974). Born to a prominent family in Neiva, Huila, and educated in Bogotá, he took his doctorate in law at Javerian University in 1945. As a teenage Conservative, he was perceived as having a promising future. He served in the Colombian embassy at the Vatican from 1947 to 1949, then was President Mariano Ospina Pérez's secretary (1949–1950) and counselor at the Colombian embassy in Washington, D.C. (1950–1952). Pastrana worked in corporate private finance from 1956 to 1959, then returned to government (1960–1961). He was in the private sector again from 1961 to 1966, and became minister of development, then of public works, and then of finance and credit over sixteen months of the Carlos Lleras Restrepo presidency (1966–1970). In 1968, he returned to Washington, D.C., as Colombia's ambassador. Pastrana was elected president in 1970, after a bitter political campaign, winning by less than 64,000 votes out of 3,250,000 cast. One of the best-prepared, in terms of administrative experience, of any Colombian chief executive of the twentieth century, Pastrana had to overcome virulent opposition before being able to achieve some of his goals in the last two years of his term. These included tax reform, foreign petroleum company buyouts by the government, enlarged social services, and improvements in the infrastructure. Pastrana died in Bogotá one year before his son, Andrés Pastrana Arango, was elected as president (1998–2002).

See alsoColombia, Political Parties: Conservative Party .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rafael Méndez Buendía, Misael Pastrana Borrero (1969); International Who's Who 1992–1993 (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Mendoza, Plinio Apuleyo. Los retos del poder. Santa Fe de Bogotá: Intermedio Editores, 1991.

Moreno, Delimiro. Misael Pastrana Borrero. Neiva: Instituto Huilense de Cultura, 1997.

                                    J. LeÓn Helguera