Virgilio Barco Vargas

Virgilio Barco Vargas
Virgilio Barco Vargas
	Colombia Ambassador to the United Kingdom
	In office; 16 June 1961 – 1962
President	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Preceded by	Alfonso López Pumarejo
Succeeded by	Alfredo Araújo Grau
Minister of Public Works
	In office; 7 August 1958 – 9 November 1960
President	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Preceded by	Roberto Salazar Gómez
Succeeded by	Misael Pastrana Borrero
Personal details
Born	Virgilio Barco Vargas; 17 September 1921; North Santander, Colombia
Died	20 May 1997 (aged 75); Bogotá, Colombia
Resting place	Central Cemetery of Bogotá
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Carolina Isakson Proctor (m. 1950)
Children	María Carolina Barco Isakson; Julia Barco Isakson; Diana Barco Isakson; Virgilio Barco Isakson;
Alma mater	National University of Colombia (Lic, 1942); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MScCE, 1943; PhD 1953); Boston University (MScS, 1952);
Profession	Civil engineer
Website	Official website

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

Nobel prize winners Robert Solow and Paul Samuelson in 1952. In 1954 he obtained a PhD in economics from Boston University.^[2]

Barco is the grandson of Colombian General

Virgilio Barco M.

, who developed one of the country's largest oil concessions in 1905.

Political career

Barco returned to Colombia in 1954 to help negotiate the peace process which allowed the formation of the

Britain in 1961, and returned to Colombia in 1962. He served another term in the Senate until 1966, when he was elected mayor of Colombia's capital, Bogotá. He served in that position until 1969, when he became a director of the World Bank

until 1974. He then served as ambassador to the United States from 1977 until 1980.

Presidency

Barco was elected president of Colombia with 58% of the vote in 1986. He supported anti-poverty programs, renewed dialogue with leftist guerillas and fought drug traffickers. Though he was popular within the international community, he became less popular in Colombia because the drug traffickers became more violent after he started to move against them. His restrictive economic policies at first doomed the country. After two years of this, The Economic Openness program was initiated by his administration, which would open Colombian markets to the world and recharge the country's economy. He served one 4-year term.

Post-Presidency and death

When he left the Presidency in 1990, he served as ambassador to Britain again until 1992.

Barco was diagnosed with cancer and he died on May 20, 1997, in Bogotá when he was 75. He is now buried in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá.

Popular culture

Barco is portrayed by the colombian actor Jorge Zúñiga as the character of Ramiro Vargas in TV series Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord.

References

^ "Virgilio Barco Vargas". Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. June 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
^ "Virgilio Barco Vargas" (PDF). cidob.org (in Spanish). 2002-10-01. Retrieved 2023-04-02.

External links

Biography and tenure of Virgilio Barco by CIDOB

Political offices
Preceded by Belisario Betancur Cuartas	President of Colombia 1986–1990	Succeeded by César Gaviria

[1] "Virgilio Barco Vargas". Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. June 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2014-01-13.

[2] "Virgilio Barco Vargas" (PDF). cidob.org (in Spanish). 2002-10-01. Retrieved 2023-04-02.

[2]

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Mayors of the Special District	Roberto Salazar Gómez (1954–1955) Andrés Rodríguez Gómez (1955–1957) Fernando Mazuera Villegas (1957–1958) Juan Pablo Llinás (1958–1961) Jorge Gaitán Cortés (1961–1966) Virgilio Barco Vargas (1966–1969) Emilio Urrea Delgado (1969–1970) Carlos Albán Holguín (1970–1973) Aníbal Fernández de Soto (1973–1974) Alfonso Palacio Rudas (1974–1975) Luis Prieto Ocampo (1975–1976) Bernardo Gaitán Mahecha (1976–1978) Hernando Durán Dussán (1978–1982) Augusto Ramírez Ocampo (1982–1984) Hisnardo Ardila (1984–1985) Diego Pardo Koppel (1985–1986) Julio César Sánchez (1986–1988) Andrés Pastrana Arango (1988–1990) Juan Martín Caicedo Ferrer (1990–1991)
Mayors of the Capital District of Santa Fe de Bogotá	Juan Martín Caicedo Ferrer (1991–1992) Sonia Durán de Infante (ad-hoc) (1992–1992) Jaime Castro Castro (1992–1994) Antanas Mockus (1995–1996) Paul Bromberg Silverstein (1996–1997)
Mayors of the Capital District of Bogotá	Enrique Peñalosa (1998–2000) Antanas Mockus (2001–2003) Luis Eduardo Garzón (2004–2007) Samuel Moreno Rojas (2008 – June 2011) María Fernanda Campo Saavedra (Acting Mayor, May 2011 – June 2011) Clara López Obregón (Acting Mayor, June 2011 – December 2011) Gustavo Petro (2012 – March 2014) Rafael Pardo (Acting Mayor, March 2014 – April 2014) María Mercedes Maldonado (Acting Mayor, April 2014) Gustavo Petro (April 2014 – 2015) Enrique Peñalosa (2016–2019) Claudia López (2020–Present)

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