Alfonso López Pumarejo (born the January 31st 1886, with Honda, province of Tolima, Colombia - died the November 20th 1959 with London) was a Politician Colombia N, which was President of the Republic of 1934 with 1938, then of 1942 with 1946.

Biography

Alfonso López Pumarejo spent its first years to Honda, where his/her father, originating in Bogotá, had come to be established for professional reasons.

When his/her parents returned in Bogotá, it continued its studies with the College Gonzaga San Luis and the College of trade. Thereafter, his/her father sent it in England, where he studied finances in Brighton College. Lastly, it improved in economy in Packard School of New York.

The November 6th 1933, López Pumarejo agrees to be candidate with the presidency of the Republic to succeed Enrique Olaya Herrera. With the absence of adversary in the conservative camp, he is elected with almost a million voice.

He begins his government the August 7th 1934, while trying into practice to put the ideas which were at the base of its electoral program, to make “liberal Republic” a reality, to carry out the “Revolution moving”, which he defined itself as “ the duty of the statesman to obtain by means peaceful and constitutional all that a revolution by average violent ones would obtain”.

The “revolution moving” involved the modernization of the country and its immersion in the capitalist economy. The constitutional reforms, legislative and normative of the liberal Republic obeyed an organic planning which sought the adjustment of the democratic regime with social realities and economic of time.

Completed work by López Pumarejo in its first administration was so remarkable that not very many was those of its partisans who did not think of his name for the presidential elections of 1942. López obtained its re-election, by beating the candidate of a liberal-preserving coalition represented by Carlos Arango Vélez.

In front of the difficulties encountered to control because of a strong opposition of the right-hand side, López Pumarejo decides to implement another constitutional reform, adopted in 1945. This reform grants the citizenship the women, but without right to vote. It devotes prohibition to vote for the soldiers. It restricts the number of the debates for the approval of the laws.

During this second administration, López has to face an economic situation made difficult by the Second world war, which affected the sale of the Colombian products outside.

In same time, López had to face difficulties in its family life because of the disease of his wife, María Michelsen. These three elements - conservative opposition, disunion of liberalism and the precarious health of its wife - undermined its will and led it to present its resignation in March 1944, for family reasons. But, a civic strike organized by the working class to express its support for the president obliged it to give up its resignation, and to continue its mandate.

One of the most important facts of this government intervened after what one called the “coup d'etat de Pasto”, when López and its Minister for Labor, Adán Arriaga Andrade, tie profit of the situation, promulgated the legislative decree N° 2350 of 1944, which established recognition of work contract like entity legal autonomous, which invested government of faculty to establish models of contracts and to fix minimum wage, which fixed the duration of day's work at nine hours and made compulsory the overtime pay, which fixed the duration of the work contract at six months, founding the notice corresponding, which also limited to six months the apprenticeship contract and fixed at fourteen years the minimum age to start to work.

With regard to the international relations, Alfonso López Pumarejo establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, adhered to the Treaty Chapultepec on inter-American solidarity and inserted Colombia in the United Nations (UNO).

Alfonso López Pumarejo died in London the November 20th 1959, at the 73 years age.