Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala (18 June 1916 – 13 September 2005) was President of Colombia from 7 August 1978 to 7 August 1982, succeeding Alfonso Lopez Michelsen and preceding Belisario Betancur.
Biography[]
Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala was born on 18 June 1916 in Bogota, Colombia, the son of Lebanese businessman Antonio Armin Turbay. His hard-working father built a fortune, but he lost it during the Thousand Days' War. Julio Cesar Turbay became a member of the Colombian Liberal Party, and in 1957 he became Minister of Mines and Petroleum before serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1958 to 1961. His skill in diplomacy led to Turbay being appointed the permanent representative to the United Nations, serving from 1967 to 1969. Turbay was elected President of Colombia on 7 August 1978, and he passed the Security Statute in response to increased M-19 and FARC guerrilla activity. Most of the M-19's command structure was captured under Turbay, but the measure became unpopular and led to sympathy for the communist rebels. In 1980, M-19 captured the ambassadors from the Dominican Republic, United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Israel, and Venezuela, and Turbay was forced to pay $1,000,000 to the rebels to solve the hostage crisis. Later, former M-19 member Rosemberg Pabon would express his admiration for Turbay due to his decision not to use violence to solve the siege.
Turbay left office in 1982 as the Colombian drug wars escalated, and he became a close friend and confidant to President Cesar Gaviria, who respected Turbay as a former president. In 1990, his daughter Diana Turbay was taken hostage by Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel and accidentally killed by Colombian police during a failed rescue operation not sanctioned by her family, and Turbay was upset. During the 2000s, he supported Alvaro Uribe during his 2002 presidential campaign, which ended in victory. Turbay died in 2005 at the age of 89.