Rafael Reyes (5 December 1849-18 February 1921) was President of Colombia from 7 August 1904 to 27 July 1909, succeeding Jose Manuel Marroquin and preceding Ramon Gonzalez Valencia.
Biography[]
Rafael Reyes was born in Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Boyaca Department, Colombia in 1849. He and his siblings cofounded an exports company when he was 17, and his company settled towns and discovered unknown rivers throughout the Amazon rainforest before disease, the sinking of ships, and the migration of personnel led to the company's shutdown in 1884. Reyes went on to join the military and fight in the civil war of 1884-1885, reaching the rank of general and reconquering Panama for President Rafael Núñez. He later served as Government Minister under his rival Miguel Antonio Caro and as ambassador to Paris at the time of the Thousand Days' War. Despite failing to reconquer Panama in 1904, he was elected President and shared cabinet positions with the liberals to bring back peace and order. He sponsored laws to protect minority social groups, built the capitol building, created a modern military academy with the help of Chilean officers, restored relations with Venezuela, and restructured the nation's foreign debt. He survived a 1906 assassination attempt by hardline conservatives and, in 1909, restored diplomatic relations with the United States. In 1909, he went into exile to avoid a civil war between his supporters and the opposition, and he returned from Europe as an old man and died in Bogota in 1921.