# Carlos Arango Vélez

Carlos Arango Vélez (Bogotá, February 13, 1897-ibidem, October 12, 1974), was a Colombian Jurist and Liberal Party Politician.
He held several public offices like the Mayor of Bogotá (1935–1936), Minister of War (1931), and Parliamentarian, where he stood out as a skilled orator. He was defeated by Alfonso López Pumarejo in his 1942 run for President of Colombia. Following his loss, he became increasingly close to the progressive sector of conservatism.
He was father-in-law to Colombian president Misael Pastrana Borrero, as one of his daughters married the conservative politician.

## Life

Carlos Arango Vélez was born in Bogotá, on February 13, 1897, in the atypical affluent home of two parents from the Atlantic Coast of Colombia who settled in the city.
Arango completed his basic studies at the University of the Rosary, then studied Law at the National University. He received his postgraduate degrees in Criminal Law in Rome and Sociology in Florence, Italy.
Arango began his political career as a Secretary, then in charge of the Colombian Consulate in Rome from 1914 to 1918 under the presidency of conservative José Vicente Concha, and later as Mayor of Bogotá between 1935 and 1936.

### Minister of War (1931)

He was appointed Minister of War and Navy by liberal president Enrique Olaya Herrera, in office from July 28 to November 27 of 1931. During his short time as Minister, he initiated the Colombia-Peru War, the last war to be declared by Colombia against another country.
Prior to the war, skirmishes were taking place that led the ministry to acquire better weapons in the face of the threat of a war. Arango managed the acquisition of new machine guns, rifles, and a renewed war flotilla.

### Separation from and return to the Liberal Party

In 1933, Arango decided to separate himself from the official liberalism (of the Colombian Liberal Party), due to some political actions that compromised President Olaya with the conservatives. In response, he joined a leftist movement called the National Leftist Revolutionary Union (Spanish: Unión Nacional de Izquierda Revolucionaria, UNIR), founded, primarily, by the influential liberal lawyer Jorge Eliécer Gaitán.
To promote UNIR, Arango and founded the newspaper "El Unirismo", and sought the implementation of an agrarian reform, which the new president, Alfonso López Pumarejo, would implement in 1936.
However, the harassment that the movement suffered by Liberals and Conservatives alike, their alleged closeness to communists that marginalized them, and their failure in the 1935 parliamentary elections, led Arango and Gaitán to dissolve the movement and return to the official ranks of the Liberal Party.

### Mayorship of Bogotá (1935-1936)

In retribution for his return to the Liberal Party, Arango was appointed Superior Mayor of Bogotá by President López Pumarejo, holding the position from October 1935 to March 1936 (Gaitán would later do the same between 1936 and 1937). During his mayoralty, he gave an award-winning speech on Russian socialist activist Rosa Luxemburg, at the Teatro Colón.
Arango was also a professor of Criminal Law at the National University of Colombia, during those years. He directed the Colombian Newspaper El Nacional, was a Representative in the Chamber, and Senator for several periods. He was also Colombia's ambassador to the Holy See in 1942, at the request of outgoing President Eduardo Santos.

### Presidential candidacy

Arango launched his presidential candidacy for the 1942 elections supported by the radical sector of the Liberal Party, and with the approval of Laureano Gómez, president of the Conservative Party. With his candidacy, Arango aimed to confront the ruling Liberal Party, which was supporting the re-election of former President Alfonso López Pumarejo.
Among his conservative allies were the young lawyer Misael Pastrana Borrero (who was a protégé of businessman Mariano Ospina Pérez), and the Santista sector of the Liberal Party, led by former president Eduardo Santos, who were the minority in the party. In addition to the support of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán himself, he brought together communists and radical liberals. Despite this coalition of support, former president López Pumarejo defeated Arango by a considerable margin (close to an 8-point difference).

### Relationship with the Conservative Party

Despite his defeat as a dissident liberal in 1942, his loyalty to conservatism made him a key player during the government of Ospina Pérez, who was elected president of Colombia in 1946 after the chaotic second government of López, who was forced to resign in 1945, leaving power in the hands of Pérez, his Interior Minister.
As a result of the division of the Liberal Party, one sector supporting Gabriel Turbay's official candidacy, one Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's, and another Darío Echandía's, which never materialized, the conservatives regained power after losing it in 1930. Within the Ospina government, he held the position of Vice President of Colombia in 1946.
His ties with the conservatives did not stop there; in 1951, his eldest daughter married Misael Pastrana, whom she met in 1950, when Arango was acting as Colombia's Ambassador to the Holy See and Pope Pius XI under then president-elect Laureano Gómez. In office, with the support of his now son-in-law, he renegotiated the terms of the papal concordat.
He was appointed, by President Gómez, Colombia's Ambassador to Brazil, remaining in this position even during the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, until his resignation in 1955, following the closure of the liberal newspaper El Tiempo (owned by Eduardo Santos) by the military government.

### National Front

After the dictatorship, in 1958, he was appointed by liberal president Alberto Lleras Camargo Colombia's Ambassador to, once again, the Holy See, this time under Pope Juan XIII, remaining in the office until 1960. In 1969, he supported the candidacy of his son-in-law Misael Pastrana, who was elected in a disputed election on April 19, 1970.

### Final years

Carlos Arango Vélez died in Bogotá on October 12, 1974, just months after his son-in-law left the presidency August 7, 1974. He was 77 years old and had been hospitalized for several days at the prestigious Shaio Clinic (Spanish: Clínica de Shaio). The Liberal Party, President Alfonso López Michelsen, and the Ospino-Pastranista sector of the Conservative Party led his posthumous tributes.
His remains were taken to the chapel at the traditional Gimnasio Moderno school, and currently rest in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá.

## Family

Arango was the son of Carmelo Arango Martínez and his wife, Cristina Vélez Racero, both born on the Atlantic Coast of Colombia.

### Marriage

Arango married María Vega Jaramillo, who was a member of several prominent families at the time of Colombia's Independence, with blood ties to Jorge Tadeo Lozano and even Antonio Nariño and Domingo Caycedo.
María "Maruja" Vega was the granddaughter of Clementina Portocarrero Caycedo, who, in urn, was the great-niece of Domingo Caycedo through her mother Dolores Caycedo. Clementina was also the great-niece of Jorge Tadeo Lozano, through her father José María Portocarrero y Ricaurte, the great-grandson of Jorge Miguel Lozano, father of Jorge Tadeo.

### Children and descendants

From his marriage to María Vega, their three daughters María Cristina, María Isabel, and María Elvira Arango Vega were born.
María Cristina Arango married Huila politician Misael Pastrana Borrero, president of Colombia between 1970 and 1974, and from this union Juan Carlos, Andrés, Jaime, and Cristina Pastrana Arango were born. Juan Carlos Pastrana is a journalist, and Andrés Pastrana is a prominent politician who was president from 1998 to 2002.
María Isabel Arango married Francisco Vargas Holguín, grandson of former president Jorge Holguín Mallarino and Cecilia Arboleda Mosquera, the daughter of former president Julio Arboleda and Sofía Mosquera Hurtado, granddaughter of Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. Vargas Holguín was also the great-nephew of former president Carlos Holguín Mallarino.

## Tributes

* Law 196 of 1995.
* Colegio Carlos Arango Vélez, a Primary School in Bogotá.

## Published works

* Lo que yo se de la guerra, 1933.