Gaitan lives

[MrHola]

The assassination of Jorge Elicer Gaitán, the 9th April, 1948, one of the most popular political leaders in Colombia, and most probably candidate to win the 1950 presidential elections, provoked a social uprising, called the Bogotazo.

Political violence in Colombia comes from before this incident, but Gaitán's death and the following government by Laureano Gómez, scalated the violence into a period so called: La Violencia. After this, liberal guerrillas became comunist ones, and Colombia is still suffering from those events.

Gaitan was a strong candidate to take the presidential office in 1950. His government would have shaped Colombia history far different than Conservative and right-wing Laureano Gomez (1950-53), but mainly, not being assassinated would not have worsen the political violence. Posible knock-out effects on Cuba, as Fidel Castro was impressed by the popular movement that arose in Bogota after the assassination.

There are a lot of theories on the assassination of Gaitan. The official version was that Roa Sierra did it by his own, probably wanting to prove the woman he was in love with that he was not a mediocre person. But there are also several conspiracy theories: theories that are feeded by the refusal of the CIA to release information on the subject.For the POD I will assume that the official version is right and that the OTL refusals by the CIA do not pretend to hide their participation in a conspiracy to murder, but to protect the fact that they would have talked to Gaitan to ensure that he would protect US interests if he gets to power.

POD: Roa Sierra decides to take his own live after being rejected by his girlfriend.

Gaitain lives.

What next?

[MrHola]

Anything at all?

[V-J]

I don't know enough to comment, but I think this could make a decent TL if anyone had the know-how to do it.

What was Gaitán like as an indvidual?

[MrHola]

I think Gaitain's personality can be best summed up in a popular story;

A popular story, perhaps apocryphal, relates that during a debate with the Conservative candidate for president, Gaitán asked him how he made his living. "From the land," the other candidate replied.
"Ah, and how did you get this land?" asked Gaitán.
"I inherited it from my father!"
"And where did he get it from?"
"He inherited it from his father!"
The question is repeated once or twice more, and then the Conservative candidate concedes, "We took it from the Indians".
Gaitán's reply was, "Well, we want to do the opposite: we want to give the land back to the Indians".