Virgilio Barco Vargas

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Virgilio Barco Vargas

|image = President Virgilio Barco.png

|caption = Barco in 1991

|order = 27th

|office = President of Colombia

|term_start = {{Start date|1986|08|07|df=yes}}

|term_end = {{End date|1990|08|07|df=yes}}

|predecessor = Belisario Betancur

|successor = César Gaviria

|order2 = 20th

|ambassador_from2 = Colombia

|country2 = United Kingdom

|term_start2 = {{Start date|1990|11|09|df=yes}}

|term_end2 = 1992

|predecessor2 = Fernando Cepeda Ulloa

|successor2 = Luis Prieto Ocampo

|president2 = César Gaviria

|order3 = 18th

|ambassador_from3 = Colombia

|country3 = United States

|term_start3 = {{Start date|1977|06|24|df=yes}}

|term_end3 = {{End date|1980|12|11|df=yes}}

|predecessor3 = Julio César Turbay

|successor3 = Jorge Mario Eastman

|president3 = Alfonso López Michelsen

|order4 = 6th

|office4 = Mayor of Bogotá

|term_start4 = 1966

|term_end4 = 1969

|president4 = Carlos Lleras Restrepo

|predecessor4 = Jorge Gaitán Cortés

|successor4 = Emilio Urrea Delgado

|office5 = Minister of Agriculture

|term_start5 = {{Start date|1963|04|23|df=yes}}

|term_end5 = {{End date|1963|10|06|df=yes}}

|president5 = Guillermo León Valencia

|predecessor5 = Cornelio Reyes Reyes

|successor5 = Gustavo Balcázar Monzón

|office6 = Minister of Finance and Public Credit

|term_start6 = {{Start date|1962|08|07|df=yes}}

|term_end6 = {{End date|1962|09|05|df=yes}}

|president6 = Guillermo León Valencia

|predecessor6 = Jorge Mejía Palacio

|successor6 = Carlos Sanz de Santamaría

|order7 = 8th

|ambassador_from7 = Colombia

|country7 = United Kingdom

|term_start7 = {{Start date|1961|06|16|df=yes}}

|term_end7 = 1962

|predecessor7 = Alfonso López Pumarejo

|successor7 = Alfredo Araújo Grau

|president7 = Alberto Lleras Camargo

|office8 = Minister of Public Works

|term_start8 = {{Start date|1958|08|07|df=yes}}

|term_end8 = {{End date|1960|11|09|df=yes}}

|predecessor8 = Roberto Salazar Gómez

|successor8 = Misael Pastrana Borrero

|president8 = Alberto Lleras Camargo

|birth_name = Virgilio Barco Vargas

|birth_date = {{birth date|1921|09|17|df=yes}}

|birth_place = Cúcuta, North Santander, Colombia

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1997|05|20|1921|09|17|df=yes}}

|death_place = Bogotá, Colombia

|restingplace = Central Cemetery of Bogotá

|nationality = Colombian

|party = Liberal

|spouse = {{marriage|Carolina Isakson Proctor|1950}}

|children = {{Plainlist|

María Carolina Barco Isakson
Julia Barco Isakson
Diana Barco Isakson
Virgilio Barco Isakson

}}

|alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

National University of Colombia {{nowrap|(Lic, 1942)}}
Massachusetts Institute of Technology {{nowrap|(MScCE, 1943; PhD 1953)}}
Boston University {{nowrap|(MScS, 1952)}}

}}

|profession = Civil engineer

|website = [https://virgiliobarco.com/ Official website]

}}

Virgilio Barco Vargas (17 September 1921 – 20 May 1997) was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 27th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990.

Early life

Barco was born in Cúcuta in the Norte de Santander Department of Colombia to Jorge Enrique Barco Maldonado and Julieta Vargas Durán. He studied Civil Engineering at the National University of Colombia and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he graduated in 1943.{{cite web |url=http://web.presidencia.gov.co/asiescolombia/presidentes/64.htm |title=Virgilio Barco Vargas |publisher=Presidency of the Republic of Colombia |date=June 2013 |access-date=2014-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031195108/http://web.presidencia.gov.co/asiescolombia/presidentes/64.htm |archive-date=2013-10-31 |url-status=dead }} He entered politics in 1943 when he became a city council member for the Liberal Party in the town of Durania. He was then elected to the lower house of Congress, but went into exile to the US in 1950 because of violence between liberals and conservatives. His daughter, Carolina Barco Isakson (who would later become a Colombian politician herself) was born there. He obtained an M.A. in economics at MIT, where he took classes under Nobel Prize winners Robert Solow and Paul Samuelson in 1952. In 1954 he obtained a PhD in economics from Boston University.{{cite web |url=https://www.cidob.org/es/content/pdf/1810 |title=Virgilio Barco Vargas |format=PDF |access-date=2023-04-02 |date=2002-10-01 |website=cidob.org |lang=es}}

Barco is the grandson of Colombian General Virgilio Barco M., who developed one of the country's largest oil concessions in 1905.

Political career

Barco returned to Colombia in 1954 to help negotiate the peace process which allowed the formation of the National Front between liberals and conservatives, which lasted two decades. He became a member of the Senate, the upper house of Congress in 1958, left to become the ambassador to Britain in 1961, and returned to Colombia in 1962. He served another term in the Senate until 1966, when he was elected mayor of Colombia's capital, Bogotá. He served in that position until 1969, when he became a director of the World Bank until 1974. He then served as ambassador to the United States from 1977 until 1980.

=Presidency=

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Barco was elected president of Colombia with 58% of the vote in 1986. He supported anti-poverty programs, renewed dialogue with leftist guerillas and fought drug traffickers. Though he was popular within the international community, he became less popular in Colombia because the drug traffickers became more violent after he started to move against them. His restrictive economic policies at first doomed the country. After two years of this, The Economic Openness program was initiated by his administration, which would open Colombian markets to the world and recharge the country's economy. He served one 4-year term.