Belisario Betancur
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Belisario Betancur Cuartas (born February 4, 1923) was the President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.
Son of Rosendo Betancur and Anita Otilia Cuartas, he was born in El Morro de la Paila (Amagá, Antioquía, Colombia). He became Doctor in Law and Economy in 1947 from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín.He began his political career as member of Antioquia's Parlament from 1945-1947, between 1953 and 1957, he was part of the National Constitutional Asembly, where he proclaim that the constitutional president was Laureano Gomez (Conservative) and not Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.He was minister of work in 1963 during the León Valencia's Administration and ambassador of Colombia in Spain, until 1970 when he became presidential candidate,unsucesfully, in 1978 he ran again, but he just won in 1982 (30 may) with 3168592 votes. He won the Spain's Principe de Asturias price for International Cooperation in 1983 for his contributions for the end of several Central American civil wars such as the ones that ravaged El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s. He also began the descentralization of Colombian state and promote the first peace talks with armed groups.
| Preceded by: Julio César Turbay Ayala | President of Colombia 1982–1986 | Succeeded by: Virgilo Barco Vargas |