Julio César Turbay Ayala

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Turbay and the second or maternal family name is Ayala.

Julio César Turbay Ayala
File:Julio César Turbay.jpg
Colombia Ambassador to Italy
In office 1991–1993
President	César Gaviria Trujillo
Preceded by	Oscar Mejía Vallejo
Succeeded by	Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza
Colombia Ambassador to Holy See
In office 1987–1989
President	Virgilio Barco Vargas
Succeeded by	Fernando Hinestrosa Forero
25th President of Colombia
In office 7 August 1978 (1978-08-07) – 7 August 1982 (1982-08-07)
Preceded by	Alfonso López Michelsen
Succeeded by	Belisario Betancur Cuartas
17th Colombia Ambassador to United States
In office 29 April 1975 (1975-04-29) – 1976
President	Alfonso López Michelsen
Preceded by	Douglas Botero Boshel
Succeeded by	Virgilio Barco Vargas
12th Colombia Ambassador to United Kingdom
In office 6 January 1973 (1973-01-06) – 15 January 1975 (1975-01-15)
President	Misael Pastrana Borrero
Preceded by	Camilo de Brigard Silva
Succeeded by	Alfredo Vásquez Carrizosa
11th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations
In office 1967–1969
President	Carlos Lleras Restrepo
Preceded by	Alfonso Patiño Rosselli
Succeeded by	Joaquín Vallejo Arbeláez
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia
In office 7 August 1958 (1958-08-07) – 1 September 1961 (1961-09-01)
President	Alberto Lleras Camargo
Preceded by	Carlos Sanz de Santamaría
Succeeded by	José Joaquín Caicedo Castilla
24th Minister of Mines and Petroleum of Colombia
In office 11 May 1957 (1957-05-11) – 7 August 1958 (1958-08-07)
President	Gabriel París Gordillo
Preceded by	Francisco Puyana
Succeeded by	Jorge Ospina Delgado
Personal details
Born	Julio César Turbay Ayala (1916-06-18)18 June 1916 Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Died	Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Nydia Quintero Turbay (1948–1983) Amparo Canal Sandoval (1986–2005)
Children	Julio César Turbay Quintero Diana Turbay Quintero Claudia Consuelo Turbay Quintero María Victoria Turbay Quintero
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Julio César Turbay Ayala (18 June 1916 – 13 September 2005) was the 25th President of Colombia from 1978 to 1982.

Biographic data

Turbay was born in a poor neighborhood of “Voto Nacional”, Bogotá, on June 18, 1916. His father, Antonio Amín Turbay, was a businessman who emigrated from Tannourine, Lebanon. His mother, Rosaura Ayala, was a peasant from the province of Cundinamarca. Turbay’s father, a hard working merchant, had built a fortune, which he completely lost during the civil war of the Thousand Days War.

Presidency

1978 Security Statute

In response to an increase in guerrilla activity from the 19th of April Movement (M-19) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, as well as to the Colombian Communist Party's attempts to extend its political influence and a 1977 national strike, a 1978 decree, known as the Security Statute, was implemented by Turbay's administration.

The Security Statute gave the military an increased degree of freedom of action, especially in urban areas, to detain, interrogate and eventually judge suspected guerrillas or their collaborators before military tribunals. Human rights organizations, newspaper columnists, political personalities and opposition groups complained about an increase in the number of arbitrary detentions and acts of torture as a result.

Although the Security Statute allegedly benefitted some of the counterinsurgency operations of the security forces, such as the capture of most of the M-19's command structure and many of the guerrilla group's urban cells, the measure became highly unpopular inside and outside Colombia, promoting some measure of public sympathy for the victims of the real or perceived military abuses whether they were guerrillas or not, and was phased out towards the end of the Turbay administration.

1980 Dominican embassy crisis

The M-19's late 1980 takeover of the Dominican Republic's embassy, during which sixteen ambassadors were held hostage for 61 days, presented a complicated challenge to the Turbay administration.

The incident soon spread throughout worldwide headlines, as ambassadors from the United States of America, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Israel and Venezuela had been taken hostage, as well as Colombia's top representative to the Holy See.

Turbay, despite pressure from military and political sectors, avoided deciding to solve the crisis through the use of direct military force, and instead eventually agreed to let the M-19 rebels travel to Cuba. Allegedly, the rebels also received USD 1 million as payment, instead of the initial $50 million that they had originally demanded from the government.

That a mostly peaceful resolution to the crisis was found has been generally considered as a positive aspect of Turbay's administration, as seen by later and contemporary commentators and historians.

In particular, former M-19 members, including Rosemberg Pabón, the commander of the guerrilla group's operative unit at the time, later recognized and respected Turbay's handling of the situation.

Post-presidency

Turbay was a supporter of president Álvaro Uribe's. He initially opposed the possibility of presidential reelection in Colombia, but later changed his views, contributing to founding a movement known as Patria Nueva ("New Homeland"), in order to help promote Uribe's 2006 reelection aspirations.

Support for a prisoner exchange with the FARC

Turbay was seen as being at odds with some of Uribe's policies, however, in particular due to Turbay's activism in favor of the implementation and negotiation of a prisoner exchange with the FARC guerrilla group. As part of this effort, Turbay participated in several meetings with the relatives of FARC hostages and signed several declarations of support, together with other former presidents such as Alfonso López Michelsen and Ernesto Samper Pizano.

On August 31, 2005, Turbay proposed that the government could exchange each jailed guerrilla for 10 "economic" hostages (those held for extortion purposes) and one "political" hostage (those held by the FARC in order to pressure the Colombian government to release its jailed members).

Personal life

Turbay married his niece, Nydia Quintero Turbay, on July 1, 1948. They had four children together: Julio César, Diana, Claudia, and María Victoria. However, their marriage was annulled by the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1986 he married his longtime companion Amparo Canal, to whom he remained married until his death. He is related to Paola Turbay.

In January 1991, Turbay's daughter, the journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped by orders of the Medellín Cartel and died during a failed police rescue operation not sanctioned by her family. Her kidnapping is chronicled in News of a Kidnapping by the Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez (1996) and depicted in multiple onscreen productions.

A personal idiosyncrasy of Turbay's was his custom of wearing bow ties, a sartorial habit extremely uncommon in Colombia.

Death

Turbay died on September 13, 2005. He was honored by a state funeral personally led by President Álvaro Uribe and was buried at the Sacromonte Caves at Canton Norte, an army base in Bogotá.

External links

• Find-A-Grave biography

Political offices
Preceded by Alfonso López Michelsen	President of Colombia 1978–1982	Succeeded by Belisario Betancur Cuartas