Marco Fidel Suarez: humble person
who became president of Colombia.
By:
Alvaro Hernan Restrepo V. and Ivan Alexander Laverde G. Date: 06/28/2015
Marco Fidel Suarez was a great
writer and Colombian politician who became a president. He was born in a humble
family on April 18th of 1856 in Bello-Colombia. Marco Fidel Suarez died
on April 3 of 1927 in Santafé of Bogotá. He wanted to be a priest, but he was an
illegitimate child, so he could not. The
priest Joaquín Bustamante helped him with the payment of his studies. He studied theology, literature, philosophy,
and for the priesthood in Seminario Mayor
de Medellin. During his youth, He did works that gave him some basis in
international right, such as: “official mayor” in the foreign minister, taught
classes in international law, and in 1981 he was minister of external relation.
In 1891, he wrote “Ensayo sobre la
Gramática de don Andrés Bello’’ winning the gold medal. This prize helped him to enter to the politics
by the conservative park. He was a senator, minister of public
instruction (in Spanish “Instrucción pública”) and the external relations. Between the years 1918 and 1921, he was president
in Colombia.
Since the beginning of the
presidency, the government of Marco Fidel Suarez was controversial, because
while promulgating the charity, benevolence, and aid from rich to poor as the
best solution to the rising social problems, his actions were hostile to the
working class.
During his administration,
significant reforms were proposed: in November 27, 1918 the income tax was
created; in December 5, 1919 the aviation company Colombo German Society of Air
Transport (SCADTA), predecessor of the current Avianca, which opened in July
1920. SCADTA was a pioneer in aviation in Latin America.
On August 7, 1919 during the
centenary of the Battle of Boyaca, in this date that celebrates the
emancipation of Spain, Marco Fidel Suarez read speeches to the citizens and the
army. On August 25, 1919 arrived in Cartagena the corpse of his son Gabriel
Suarez aboard a transatlantic American. Gabriel Suarez died victim of the
"Spanish flu" in Pittsburgh, USA, at the age of 19 years. He cost of
repatriation of the corpse was the direct cause of the sale of their salaries
and indirect separation of power. On August 28, Marco Fidel Suarez created the "the Cross of Boyacá" with the aim
to highlight the work of those prominent army officers, and subsequently, it was
extended to civilians and being the highest award that can be granted by the
President of the Republic. In November 21
of 1921, he sent a letter to the senate informing the determination to retire
from the presidency.
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