Gómez Castro, Laureano Eleuterio

Born Feb. 20, 1889, in Bogotá; died there July 13, 1965. Colombian politician and statesman.

Gómez became a deputy to the congress in 1911, ambassador to Germany in 1931–32, and a senator and leader of the Conservative Party in 1932. In 1936 he became the publisher of the influential conservative newspaper El Siglo. During World War II (1939–45) he was one of the organizers of the Colombian profascist group. In 1948 he became foreign minister, and in 1950, president of Colombia. After coming to power he established an extremely reactionary regime oriented toward US monopolies and resorted to cruel repression of democratic movements. Spreading mass protests led to his removal from power in 1953. Gómez lived in Spain until 1957. He was president of the senate during 1958–62.