The 1970 presidential elections in Colombia through the media. An unsolved fraud ever

Abstract

This article intends to reflect on the fraud of the 1970 presidential elections in Colombia. These processes are studied in three moments: the first one is related to the electoral campaign of the 4 candidates; and, in particular, of the representatives from the alliances of the nationalist front, Misael Pastrana Borrero, and from Alianza Nacional Popular (Popular National Alliance), Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, emphasizing on the way these two candidates took advantage of the press to display their image; the second one corresponds to the tallying of votes and the untimely change and publishing of the electoral results which created the feeling of an accomplished fraud, analyzed from the way that the national and regional newspapers referred to the victory of one or the other candidate; the third one is related to the legitimation of the electoral results, which describes the fraud complaints by the different social stakeholders and the governmental measures to solve the conflict and ensure “democracy”. In this political history study, the information obtained from the press was highly relevant because it allowed perceiving the political confrontations, the omissions, the alliances and the trends of the elites in order to preserve power. The 1970 presidential elections are remembered by voters as one of the major frauds in the history of Colombian elections, even though they signified the opening in the democratic system, because the government candidate was imposed, which was perceived by the Anapo supporters as a mock to the democratic system.