Medellin, Colombia – Colombian politician Germán Vargas Lleras died Friday in the capital, Bogotá, officials said. main magazine. His death ended a political career that spanned more than 30 years, including serving as a senator, minister, vice president, and two-time presidential candidate.
On Monday, Vargas Lleras was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo Center for Cancer Treatment and Research in Bogotá. He was later transferred to another hospital, where he lost his battle with cancer, which he had been fighting for years. He was 64 years old.
political career
Born in Bogota on February 19, 1962, Vargas Lleras grew up in a political family. His grandfather, former President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, was a pillar of the Liberal Party.
He went on to make a name for himself, serving as a city councilor, member of parliament, minister, and ultimately leader of the Cambio Radical political party.
Vargas Lleras first ran for president in 2009. He traveled the country and participated in debates, garnering nearly 1.5 million votes. It wasn’t enough to win, but he finished third.
Juan Manuel Santos, who won the election, later appointed him a minister in his cabinet.
In 2014, Santos chose him as his running mate for re-election. They won the runoff together, and Vargas Lleras was sworn in as vice president on August 7 of that year.
Even after his term as vice president ended, Vargas Lleras did not sit still. In 2018, he ran for president again, this time with the “Mejor Vargas Lleras” coalition, supported by Cambio Radical.
His policy proposals included infrastructure, housing, and more efficient public administration.
He received more than 1.4 million votes in the first round of voting, but finished in fourth place and was eliminated in the runoff. His campaign said it would not formally support the remaining candidates, Iván Duque and Gustavo Petro.
Over time, he kept a low profile, although he never completely withdrew from politics.
During his career, Vargas Lleras survived two assassination attempts and a “parapolitics” scandal in which he was accused of benefiting politically from connections to warlord “Martin Llanos” but was not prosecuted.
health problems
In his later years, his health increasingly interfered with his politics. He reportedly suffered from a benign meningioma, a tumor in the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, which was discovered in 2016 after he fainted.
Former President Alvaro Uribe said about his condition on the 11th, “I wish good health to Dr. Germán Vargas Lleras, a prominent patriot whom I respect despite our occasional differences of opinion.”
The former vice president stayed out of the public eye during his final months in office, but reappeared briefly on March 3 in a video related to the March 8 congressional elections.
After hearing the news of his death, former President Santos wrote to
Current President Gustavo Petro also mourned the death of the political leader on his
Featured Image: Germán Vargas Lleras
Image credit: Germán Vargas Lleras, via Facebook.
