La Violencia

La Violencia was a decade‑long period of civil conflict that erupted after the assassination of Liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. What followed was largely rural, partisan fighting between Liberal and Conservative supporters, intertwined with state repression and banditry, that left roughly 200,000 dead and displaced hundreds of thousands. The National Front power‑sharing pact (from 1958) helped de‑escalate open conflict, but its social and political legacies were long‑lasting.