National Popular Alliance

The National Popular Alliance or ANAPO (Alianza Nacional Popular) was a political party in Colombia. It was founded in 1961 as a movement by the ex-president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and was disbanded in 1998. Many ANAPO leaders and militants joined the Independent Democratic Pole coalition.

Anapo's political platform has been labeled as left-wing. Nonetheless, Anapo made it clear that they differ from Communists regarding the rights of private property.

The party's political height grew during the mid-to-late 1960s and the beginning of its decline came in 1970, after what is commonly perceived as its zenith by historians. It was founded in 1964 by a group of politicians led by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who left the Conservative Party of Colombia.

The year of 1970 saw the electoral defeat of its presidential candidate, the former dictator General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, at the hands of the Conservative candidate of the National Front, Misael Pastrana Borrero, after a close April 19 election which ANAPO and several prominent figures of Colombian public opinion condemned as fraudulent at the time.

The accusation has been maintained by ANAPO and most opposition parties ever since. Polls have shown that subsequently it has almost become a fact accepted by the political mainstream in Colombia as of 2005^[update], specifically due to the gradual surfacing and historical evaluation of supporting evidence, memoirs and testimonies.

Initially, ANAPO tried to declare the elections illegitimate, both by actively calling for a citizen protest or uprising, and also by demanding that Colombia's Electoral Court abstain from supporting the official result. The Court denied this request and recognized Misael Pastrana as president elect.

ANAPO's reaction created alarm in many National Front politicians and media outlets, who supported the announced result. President Carlos Lleras Restrepo vehemently denied the charges of fraud and argued that his responsibility was to hand over power to the legally recognized winning candidate. The government declared a state of siege in order to try to stop riots from erupting, signs of which appeared mainly in Bogotá but also in some other regions of the country.

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