is plan was approved in a plebiscite on December 1, 1957, and early in 1958 it was extended to 16 years.GThe National Front and After Later in 1958 the Liberal candidate, Alberto Lleras Camargo, a former president, was reelected to the presidency. The Liberal-Conservative coalition, called the National Front, brought a measure of stability to Colombia in the 1960s. The coalition retained a majority in both houses of Congress but could seldom win the two-thirds majority required in both houses for the passage of legislation. As a result the government frequently fell into periods of near-paralysis. President Guillermo Len Valencia, the Conservative candidate elected to office in 1964, declared a state of siege the following year in order to overcome the political stalemate. Rule by decree was continued under President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who was elected on the Liberal ticket and succeeded Valencia in 1966. In the elections of 1970 the National Front defeated a challenge by former dictator Rojas Pinilla, electing Misael Pastrana Borrero as president.When the National Front coalition came to an end in 1974, Alfonso Lpez Michelsen, a Liberal, was elected president. The Conservatives were granted certain cabinet posts. High unemployment persisted, and incidents of labor and student unrest occurred, as well as isolated guerrilla activity. In 1978, in an election marked by low voter turnout, another Liberal, Julio Turbay Ayala, was elected president by a slim margin; he consequently took five Conservatives into his cabinet. Leftist insurgents became bolder in 1979 as the army failed to subdue them. In 1980 a guerrilla band occupied the Dominican embassy in Bogot for 61 days, holding many foreign diplomats as hostages. Presidential elections in 1982 were won by the Conservative candidate, Belisario Betancur Cuartas, a former minister of labor. Under an amnesty issued by Betancur, about 400 guerrillas were pardoned; a truce between the gover...
