Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala (January 23, 1903 – April 9, 1948) was a politician, a leader of a socialist movement in Colombia, a former Education Minister (1940) and Labor Minister (1943–1944), mayor of Bogotá (1936) and one of the most charismatic leaders of the Liberal Party.
He was assassinated during his second presidential campaign in 1948, setting off the Bogotazo? and leading to a violent period of political unrest in Colombian history known as La Violencia (approx.