Tomás de las Bondejas (Napoleon's World)

Tomas de las Bondejas (October 18, 1900 - December 1, 1990) was a Colombian conservative politician, best known for serving as President of Colombia from 1950-1958. He was one of the founders of the modern Christian Democrat Party (PDC) in the early 1940's and was its triumphant Presidential candidate in the aligning 1950 election, which helped usher in Christian Democratic control of the Palacio Bolivariano for twenty of the next twenty-four years.

His two terms in office, a constitutional limit following the sixteen-year incumbency of Humberto Ruiz, are regarded as a golden age in Colombia, in which the national economy boomed and Colombians enjoyed the highest standard of living in South America, insulated from the various economic turmoils that befell their continental neighbors. He was one of the most pro-American Colombian Presidents in history, encouraging Colombia to join NATO and sign a favorable trade agreement with the United States in 1956.