Carlos Arango Vélez was born in Bogotá, on February 13, 1897, in the atypical affluent home of two parents from the Atlantic Coast of Colombia who settled in the city.

[citation needed] Arango began his political career as a Secretary, then in charge of the Colombian Consulate in Rome from 1914 to 1918 under the presidency of conservative José Vicente Concha, and later as Mayor of Bogotá between 1935 and 1936.

[11] In retribution for his return to the Liberal Party, Arango was appointed Superior Mayor of Bogotá by President López Pumarejo, holding the position from October 1935 to March 1936 (Gaitán would later do the same between 1936 and 1937).

[citation needed] As a result of the division of the Liberal Party, one sector supporting Gabriel Turbay's official candidacy, and another Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's, and another Darío Echandía's, which never happened, the conservatives regained power after losing it in 1930.

[14] His ties with the conservatives did not stop there; in 1951, his eldest daughter married Misael Pastrana, whom she met in 1950, when Arango was acting as Colombia's Ambassador to the Holy See and Pope Pius XI under then president-elect Laureano Gómez.

[2] He was appointed, by President Gómez, Colombia's Ambassador to Brazil, remaining in this position even during the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, until his resignation in 1955, following the closure of the liberal newspaper El Tiempo (owned by Eduardo Santos) by the military government.

[2] After the dictatorship, in 1958, he was appointed by liberal president Alberto Lleras Camargo Colombia's Ambassador to, once again, the Holy See, this time under Pope Juan XIII, remaining in the office until 1960.

[citation needed] Carlos was the son of Carmelo Arango Martínez and his wife, Cristina Vélez Racero, both born on the Atlantic Coast of Colombia.

[citation needed] Carlos married María Vega Jaramillo, who was a member of several prominent families at the time of Colombia's Independence, with blood ties to Jorge Tadeo Lozano and even Antonio Nariño and Domingo Caycedo.