[2] The local section, less doctrinaire than its Colombian parent, included most of the new nation's white minority, and was led by Manuel Amador Guerrero who served as the republic's first President.

Although Manuel Amador Guerrero actively supported the break with Colombia, most Conservatives had reservations about it.

[3] It is described that “the Conservatives had never identified strongly with the independence movement and were not able to develop a mass following.

Aside from this main issue, the parties were becoming rather similar ideologically at the time, with a 1930s article stating “the ideological lines of liberalism and conservatism have never coincided with actual party lines.

[3] Additionally, by that time, most of the Conservative leaders of the independence generation had died without leaving political heirs.