List of presidents of Colombia

As chief of the executive branch and head of the national government as a whole, the presidency is the highest political office in Colombia by influence and recognition.

& State Council This list includes those persons who were sworn into or forcibly took the office of president of the Republic of Colombia following the passing of the Colombian Constitution of Cúcuta, which took effect on 30 August 1821.

Chosen to be first president of Colombia, was General Simón Bolívar y Palacios, leader of the revolutionary forces, who up to that point was titled "Supreme Chief" for his role in the revolution.

Bolívar was subsequently re-elected interim president by the Angostura Assembly on 17 December 1819 after Colombia was conquered following the Battle of Boyacá, and elected again in 1821 in a permanent interim basis, pending national elections, by the Congress of Cúcuta, another constituent assembly mandated by the Angostura Assembly, and this time with elected officials representing the Colombian territories, during this time, and until 1826, the executive power was entrusted to the vice president Francisco de Paula Santander y Omaña, while Bolívar was away in battle fighting to liberate Spanish colonies in Bolivia, and Peru.

This list includes those persons who were sworn into or forcibly took the office of president of the Republic of New Granada following the passing of the Colombian Constitution of 1832, which took effect on 26 November 1832.

All were popularly elected under an electoral college system except one, José María Melo y Ortiz who took power by mounting a coup d'état.

This list includes those persons who were sworn into, succeeded to, or forcibly took office as President of the Granadine Confederation following the passing of the Colombian Constitution of 1858, which took effect on 22 May 1858.

In 1861 Julio Arboleda Pombo became the first person to be elected President of the Granadine Confederation under the new electoral college system set up by the new constitution, however during this time the country was going through a civil war and Congress was closed down.

When Gutiérrez was captured by Mosquera, the next in line of succession by age was the Secretary of Government and War, General Leonardo Canal González.

(1804–1866) This list includes those persons who were sworn into, succeeded to, or forcibly took office as President of the United States of Colombia following the passing of the Colombian Constitution of 1863, which took effect on 8 May 1863.

The Colombian Constitution of 1858 had effectively abolished the vice presidency, and introduced a new line of succession system featuring the figures of first, second, and third Presidential designates.

These designates were elected annually by Congress amongst its members, but held no office or duties other than providing a succession for the president in the event of the resident's temporal or permanent absence.

Liberal This list includes those persons who were sworn into, succeeded to, or forcibly took office as president of the present-day Republic of Colombia following the passing of the Colombian Constitution of 1886, which took effect on 6 August 1886.

Out of the 31 individuals in office, 26 were elected president, three succeeded to the presidency (Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar, Ramón González Valencia and Jorge Holguín Mallarino), two took the presidency by mounting a coup d'état (José Manuel Marroquín Ricaurte and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla against Manuel Antonio Sanclemente Sanclemente and Laureano Gómez Castro respectively), two permanently resigned from office (Rafael Reyes Prieto and Marco Fidel Suárez) and one died in office of natural causes (Rafael Núñez Moledo).

Ramón González Valencia spent the shortest time in office with just 1 year between 1909 and 1910 when he was elected by Congress to finish the term that President Rafael Reyes Prieto had resigned to.

As chief of the executive branch and head of the national government as a whole, the presidency is the highest political office in Colombia as measure by influence and recognition.

The Legislative Act 2 of 2004 established that no person may be elected president more than twice,[1] allowing Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos consecutive reelection in 2006 and 2014 respectively.