Miguel Antonio Caro

His father, José Eusebio Caro and Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, were the founders of the Colombian Conservative Party. His father's criticisms of President José Hilario López led to his exile to New York City. Caro did not attend college or university. Nevertheless, as autodidact, he was very well versed in economics, world history and literature, social science, jurisprudence, linguistics and philology. He was also well known as great orator, debater and poet. Also, as a scholar, he translated several of the works of Virgil from Latin. He was appointed as Director of the National Library, was elected to congress, and founded of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. == Political career ==

Caro, as philosopher, scholar and orator, played a decisive and important role in the preparation, composition and enactment of the new Constitution of 1886. The significant achievement gave him an enormous prestige in the political realm. During the presidential election of 1892, the Colombian Conservative Party was divided in two movements: traditionalists and nationalists. The nationalists nominated Rafael Núñez as candidate for president and Caro as vice-president. The traditionalists nominated Marcelino Vélez and José Joaquín Ortiz. The liberals did not participate. Obviously, the conservatives won, and the nationalists outnumbered the traditionalists. Thus, Núñez and Caro were elected for the 1892-1898 presidential term. == Presidency ==

Núñez had expressed his clear desire not to be inaugurated but to retire to his native city of Cartagena. Nevertheless, Caro insisted for Núñez had to be inaugurated as president before retiring. Thus, Núñez accepted and was inaugurated in Cartagena and then immediately resigned. Therefore, Caro, as vice-president, began acting as president. The vehement adversion and tenacious opposition from the liberals and traditionalists conservatives to his government made Caro impose a severe censorship law against the opposition. On August 4, 1893, by decree and invoking the law 61 of 1888, known as the law of the horses, he muzzled the opposition newspapers and curtailed the freedom of the press. == Politically active relatives ==

The two politically active descendants of Miguel Antonio Caro are Juan Andres Caro and Sergio Jaramillo Caro Rivera. Sergio Jaramillo Caro, is a Colombian politician. He recently served as the High Commissioner of Peace under President Juan Manuel Santos in the contested peace negotiations with the terrorist group FARC, between 2012 and 2016. He previously served in government as Vice Minister of Defense, and also held the position of National Security Advisor between 2010 and 2012. Juan Andres Caro Rivera is an American politician who served in the Trump Administration as the White House lead for the Energy Recovery of Puerto Rico under Rear Admiral Peter Brown, and as a senior advisor at the United States Department of Energy. During his tenure, the federal government announcement 9.6 billion in federal energy recovery funds to revitalize the Puerto Rican energy grid. Juan represented White House energy priorities in recovery delegations focused on rebuilding infrastructure, economic revitalization, and the re-shoring pharmaceutical manufacturing. Juan was criticized for playing a role in spreading debunked voter fraud claims during the 2020 election. ==Notes==