Julio Cesar Turbay, President of Colombia from 1978-1982 and member of the Liberal Party, died of respiratory failure. Turbay was mentally lucid and eloquent until the end, and the former president was a major advocate of allowing current Colombian president Alvaro Uribe to run for another term, for example, as well as his role in the appointment of Andres Pastrana to the position of ambassador to the United States. The defining moment of Turbay’s presidency came in 1980 when he successfully negotiated the release of several diplomats captured by M-19 rebels at a diplomat’s party in Bogota.