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Half a Million People Welcome President Kennedy to Bogotá

Dec. 17, 1961 - A crowd of 500,000, nearly half the population of Bogotá, turned out today to give a rousing welcome to President and Mrs. Kennedy. Pierre Salinger, White House press secretary, said that the Bogotá turnout was larger than any reception for the President anywhere. In a speech, President Kennedy said that democracy had an “unparalleled power” to reshape societies. Democracy can meet “new needs without violence, without repression, without a discipline which destroys liberty,” he added.

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