Bogota, April 01 (teleSUR-RHC) Colombian lawyer and left-wing politician Carlos Gaviria died in a Bogota hospital late Tuesday due to a respiratory infection.

Gaviria, 77, who ran for president as the candidate for the Alternative Democratic Pole in the 2006 election, became an icon of Colombia's left-wing while presiding over the country’s constitutional court, before being elected to the Senate.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his condolences via Twitter, saying the Gaviria’s passing represents "an enormous loss for the country."

Gaviria graduated with a Bachelor of Law in Colombia and later earned a Ford Fellowship that allowed him to attend Harvard Law School. In 1996 he was elected Chief Magistrate of the Constitutional Court and in 2002 he was elected senator of Colombia, representing the left-wing Social and Political Front. In the 2006 presidential election, he lost to former president Alvaro Uribe, placing a distant second in the vote.