Francisco Santos Calderón

Francisco Santos Calderón (born October 14, 1961 in Bogotá), also known as Pacho Santos, is a Colombian politician and journalist. Santos was elected as Álvaro Uribe's second runner up and became Vice President in the Colombian elections of 2002. Santos was re-elected in the presidential elections of 2006 for a second term once again with President Uribe to continue as Vice President of Colombia. His great-uncle Eduardo Santos was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942 and the succeeding president of Colombia (Juan Manuel Santos) is his cousin. He is currently serving as Ambassador of Colombia to the United States. He presented his credentials to president Donald Trump on September 17, 2018.

Francisco Santos Calderón
42nd Colombia Ambassador to the United States
Assumed office
6 September 2018 (2018-09-06)
PresidentIván Duque Márquez
Preceded byCamilo Reyes Rodríguez
8th Vice President of Colombia
In office
August 7, 2002 – August 7, 2010
PresidentÁlvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded byGustavo Bell
Succeeded byAngelino Garzón
Personal details
Born (1961-08-14) August 14, 1961
Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
NationalityColombian
Political partyDemocratic Center (Colombia)
Spouse(s)María Victoria García
Alma materUniversity of Kansas
University of Texas at Austin
OccupationJournalist, Professor

Biography

Education

Santos, like his cousin, ex-President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, attended high school at Colegio San Carlos a private all-male elite school in Bogotá. Both are also is a graduates of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, United States.

Santos also graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and attended Harvard as a Neiman Fellow.

Kidnapping

In 1990 the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar kidnapped him to pressure the Colombian government to revert its support of druglords' extraditions to the United States.

Human rights advocate

Upon his return, Santos became an advocate of human rights in Colombia, especially those of victims affected by kidnapping after he himself suffered from this practice. He created a non-governmental organisation called Fundación Pais Libre (Free Country Foundation), with the intentions of advancing awareness and helping the victims and their families. However, he has been criticised due to polemic declarations that support repression against students involved in protests.

Plan Colombia

2007 in an interview for the film documentary The War on Drugs Santos defends Plan Colombia and the use of aerial fumigation as a tool for Coca eradication in Colombia.

Shared Responsibility

Since 2008, Santos has spoken as part of the Shared Responsibility campaign to raise public awareness of cocaine production's impacts on Colombia's forest biodiversity, including deforestation and chemical contamination. The campaign links cocaine use to environmental destruction.[1]

Polemic Declarations

In November 2011, after a violent demonstration of students against the privatisation of public education, he as director of one of the important news agencies in Colombia declared in his video blog that violent students participating in the demonstrations should be controlled with the use of non lethal weapons such as tasers. It was a polemic declaration since students were defending the basic right to education and the repressive option of Francisco Santos was taken by the citizens as anti-democratic.[2]

Ambassador of Colombia to the United States of America

Santos served as Ambassador of Colombia to the United States of America in Washington D.C. from September 2018 to January 2020.[3]

References
  1. "Shared Responsibility". Archived from the original on 2012-01-07. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSbM0NX-Sw
  3. "Pacho Santos anuncia su salida de la embajada en Estados Unidos". eltiempo.com. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
Political offices
Preceded by
Gustavo Adolfo Bell Lemus		 Vice President of Colombia
August 7, 2002–August 7, 2010		 Succeeded by
Angelino Garzón
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