Francisco Santos Calderón (born 14 August 1961), also known as Pacho Santos, is a Colombian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. Santos was elected as

Álvaro Uribe Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia Department, Antioquia. H ...

's running mate and became

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

in 2002. Santos was re-elected in 2006 for a second term with President Uribe. His great-uncle

Eduardo Santos Eduardo Santos may refer to: * Eduardo Santos Montejo, Colombian publisher and president of Colombia * Eduardo Santos (judoka) (born 1983), Brazilian judoka * Eduardo Yudy Santos (born 1994), Brazilian judoka * Eduardo Santos (sport shooter), Po ...

was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942 and he is also a cousin of former president

Juan Manuel Santos Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by training and a journalist by trade, S ...

. Santos was appointed Ambassador of Colombia to the United States in 2018. He presented his credentials to president

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

on 17 September 2018 and served until 2020.

Biography

Education

Santos, like his cousin, ex-President of Colombia

, attended high school at

Colegio San Carlos Colegio San Carlos is an all-male, private, bilingual (Spanish and English) school in Bogotá, Colombia. The school has been recognized as one of the sources of many national leaders. The school works under the auspice of the local Roman Catholi ...

a private all-male elite school in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

. Both are also graduates of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

, United States. Santos also graduated from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

Kidnapping

In 1990 the

Medellín Cartel The Medellín Cartel () was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major ...

led by

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthie ...

kidnapped him to pressure the Colombian government to revert its support of

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...

s to the United States.

Human rights advocate

Upon his return, Santos became an advocate of

human rights in Colombia Colombia is a sovereign state situated in South America. It has been a member of the United Nations since 5 November 1945, and is party to a variety of international agreements concerning human rights. It also has a series of domestic laws conc ...

, especially those of victims affected by kidnapping after he himself suffered from this practice. He created a

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

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 Plan Colombia was a United States foreign aid, military aid, and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups. The plan was originally conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Colombian Presid ...

and the use of aerial fumigation as a tool for

Coca eradication Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

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.

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 2020. He was succeeded by Juan Carlos Pinzón.

Popular culture

* In TV series ''

Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord ''Escobar: El Patrón del Mal'' (international title: ''Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord''; also known as ''Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal'') is a 2012 Colombian biographical TV series produced and broadcast on Caracol TV, based on a true story a ...

'' is portrayed by the Colombian actor Gustavo Ángel as the character of Fernán Santana.

References

External links

globalsecurity.org - Francisco Santos CalderónFundacion Pais Libre - Quienes somos

Santos appears in the film documentary The War on Drugs

Santos Interview on YouTube
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos Calderon, Francisco 1961 births Living people

Francisco Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco (name), Paco". Francis of Assisi, San Francisco de A ...

Colombian activists Colombian human rights activists Colombian journalists Colombian male journalists Harvard Extension School alumni Kidnapped Colombian people Kidnapped politicians Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners University of Kansas alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni Politicians from Bogotá Ambassadors of Colombia to the United States Vice presidents of Colombia Colombia First politicians Democratic Center (Colombia) politicians Colombian anti-communists