Luis Carlos Galán

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Galan campaigning for the presidency of Colombia

Luis Carlos Galán (September 29, 1943 – August 18, 1989) was a Colombian politician born in Bucaramanga to Mario Galán and Cecilia Sarmiento.

Galán ran for President of Colombia in 1982 but lost to Belisario Betancur. The results of that election gave strength to the new political movement of "Nuevo Liberalismo" that he had founded in 1979. The movement was initially the offspring of the mainstream Liberal party of Colombia but, with the mediation of former president Julio César Turbay Ayala, Galán returned to the party in 1987 and intended to win the presidency as its official candidate.

After receiving several death threats, Galán was shot dead by drug cartel hitmen on August 18, 1989, during a public demonstration. At the time he was comfortably leading the polls for the fothcoming 1990 Presidential election.

César Gaviria, who had been Galán's debate chief ("Jefe de Debate") during the campaign, was proclaimed as his successor by Galán's family and his supporters inside the Liberal party, and was elected president in 1990.

Recently (2004), information has come to light in the form of a letter written by one of the hitmen (now deceased) who had infiltrated his escort, which suggests that Galán's assassination was executed with help from corrupt Colombian policemen and some of his own bodyguards, who had been bought off by the drug mafia, including Pablo Escobar and many other druglords of the time. Most of the arrested hitmen were killed in jail or shortly after release, allegedly to silence them.

On May 13, 2005, a former Justice minister (1974) and congressman of the Colombian Liberal Party, Alberto Santofimio Botero, known for his open connections to Pablo Escobar during the 1980s (Escobar joined Santofimio's political movement), was arrested and accused of being the intellectual author of Galán's murder.

According to the newly extended confession of Escobar's former top hitman, John Jairo Velasquez (also known as "Popeye"), Santofimio would have openly suggested Galán's murder during a secret meeting, in order to eliminate a political rival and, should Galán ever be elected president, also prevent Escobar's likely extradition. Santofimio had been previously questioned and mentioned during the investigation and his involvement was widely rumored, but apparently no direct testimonies of his role had been acquired until recently. Velasquez, currently serving a jail sentence, told the Colombian press that he had initially denied Santofimio's participation due to his existing political power at the time. Other new and unespecified evidences would also have contributed to building the case against Santofimio. [1]