Francisco Santos Calderón
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francisco Santos | |
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office August 7, 2002 |
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President | Álvaro Uribe |
Preceded by | Gustavo Bell |
Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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Born | October 14, 1961 Bogotá, Capital District |
Nationality | Colombian |
Political party | Colombia First |
Spouse | María Victoria García |
Alma mater | University of Kansas, |
Occupation | Journalist, Professor |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Francisco Santos Calderón also known as Pacho Santos born August 14, 1961 in the city of Bogotá, 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.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] 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. After his release Santos spent two years at Harvard University in the United States
[edit] Human Rights advocate
Upon his return, Santos became an advocate of Human rights in Colombia, specially those victims affected by kidnapping after he himself suffered from this practice and created the NGO Fundación Pais Libre (Free Country Foundation) with the intentions of creating awareness and helping the victims and their families.[1]