| Francisco Santos | |
|---|---|
| 9th Vice President of Colombia | |
| In office 7 August 2002 – 7 August 2010 |
|
| President | Álvaro Uribe Vélez |
| Preceded by | Gustavo Bell |
| Succeeded by | Angelino Garzón |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 August 1961 Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia |
| Nationality | Colombian |
| Political party | Colombia First |
| Spouse(s) | María Victoria García |
| Alma mater | University of Kansas University of Texas at Austin |
| Occupation | Journalist, Professor |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Francisco Santos Calderón also known as Pacho Santos born 14 August 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. His great-uncle Eduardo Santos was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942
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Santos, like his cousin, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, is a graduate of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. He also graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and attended Harvard Extension School.
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.
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 the NGO Fundación Pais Libre (Free Country Foundation) with the intentions of advancing awareness and helping the victims and their families. However, he has been criticized due to polemic declarations that support repression against students involved in protests.
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.
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]
In November 2011, after a demonstration of students against the privatization of public education, he as director of one of the important news agencies in Colombia declared in his video blog that participating students should be control with electroshock 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]