On 7 August 1990, the newly inaugurated President of Colombia, César Gaviria Trujillo, appointed Carrillo as Presidential Adviser on Constituent Assembly Matters. Because of constitutional restrictions on sitting officials, Carrillo resigned his post to run for a seat in the Constituent Assembly, feat that he managed when the elections were held in December. On 5 February 1991 the National Constituent Assembly was convened with Carrillo as a member.
On 6 August 1991 President Gaviria appointed Carrillo as Minister of Justice. Carrillo, who at the time was serving as Assemblyman and Chairman of the Justice Committee of the Constituent Assembly, was replaced as Chairperson by Assemblywoman Martha Lucía Pinzón Galán.
After Carrillo resigned as Minister of Justice, he travelled to the United States to study at Harvard, this would mark the beginning of a 20-year hiatus from public service choosing to remain in the private sector in international circles, an absence that was felt among certain political sectors that wished his returns to the political scene. In 1994, he joined the Inter-American Development Bank. He was the Chief Advisor to the State, Governance and Civil Society Division at the IDB headquarters in Washington, D.C. between 1994 and 2003; IDB's representative and spokesperson at the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States between 1996 and 2003; and Alternate Representative of the Inter-American Development Bank in Paris between 2003 and 2010.
On 24 January 2012 during the inauguration of Beatriz Londoño Soto as Minister of Health and Social Protection, President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón announced the designation of Carrillo as Director of the National Legal Defence Agency, a newly created executive agency ascribed to the Ministry of Justice and Law, and charged with coordinating, organizing, and structuring the country's legal defence, and whenever possible, avoid damages to the State's assets. Carrillo, who at the time was working as Head Representative of the IDB in Brazil, had worked for Santos in his presidential campaign as Head of the Presidential Transition Committee after the election. On 15 March, President Santos sworn in Carrillo as the National Legal Defence Agency's 1st Director in a ceremony at the Palace of Nariño.
Ministry of the Interior
On 31 August 2012, President Santos announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet, and as part of this changes Carrillo was named Minister of the Interior replacing Federico Renjifo Vélez who in turn had been moved to be Minister of Mines and Energy.; Carrillo and five other new ministers were sworn in three days later on 3 September at a ceremony in the Palace of Nariño.
Fernando was born on 13 May 1963 in Bogotá, Colombia to Rafael Carrillo Piñeros and Adelia Flórez. He is married to Diana Cristina Serpa Preciado with whom he has two daughters, Laura and Natalia.
