Francisco Santos Calderón


Francisco Santos Calderón, also known as Pacho Santos, 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 and the succeeding president of Colombia is his cousin. He is currently serving as Ambassador of Colombia to the United States. He presented his credentials to president Donald Trump on September 17, 2018.

Biography

Education

Santos, like his cousin, ex-President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, attended high school at Colegio San Carlos a private all-male elite school in Bogotá. Both are also is a graduates of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, United States.
Santos also graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and attended Harvard as a Neiman Fellow.

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.

Human rights advocate

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 a non-governmental organisation called Fundación Pais Libre, 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 and the use of aerial fumigation as a tool for Coca eradication 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 January 2020.