Juan Manuel Santos
Encyclopedia
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (xwan maˈnwel ˈsantos kaldeˈɾon; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombia
n politician who has been the President of Colombia
since 7 August 2010. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Trade
, Minister of Finance
, and Minister of National Defense
.
in London and Sub-Director of his family owned newspaper El Tiempo. He was Minister of Foreign Trade during the administration of president
César Gaviria
in 1991. In 1992 he was appointed President of the VII United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
for a period of four years. In 1999 he was appointed as President of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) and served as Director of the Corporación Andina de Fomento
(CAF) for the period 2001–2002.
In 1994 Juan Manuel Santos founded the Good Government Foundation, whose stated objective is helping and improving the governability and efficiency of the Colombian Government. This organization presented a proposal for a demilitarized zone and peace talks with the FARC
guerrilla.
(Party of the U) to support the presidency
of Álvaro Uribe
. He was named Minister of Defense
on 19 July 2006. During his tenure as Defense Minister the administration dealt a series of blows against the FARC
guerrilla group, including the rescue of Fernando Araújo Perdomo
, the death of FARC Secretariat member Raul Reyes
in a 2 March 2008 air strike against a guerrilla camp located within Ecuador's borders, and the non-violent rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt
held captive since 2002, along with fourteen other hostages, including three Americans.
During his time as Defense Minister, notable controversial events included a military raid inside Ecuador's territory killed FARC leader Raúl Reyes
on 1 March 2008 . A misuse of an International Committee of the Red Cross symbol during Operation Jaque
used to safely rescue hostages from FARC. And The "false positives" scandal, referring to revelations concerning extrajudicial executions carried out by members of the military in order to artificially increase the number of guerrillas killed by the Army and claim rewards from the government.
On 4 November 2008, Santos admitted that the military had carried out extrajudicial executions to which he pledged to resolve the issue. Twenty-seven military officers, including three generals and eleven colonels, were sacked after an internal army investigation concluded that they were responsible for administrative failures and irregularities in reporting enemy casualties and operational results. The Commander of the Colombian National Army, General Mario Montoya
, resigned. By May 2009, 67 soldiers had been found guilty and over 400 were arrested pending trial.
There are different estimates for the number of civilians who may have been killed in this manner. As of May 2009, prosecutors were investigating more than 900 cases involving over 1.500 victims and 1.177 members of the Colombian security forces. According to the Coordinación Colombia-Europa-Estados Unidos NGO coalition and the Fundación para la Educación y el Desarrollo, an estimated 3.756 extrajudicial executions occurred between 1994 and 2009, of which 3.084 cases would have taken place after 2002.
Families of the victims and non-governmental organizations have held the Uribe
administration and Santos, as Defense Minister, responsible for the extrajudicial killings because they consider that the government's reward policies motivated the crimes. Directive 029 of 2005 issued under Defense Minister Camilo Ospina Bernal and presidential decree 1400 of May 2006 have been questioned for offering incentives and benefits in exchange for capturing or killing members of illegal armed groups.
In June 2009, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston
declared that extrajudicial executions had been carried out in a "more or less systematic manner" by numerous Colombian military personnel and found the number of trials for those implicated to be lacking, but stated that he had found no evidence of the executions being an official government policy and acknowledged a decrease in the number of reported cases.
In March 2010, Santos publicly stated these executions had stopped since October 2008 and that this had been confirmed by the CINEP, one of Colombia's foremost human rights defense institutions. Semana, a well-respected news weekly, reported that a few days later the CINEP responded to Santos's declarations by issuing a press release which stated that, while the number of reported cases had been significantly reduced after the Defense Ministry's measures were announced, the period between November 2008 and December 2009 still saw 7 such executions and 2 arbitrary detentions.
Juan Manuel Santos announced his resignation from the Defense Ministry on 18 May 2009. Santos said that his resignation did not necessarily imply tossing his hat into the 2010 presidential race and that his participation in the electoral race depended on whether Uribe would pursue a third term, which he was willing to support. His resignation took effect on 23 May 2009. When the Constitutional Court ruled out the possibility of Uribe's participation in the upcoming elections, Santos officially launched his campaign for the presidency of the Republic of Colombia.
and was inaugurated on 7 August 2010 in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with Venezuela
, which was quickly resolved.
On 6 April 2011, Santos was the President of the United Nations Security Council
; he led the Council in a discussion of the situation in Haiti
.
was President of Colombia
from 1938 to 1942 and the owner and Director of El Tiempo, the country's leading newspaper. His father Enrique Santos Castillo spent over 50 years as editor of the newspaper. His brother Enrique Santos Calderón was director of the newspaper for ten years until it was sold to Grupo Planeta
of Spain in 2007. His cousin Francisco Santos
served as Vice President
during Álvaro Uribe
's two terms as President of the country. Juan Manuel Santos is married to Maria Clemencia "Tutina" Rodriguez. They have three children: Martín, María Antonia, and Esteban.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n politician who has been the President of Colombia
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
since 7 August 2010. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Trade
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism or MCIT, is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia concerned with promoting economic growth though trade, tourism and industrial growth.-Ministers:...
, Minister of Finance
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit , is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia responsible for the financial and budgetary matters of the country as well as implementing the financial policies passed by Congress, equivalent to the finance ministries of other...
, and Minister of National Defense
Ministry of National Defense (Colombia)
The Ministry of National Defence , is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the armed forces of Colombia, similar to the defense ministries in...
.
Career
Juan Manuel Santos has been Chief Executive of the Colombian Coffee Delegation to the International Coffee OrganizationInternational Coffee Organization
International Coffee Organization was initiated in collaboration with UN to enhance cooperation between nations that consume, distribute and produce coffee....
in London and Sub-Director of his family owned newspaper El Tiempo. He was Minister of Foreign Trade during the administration of president
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
César Gaviria
César Gaviria
César Gaviria Trujillo is a Colombian politician and a Latin American statesman. He served as President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, and Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1994 until 2004.-Early life:...
in 1991. In 1992 he was appointed President of the VII United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....
for a period of four years. In 1999 he was appointed as President of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean was established in 1948 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states. In 1984, a resolution was passed to include the countries of the Caribbean in the name...
(ECLAC) and served as Director of the Corporación Andina de Fomento
Corporación Andina de Fomento
CAF – Latin American development bank – has the mission of stimulating sustainable development and regional integration by financing projects in the public and private sectors, and providing technical cooperation and other specialized services...
(CAF) for the period 2001–2002.
In 1994 Juan Manuel Santos founded the Good Government Foundation, whose stated objective is helping and improving the governability and efficiency of the Colombian Government. This organization presented a proposal for a demilitarized zone and peace talks with the FARC
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...
guerrilla.
Minister of Defense
Santos also founded the Social National Unity PartySocial National Unity Party
The Social Party of National Unity , or Party of the U is a liberal conservative political party in Colombia. It attempts to unite various parliamentary supporters of Álvaro Uribe, the Uribistas, in one political party. Currently it is Colombia's largest political party.Security is the top...
(Party of the U) to support the presidency
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
of Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
. He was named Minister of Defense
Ministry of National Defense (Colombia)
The Ministry of National Defence , is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the armed forces of Colombia, similar to the defense ministries in...
on 19 July 2006. During his tenure as Defense Minister the administration dealt a series of blows against the FARC
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...
guerrilla group, including the rescue of Fernando Araújo Perdomo
Fernando Araújo Perdomo
Fernando Araújo Perdomo is a Colombian politician. He was the Minister of Development during the administration of Andrés Pastrana. He resigned from this post after the Chambacú land deal scandal. He was later kidnapped by the FARC-EP guerrillas and held for six years until he eventually escaped...
, the death of FARC Secretariat member Raul Reyes
Raúl Reyes
Luis Edgar Devia Silva , better known by his nom de guerre Raúl Reyes, was a Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP...
in a 2 March 2008 air strike against a guerrilla camp located within Ecuador's borders, and the non-violent rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt
Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio is a Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist.Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on 23 February 2002 and was rescued by Colombian security forces six and a half years later on 2 July 2008...
held captive since 2002, along with fourteen other hostages, including three Americans.
During his time as Defense Minister, notable controversial events included a military raid inside Ecuador's territory killed FARC leader Raúl Reyes
Raúl Reyes
Luis Edgar Devia Silva , better known by his nom de guerre Raúl Reyes, was a Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP...
on 1 March 2008 . A misuse of an International Committee of the Red Cross symbol during Operation Jaque
Operation Jaque
Operation Jaque was a Colombian military operation that resulted in the freedom of 15 hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt. The hostages had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia . The operation took place on July 2, 2008, along the...
used to safely rescue hostages from FARC. And The "false positives" scandal, referring to revelations concerning extrajudicial executions carried out by members of the military in order to artificially increase the number of guerrillas killed by the Army and claim rewards from the government.
On 4 November 2008, Santos admitted that the military had carried out extrajudicial executions to which he pledged to resolve the issue. Twenty-seven military officers, including three generals and eleven colonels, were sacked after an internal army investigation concluded that they were responsible for administrative failures and irregularities in reporting enemy casualties and operational results. The Commander of the Colombian National Army, General Mario Montoya
Mario Montoya Uribe
Mario Montoya Uribe was a Colombian military General and Commander of the Colombian National Army until his resignation on November 4, 2008 following a scandal involving the deaths of 11 civilians at the hands of the military. Montoya holds a graduate title in Top management from the Los Andes...
, resigned. By May 2009, 67 soldiers had been found guilty and over 400 were arrested pending trial.
There are different estimates for the number of civilians who may have been killed in this manner. As of May 2009, prosecutors were investigating more than 900 cases involving over 1.500 victims and 1.177 members of the Colombian security forces. According to the Coordinación Colombia-Europa-Estados Unidos NGO coalition and the Fundación para la Educación y el Desarrollo, an estimated 3.756 extrajudicial executions occurred between 1994 and 2009, of which 3.084 cases would have taken place after 2002.
Families of the victims and non-governmental organizations have held the Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
administration and Santos, as Defense Minister, responsible for the extrajudicial killings because they consider that the government's reward policies motivated the crimes. Directive 029 of 2005 issued under Defense Minister Camilo Ospina Bernal and presidential decree 1400 of May 2006 have been questioned for offering incentives and benefits in exchange for capturing or killing members of illegal armed groups.
In June 2009, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston
Philip Alston
Philip G. Alston is an international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-Chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice...
declared that extrajudicial executions had been carried out in a "more or less systematic manner" by numerous Colombian military personnel and found the number of trials for those implicated to be lacking, but stated that he had found no evidence of the executions being an official government policy and acknowledged a decrease in the number of reported cases.
In March 2010, Santos publicly stated these executions had stopped since October 2008 and that this had been confirmed by the CINEP, one of Colombia's foremost human rights defense institutions. Semana, a well-respected news weekly, reported that a few days later the CINEP responded to Santos's declarations by issuing a press release which stated that, while the number of reported cases had been significantly reduced after the Defense Ministry's measures were announced, the period between November 2008 and December 2009 still saw 7 such executions and 2 arbitrary detentions.
Juan Manuel Santos announced his resignation from the Defense Ministry on 18 May 2009. Santos said that his resignation did not necessarily imply tossing his hat into the 2010 presidential race and that his participation in the electoral race depended on whether Uribe would pursue a third term, which he was willing to support. His resignation took effect on 23 May 2009. When the Constitutional Court ruled out the possibility of Uribe's participation in the upcoming elections, Santos officially launched his campaign for the presidency of the Republic of Colombia.
President of Colombia
On 20 June 2010, after two rounds of elections, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was officially elected as President of ColombiaPresident of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
and was inaugurated on 7 August 2010 in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, which was quickly resolved.
On 6 April 2011, Santos was the President of the United Nations Security Council
President of the United Nations Security Council
The President of the United Nations Security Council is the presiding officer of that body. The president is the head of the delegation from the Security Council member state that holds the rotating presidency.-Selection:...
; he led the Council in a discussion of the situation in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
.
Family
Santos is a member of one of Colombia's foremost families. His great-uncle Eduardo SantosEduardo Santos
Eduardo Santos Montejo was a leading Colombian publisher and politician, active in the Colombian Liberal Party. He owned the prominent Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo, and served as the President of Colombia from August 1938 to August 1942.Santos was close friends with the Venezuelan Ambassador in...
was President of Colombia
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
from 1938 to 1942 and the owner and Director of El Tiempo, the country's leading newspaper. His father Enrique Santos Castillo spent over 50 years as editor of the newspaper. His brother Enrique Santos Calderón was director of the newspaper for ten years until it was sold to Grupo Planeta
Planeta
Planeta Corporación, S.R.L., doing business as Grupo Planeta, is a Spanish media group based in Barcelona. The company operates in Spain, Portugal, France and Latin America. Editorial Planeta, its flagship, was founded in 1949. Planeta owns over 70 publishing houses worldwide. It publishes the...
of Spain in 2007. His cousin Francisco Santos
Francisco Santos Calderón
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...
served as Vice President
Vice President of Colombia
The Vice President of Colombia is the first in the presidential line of succession, becoming the new President of Colombia upon leaves of absence or death, resignation, or removal of the President, as designated by the Colombian Constitution of 1991 which also reinstated the vice president figure...
during Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
's two terms as President of the country. Juan Manuel Santos is married to Maria Clemencia "Tutina" Rodriguez. They have three children: Martín, María Antonia, and Esteban.
External links
- Presidencia de Colombia
- Biography at CIDOB FoundationCIDOB FoundationCIDOB, acronym of Barcelona Centre for International Affairs , is a Catalan think-tank based in Barcelona, Spain, dedicated to research, document and divulge contents of the different areas of international relations and...
- Biography at Banco de la República
- Biography at Colombialink.com
- Interview, Cambio, 2 November 2008
- Taking Colombia to the Next Level, Latin Business ChronicleLatin Business ChronicleLatin Business Chronicle is a weekly online journal on Latin American business and technology.-Company information:LBC, a unit of , has around 17,000 readers per month.- Indexes :...
, 9 August 2010