President of Colombia

Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia (since Aug 7, 2022)

Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego ODB ODSC (born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian economist, politician, and former guerrilla fighter who is the current president of Colombia since 2022. He defeated Rodolfo Hernández Suárez in the second round of the 2022 Colombian presidential election on 19 June. After taking office, Petro was considered by analysts as Colombia’s first-ever left-wing president.

At 17 years of age, Petro became a member of the guerrilla group 19th of April Movement, which later evolved into the M-19 Democratic Alliance, a political party in which he was elected to be a member of the Chamber of Representatives in the 1991 Colombian parliamentary election. He served as a senator as a member of the Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) party following the 2006 Colombian parliamentary election with the second-largest vote. In 2009, he resigned his position to run in the 2010 Colombian presidential election, finishing fourth in the race.

Due to ideological disagreements with the leaders of the PDA, he founded the Humane Colombia movement to compete for the mayoralty of Bogotá. On 30 October 2011, he was elected mayor in the local elections, a position he assumed on 1 January 2012. In the first round of the 2018 Colombian presidential election, he came second with over 25% of the votes on 27 May, and lost in the run-off election on 17 June.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Petro

Iván Duque Márquez, Former President of Colombia (since Aug 8, 2018)

Born August 1, 1976. He is a Colombian politician, banker and lawyer who is the current President of Colombia, in office since 7 August 2018. Formerly, he served as a senator. He was the presidential candidate for the Democratic Centre Party for the election in 2018.

Duque was born in Bogotá, the son of Juliana Márquez Tono (political scientist) and Iván Duque Escobar (es) (1937–2016), who served as auditor in the United Nations, governor of Antioquia, Minister of Mines and Energy, president of several companies, unions and public and private institutions, as well as the head of the National Registry of Civil Status during the Government of Andrés Pastrana. Duque’s siblings are Andrés and María Paula, with whom he has a close relationship.

Duque attended Colegio Rochester and graduated from Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá in 2000 with a degree in law. He holds an LLM in International Economic Law from American University and a Master’s in Public Policy Management from Georgetown University, Washington D.C.. He began his professional career in 1999 as a consultant in the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and later served as an advisor at the Colombian Ministry of Finance and Public Credit during the government of Andrés Pastrana (1998 – 2002).

Subsequently, he worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) between 2001 and 2013. There he served as Senior Adviser to the Executive Board for Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, Advisor to the Presidency, and chief of the Division of Culture, Solidarity, and Creativity.

Duque also served a period as international advisor of former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Between 2010 and 2011, he was a consultant at the United Nations (UN) in the Research Panel appointed by the Secretary-General for the Incident of the Gaza Flotilla that occurred on May 31st, 2010, between Israel and Turkey, known as Mavi Marmara.

Duque is a devout Catholic. He is married to María Juliana Ruiz Sandoval, with whom he has three children: Luciana, Matías and Eloísa.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iv%C3%A1n_Duque_M%C3%A1rquez

Juan Manuel Santos, Former President of Colombia (since August 8, 2010; re-elected on Jun 15, 2014)

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (born 10 August 1951) is the former Minister of National Defense, and the current President of the Republic of Colombia after winning the 2010 Colombian presidential election on June 20, 2010.

Juan Manuel Santos spent most of his childhood in Bogotá and attended middle school and a part of his high school years at Colegio San Carlos. His last years of high school were spent as a Cadet in the Escuela Naval de Cartagena (Naval Academy of Cartagena), from which he graduated. He continued his studies in the University of Kansas obtaining a degree in Economics and Business Administration. While attending the University of Kansas he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He later acquired master’s degrees in Economics, Economic Development and Public Administration in the London School of Economics, in business and journalism from Harvard, and in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Juan Manuel Santos has been Chief Executive of the Colombian Coffee Delegation to the International Coffee Organization in London, Sub-Director of his family owned newspaper El Tiempo and a columnist for 14 different newspapers.[citation needed] He was Minister of Foreign Trade during the administration of president César Gaviria in 1991[citation needed]. In 1992 he was appointed President of the VII United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for a period of four years.[citation needed] 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.

Since September of 1994 he was the head of Good Government Foundation organization which presented the proposal of a demilitarized zone and made it possible to have peace talks with the FARC guerrilla.

Santos also founded the Social National Unity Party (Party of the U) to support the presidency of Álvaro Uribe. He was named Minister of Defense on July 19, 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 March 2, 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.

Juan Manuel Santos announced his resignation from the Defense Ministry on May 18, 2009.[citation needed] 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 May 23, 2009, and shortly after, officially launched his campaigning session for the presidency of the Republic of Colombia.

On June 20th of 2010, after two rounds of elections, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was officially elected as President-Elect of the Republic of Colombia.

During his time as Colombian Defense Minister, several controversial events took place.

1. A military raid inside of Ecuador’s territory to kill the FARC leader Raul Reyes. CNN news
2. Misuse of an International Committee of the Red Cross symbol during Operation Jaque. CNN News
3. On November 4, 2008, Santos admitted that the Colombian military had carried out extrajudicial executions and pledged to resolve the issue. Source El Espectador

These executions were labeled as ‘false positives’ referring to the fact that members of the military had purposely carried out these executions in order to artificially increase the number of guerrillas killed by the Army and claim rewards from the government.

In March 2010, Santos publicly stated that these executions had stopped since October 2008 and that this had been confirmed by the CINEP, one of Colombia’s foremost human right defense institutions. Semana, a well respected Colombian journal, 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.

Santos is part of one of the most traditional families in Colombia. His grandfather’s brother Eduardo Santos was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942 and owner and Director of the newspaper El Tiempo. His father Enrique Santos Castillo was editor of this newspaper for at least 50 years. His brother Enrique Santos Calderon was Director of the same newspaper for 10 years until it was sold to Grupo Planeta of Spain. His cousin Francisco Santos is President Álvaro Uribe’s Vice President.