Luis Carlos Galán

Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento (29 September 1943 – 18 August 1989) was a Colombian liberal politician and journalist who ran for the Presidency of Colombia on two occasions, the first time for the political movement New Liberalism that he founded in 1979.

Galán was born on 29 September 1943 in the city of Charala, Santander.

He had a happy childhood, with strong family bonds, affectionate and sometimes austere, as he had 12 siblings.

His father moved with the whole family to Bogotá in 1949.

In Bogotá, Galán attended middle school in the Colegio Americano in 1950.

While a student there and only 8 years old, he joined a rally against Conservative president Laureano Gómez and intended to support the Liberal guerrillas.

Two years later he was transferred to another school, the Colegio Antonio Nariño.

When he was only a 14-year-old, Galán participated in the students protests of 1957 against the dictatorial regime of Gustavo Rojas, being arrested and spending the night in a jail despite his young age.

In 1960 Galán graduated from high school with honors and began studies of law and economics in the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá.

While a student in 1963, Galán founded Vértice, a university focused magazine to express his Liberal tendencies in a university that was predominantly Conservative, which also became his first experience with journalism.

He was able to meet prominent Colombian leaders like former Liberal president Carlos Lleras (who, delighted with Galán's work, decided to write articles for Vértice Magazine) and Colombia's main circulation newspaper El Tiempo owner and also former Liberal president of Colombia Eduardo Santos during an interview in which Santos was impressed by Galán's journalist qualities.

Galán began working for the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in 1965 after graduating from university the same year.

While working with El Tiempo, Galán turned himself into a well known journalist and columnist, an effort that earned him the director's assistant position and later the membership of the Executive Directorate in the newspaper with the support of Eduardo Santos and then director Roberto García Peña.

In 1970 Galán was appointed Minister of National Education during the presidency of Misael Pastrana.

His time as minister was marked by his progressive and social policies, but was not considered successful.

In 1972 Galán was appointed Ambassador of Colombia to Italy and later in 1974 while still ambassador, was appointed Colombian representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

He was also active with the Nueva Frontera weekly magazine founded by former president Carlos Lleras, which he directed in 1976 after arriving from Italy.

As a journalist Galán wrote no less than 150 editorial articles, followed by another 150 during his time with the El Tiempo newspaper.

Under the influence of former president Lleras and after directing the Nueva Frontera Magazine for seven years, in 1976 Galán ran for councilman in the small town of Oiba in the northeastern department of Santander.

In 1977 Galán wrote an article in one of Nueva Frontera's editorials denouncing the existence of narcotics trafficking mafias and that they were influencing the social structure of Colombia.

He also denounced the clientelist politics, moral values corruption and collective values loss, which was seen as a premonition for Colombia's future.

It was during an interview with the then recently elected president Misael Pastrana that he was surprised by the president in the middle of the interview who told Galán that he was going to be his Minister of Education.

In 1977 and 1978 Galán became very active and supportive of Carlos Lleras reelection as president of Colombia while he ran for the Senate.

The reelection never occurred, however, and he got elected as Senator of Colombia representing the Santander Department.

On 30 November 1979 Galán founded a party with the name Nuevo Liberalismo and within the Liberal Party.

During the 1980s Colombia went under critical siege by violent drug cartels, especially the Medellín Cartel that had gained a great amount of influence by bribing or killing officials.

Galán saw this as disastrous for Colombia and its society.

In 1980 Galán was elected as councilman for the capital, Bogotá to be named the following year as possible candidate for the presidency of Colombia amid divisions in the Liberal Party that intended to challenge the majorities of the party led by Alfonso López Michelsen and then president Julio César Turbay, but voters leaned for the conservative candidate Belisario Betancur.

For Galán it had been a positive outcome despite losing, his party Nuevo Liberalismo had gained a 10% of the total votes, winning 21 of the 23 Department Assemblies and getting reelected as Senator, but he had been criticised by the Liberal party for creating divisions among them and indeed losing the Presidency.

In 1982 Medellin Cartel boss Pablo Escobar tried to infiltrate Galán's Nuevo Liberalismo Party.

Galán publicly rejected him in front of thousands of his fellow men from Antioquia and Colombia, which angered the cartel, especially Escobar.

In 1986 as an anecdote, Galán wrote his autobiography under the pseudonym "Cleo Tilde", but it was only until 1994 that the identity was revealed.

He described detailed facts, events and encounters with prominent figures as well as an approach to his personal point of view and thoughts.

Galán continued with his ascendant career, absenting himself from the 1986 presidential race to prevent Liberal Party divisions and running his party as an offspring he was reelected once again as a Senator.

The movement was an offspring of the mainstream Colombian Liberal Party, and with mediation of former Liberal president Julio César Turbay Ayala, Galán returned to the Liberal party in 1989 and sought the nomination for the 1990 presidential election, but was assassinated before the vote took place.

Galán declared himself an enemy of the drug cartels and the influence of the mafia in Colombian politics, in this case the main drug cartel being the Medellin Cartel led by Pablo Escobar and who unsuccessfully tried to become a member of the New Liberalism Movement in his bid to become a member of the Colombian House of Representatives.

Galán denounced Pablo Escobar in a public rally, and supported the extradition treaty with the U.S, contrary to the wishes of the Colombian cartels that feared extradition to the U.S.

After receiving several death threats, on 18 August 1989, Galán was shot to death by hitmen hired by the drug cartels during a campaign rally in the town of Soacha, Cundinamarca.

At the time, Galán was comfortably leading the polls with 60 percent favourable ratings for the forthcoming 1990 presidential election.

The investigation into his assassination remains unsolved.