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Juan Manuel Santos
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Ministry of National Defense
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 19 July 2006 |
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| Preceded by | Camilo Ospina |
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| Born | 10 August 1951 Bogotá  Colombia |
| Political party | Party of the U |
| Residence | Bogotá |
| Profession | Economist |
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (b. 10 August 1951, in Bogotá) is a Colombian politician currently serving as Minister of National Defense.
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Juan Manuel Santos spent most of his childhood in Bogotá and attended Middle School and High School 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), where he was a classmate and superior of the FARC-EP guerrilla leader known as Simón Trinidad. He continued his studies in the University of Kansas obtaining a degree in Economics and Business Administration. He later acquired masters in Economics, Economic Development and Public Administration in the London School of Economics and Harvard University.[1]
He earned scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University and from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He has been awarded an Honoris Causa doctorate in Law.[2]
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 newespaper El Tiempo and a columnist for 14 different newspapers. 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 got to be Director of the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) for the period 2001–2002.
Santos also founded the Social National Unity Party (aka Party of the U) to support the presidency of Álvaro Uribe. He has been the Minister of Defense since 19 July 2006. During his tenure as Defense Minister the administration has dealt some of the most devastating blows in recent history against the terrorist organization FARC, namely the rescue of the country's current foreign affairs minister, the death of FARC Secretariat #2 Raul Reyes and the rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, held captive since 2003.[3]
As Defense Minister he has direct responsibility on different scandal situations:
1. A Military raid inside of Ecuador's territory to kill the FARC leader Raul Reyes CNN news
2. The Military use of the Symbol of the International Comitee of Red Cross in the Liberation of Ingrid Betancourt. CNN News
3. The 4th of November 2008, he addmited the forced disappearances caused by Military under his mandate as Ministry of Defense Source El Espectador. More than 1.000 cases are at the Colombian General Attorneys office to be investigated.
In 1994 Juan Manuel Santos founded the Good Government Foundation with the main objective of helping and improving the governability and efficiency of the Colombian Government.[4][5]
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 has been editor of this newspaper for at least 50 years. His cousin Francisco Santos is President Álvaro Uribe's Vice President.