Francisco Santos Calderón Information & Francisco Santos Calderón Links at HealthHaven.com

Francisco Santos
	Francisco Santos
	;
9th Vice President of Colombia
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 7 August 2002
President	Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded by	Gustavo Bell
Born	14 August 1961 (age 48); Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Colombia First
Spouse(s)	María Victoria García
Alma mater	University of Kansas; University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Journalist, Professor
Religion	Roman Catholic

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. 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.

[edit] Biography

[edit] 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. After his release Santos spent two years at Harvard University's Extension School in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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 the NGO Fundación Pais Libre (Free Country Foundation) with the intentions of advancing awareness and helping the victims and their families.[1]

[edit] Plan Colombia

2007 in an interview for the film documentary The War on Drugs Santos defends Plan Colombia and propagates the relentless use of aerial fumigation as a tool for Coca eradication in Colombia.

[edit] 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.^[1]

[edit] References

^ http://www.sharedresponsibility.gov.co/en/ Shared Responsibility

[edit] External links

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[0] ttp://www.sharedresponsibility.gov.co/en/ Shared Responsibility

[1]

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