Francisco Santos
Former Vice President, Colombia
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Luncheon, 11:30 am
University Club
1346 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
RSVP Deadline: Friday, May 12, 2017
The Economic Club of Memphis is pleased to present a lunch meeting featuring Francisco Santos, on Thursday, May 18, 2017, 11:30 am, at the University Club.
Mr. Francisco Santos was elected Vice President of Colombia twice, in 2002 and 2006.
Prior to politics, Mr. Santos was Editor of Colombia’s largest daily newspaper, El Tiempo. He advocated for a civil society. After politics, Mr. Santos became Managing Director of one of Colombia’s largest radio stations.
He studied Journalism and Latin American studies at University of Kansas and University of Texas at Austin.
In 1990, he and other journalists were kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel, for 8 months, after which he spent a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. The details of his kidnapping were chronicled by Nobel Prize winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his book, News of a Kidnapping.
In 2000, he fled the country after being threatened by FARC revolutionary guerillas. Later he played a role in the peace settlement between FARC and the administration for which the President of Colombia received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016.
Mr. Santos has initiated two Colombian “movements”: “NO MORE”, relative to drugs; and “Pais Libre”, a movement against kidnapping.
His great uncle, Eduardo Santos, was President of Colombia from 1938 –1942, and the current Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, is his cousin.