The 14th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament (14SWSP), convened by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in close cooperation with the Oliy Majlis (Supreme Assembly) of Uzbekistan, will take place in-person, in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), from 8 to 9 September 2022. He was later released on appeal, but in August 2011 the Supreme Court reinstated the conviction[19] and he surrendered himself. 5 0 obj For closer analysis, rewind to 1988, a year before Galan's killing. He was a former journalist who had become a senator for the New Liberalism Party. Salcedo may well be innocent of any crime, but for anyone looking at who killed Luis Carlos Galan, Salcedo surely holds a lot of clues. >> He wanted to make an example of him. In 1977 and 1978 Galn became very active and supportive of Carlos Lleras reelection as president of Colombia while he ran for the Senate. Part of HuffPost News. Velsquez affirmed that Santofimio had certain influence over Escobar's decision making, and he had heard Santofimio say "kill him Pablo, kill him!".
The SlideShare family just got bigger. We defend the human rights of parliamentarians and help them uphold the rights of all. Former Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post UK. [3] In 1960 Galn graduated from high school with honors and began studies of law and economics in the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogot, it was then that his liberal radicalism cooled off. [8], Galn 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. [21] The Supreme Court convicted Maza in 2016 and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. He was instead asked to show untrained Colombians how to build bombs, use weapons and fight like soldiers. [10][11] His popularity rating skyrocketed to 60%. However, beyond the words, IPU Member Parliaments also follow up on IPU assemblies, initiatives and resolutions with concrete actions. He described detailed facts, events and encounters with prominent figures as well as an approach to his personal point of view and thoughts. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >>
That night Colombia lost its saviour and Escobar became public enemy number one. A recently published book by Bill Rempel, the former investigations editor of the LA Times, chronicles Salcedo's murky, yet remarkable life. [citation needed], On 30 November 1979 Galn founded a party with the name Nuevo Liberalismo and within the Liberal Party.
That includes last years exhumation of former guerrilla Carlos Pizarro, who was killed 25 years ago while running for president. It is an undisputed fact that during that year, British mercenaries were secretly hired by Colombian army generals to deal with the other big threat to Colombia's national security, FARC.
Luis Carlos Galn 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. He also denounced the clientelist politics, moral values corruption and collective values loss, this seen as a premonition for Colombia's future. At least ten others were wounded in the gunfire. Theres a common thread linking all these crimes., Pablo Escobar's top hitman released early from prison, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Both sides saw deaths at a record toll. << /Type /Page /Parent 3 0 R /Resources 6 0 R /Contents 4 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 612 792]
This allowed the Liberal Party to regain the Presidency with the election of Virgilio Barco but at a terrible cost for his party that lost 50% of the votes gained in the previous election.
We work to increase womens representation in parliament and empower women MPs. The Supreme Court later ruled that a former justice minister, Alberto Santofimio, had incited drugs baron Pablo Escobar to have him killed. It failed and both British mercenaries almost lost their lives.
He says this was because Escobar wanted to exterminate FARC, who were a common enemy as they were a challenge to his expanding drug empire. [citation needed], In 1982 Medellin cartel boss Pablo Escobar tried to infiltrate Galn's Nuevo Liberalismo Party. Under the influence of former president Lleras and after directing the Nueva Frontera Magazine for seven years, in 1976 Galn ran for councilman in the small town of Oiba in the northeastern department of Santander. The investigation into his assassination remains unsolved. TV cameras recorded the moments leading to and including his death. Read about our approach to external linking. But all of the good threatens to fades into insignificance until he is able to answer what happened with his well intentioned, yet fatally flawed role in arming Escobar with a trained fighting force. dpDV[6UIH3yMYb@1*)[0B2ezB^7k&SOK)v~2,Q_tDoM}8B&1s@vnw"Lr;puiaw x\)HXtKVoh'[vM05\'x,]s3129/ [4], In El Tiempo Galn turned himself into a well known journalist and columnist, 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 Garca Pea. Stubenring 8-10 [20], On 25 November 2010 Colombian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for the ex-director of the Colombian security agency (DAS), Retired Gen. Miguel Maza Mrquez, for involvement in Galn's murder. His father moved with the whole family to Bogot in 1949. The year after Luis Carlos Galn Sarmiento's death, two other presidential candidates, Carlos Pizarro Leongmez and Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, were also murdered.
A tale of political conspiracy and assassination, set against the background of the violent 1980s cocaine trade. [15] Santofimio told Escobar that if Galn became President, he would extradite Escobar to the United States. [18], On 11 October 2007, Alberto Santofimio was convicted to 24 years in prison. The assassination attempt was prevented by men working for Waldemar Franklin Quintero, the commander of the Colombian National Police in Antioquia. Nearly every country in the world has some form of parliament. Escobar was himself killed in a gun battle in Medellin in 1993. He had pledged to extradite drugs traffickers to the US if elected president. Now customize the name of a clipboard to store your clips. The murder, in front of thousands of people, shocked Colombia. Pedro Nel Jimnez Obando was shot dead. According to John Jairo Velsquez a.k.a. APIdays Paris 2019 - Innovation @ scale, APIs as Digital Factories' New Machi Mammalian Brain Chemistry Explains Everything. United States of America, Office of the Permanent Observer of the IPU to the United Nations He gained popularity through his criticism of the influence of Colombia's drug cartels. The trial against former general Miguel Alfredo Maza Mrquez for his alleged implication in the murder started in 2014. Vienna, 1010 Austria, Copyright IPU 2022, Terms of use& Privacy statement. [2], In 1977 Galn wrote in one of Nueva Frontera's editorial an article denouncing the existence of narcotics trafficking mafias and that they were influencing the social structure of Colombia. Many of the ghosts of 1980s drug violence are gradually being put to rest. true /ColorSpace 7 0 R /Intent /Perceptual /BitsPerComponent 8 /Filter /DCTDecode [12] On August 18, 1989, Galn, who was being protected by eighteen armed bodyguards,[13] was killed as he walked onto the stage to give a speech in front of 10,000 people in Soacha. We help parliaments fight terrorism, cyber warfare and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He had a happy childhood, with strong family bonds, affectionate and sometimes austere, as he had 12 siblings. He cannot be contacted. :gPwLVsWYq X]=K**XwYN{'?6_c`Wi[S+^cc{^_6muv'GHz;@>xqhs|pLY?ghBRz|~0NN]uC\vTC@dH-\uCP4JMnG'Z .)x4XUm8QD|?@oj!sF !i{rO*9v)E 8h 4_ =8zcWQZ>3d2E1GMOQQAgm9Z3!
Santofimio had been previously questioned and mentioned during the investigation and his involvement was widely rumored, but apparently no direct testimonies of his role had been acquired until recently. [6], In 1970 Galn was appointed Minister of National Education during the presidency of Misael Pastrana. [22], Son of Mario Galn Gmez and Cecilia Sarmiento Surez, Galn was one of their 12 children, the others being: Mara Luca, Gabriel, Cecilia, Helena, Elsa, Gloria, Antonio, Juan Daniel, Mario Augusto, Francisco Alberto and Mara Victoria Galn Sarmiento. A retired police general has been jailed for 30 years in Colombia for his involvement in the assassination in 1989 of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan. Read this press release at http://archive.ipu.org/press-e/pressnote201409192.htm, Pedro Nel Jimnez Obando was one of a string of Colombian MPs murdered in a bloody period in the countrys history in the 1980s and 90s. The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians reports human rights violations against 685 parliamentarians in 47 countries, almost one in four countries in the world. We bring a parliamentary dimension to United Nations processes to ensure international commitments become national realities.
While it's all to easy to get entangled and lost in the complexities of what occurred during his time, it is important to focus in on one point. Case postale 330 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 0 obj [17], In 2004, new information in a letter written by one of the hitmen who had infiltrated his escort suggested that Galn's assassination was executed with help of corrupt Colombian policemen and some of his own bodyguards, who had been bought off by the drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar and other drug lords. The story of the man at the centre of all this, Jorge Salcedo, is truly fascinating. Galn was born on 29 September 1943 in the city of Bucaramanga, Santander,[1] northeastern Colombia. [2] While a student in 1963, Galn founded Vrtice, a university focused magazine to express his Liberal tendencies in a university that was predominantly Conservative and also became his first experience with journalism. Luis Carlos Galan was shot dead at a campaign rally on 18 August 1989, Gen Miguel Maza Marquez has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in Mr Galan's assassination, 'We've spent years preparing our Comic-Con costumes' Video, 'We've spent years preparing our Comic-Con costumes', Russia 'looting' steel bound for Europe and UK, New telescope catches dead suns smashing together, US reports first polio case in nearly a decade, Ex-policeman jailed for George Floyd killing role. endstream "El Mugre", former hitmen of Pablo Escobar, the assassination was planned in a farm by Escobar, Gonzalo Rodrguez a.k.a.
endobj The data reveal that at least 673 parliamentarians from 44 countries. Private foreign mercenaries were used because the generals couldn't convince the political leaders to attack - diplomacy was considered a stronger weapon. At the 139th Assembly in October 2018, IPU Member Parliaments reported on measures they had taken over the past years as a result of IPU activity. Is the truth of who killed Galan far too uncomfortable for Colombia's top rank to confront?
Salcedo, the son of one of the generals, was tasked with organising an attack on the leaders of FARC.
While a student there and only 8 years old, he joined a rally against Conservative president Laureano Gmez and intended to support the Liberal guerrillas. Other potential perpetrators were mentioned by a demobilized member of the AUC paramilitary group, "Ernesto Baez", who testified that the murder of Galn was organized by the Colombian mafia with the participation of corrupt members of the military and the DAS. Activate your 30 day free trialto continue reading. ba9&',S\tjGT$"IO.~e5, ^,8\X.x\;YV(HVoYh^LU>tHc NiW9B^Cu; h-*U]|FQp5RT%,swe+BD/NK*R:@g}&;C]J8UTTci(h>SqT'0&p&)Nl*ra'm:YPf(dAwH}!KIkED>\u/@RZ[ s:GTZ4>PPwd s*E)hn|h.F(V'GJ5[9~4O*P`l,kpW2g]?ftc-D!jm%|?k&L[% Dm8f%gx8;x6^DYny2`_Q'e.p^s oDr_$L-#2_hgr=ICZ^^ %^T(aEw/tT_
New York, NY 10017 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Full and colourful accounts of their exploits in Colombia are provided in their previously mentioned books. His time as minister was marked by his progressive and social policies, but was not considered successful. [2] Galn began working for the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in 1965 after graduating from university the same year. C Galn publicly rejected him in front of thousands of his fellow men from Antioquia and Colombia. A second account of this time in 1988 was provided by another of the mercenaries, Peter McAleese , in his book No Mean Soldier. Our library of essential resources for parliaments, Your one-stop-shop for data for and about national parliaments, Latest data and reports about women's participation in politics, Recent innovations in the way parliaments do their work. endobj His father Mario described him as a person fascinated with spirituality, a man with integrity, an individual struggle for knowing one's self between good and evil and that the effort to achieve it consisted in the main objective in life, not only individually, but collectively.[2]. Inter-Parliamentary Union Mr Galan, who had vowed to extradite cartel leaders to the US, was considered the leading candidate for Colombia's 1990 election. He was elected president in 1990. SlideShare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising.
As Rempel (who has rare, but occasional contact with Salcedo) reveals in excellent detail in At The Devil's Table, he performed a heroic, yet largely unsung, role in the fight against cartel corruption and the cocaine trade. Accompanying Quintero and Galn was the mayor of Medelln, Pedro Pablo Pelez; both Pelez and Quintero would be killed within a few weeks of the assassination attempt. Galn was growing impatient with the violence and the corruption the drug cartels led by Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodrguez were imposing in Colombia, which encouraged him to try to support the weakening government by shifting the balance of power away from his dangerous enemies. /TT1 8 0 R >> /XObject << /Im1 13 0 R >> >> Rather than disobey their elected leaders, the generals went behind their backs.
An attempt to kill Galn with an RPG was thwarted while visiting Medelln on 4 August 1989. SlideShare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Other new and unspecified evidences would also have contributed to building the case against Santofimio. JI)LQQeB j+s2^b[=r@9jfpxS0%4VvD8jqxrD l-z\Srkcn"}Al]xX/:(7qNJ 8o2+K9l([qI $YRC#Ca2J(m; % [3], The Nuevo Liberalism joined the government and was given the Ministry of Agriculture headed by Gabriel Rosas Vega and the Liberal Party gained a solid union that consolidated further when Galn won the Liberal Party's popular nomination to be the presidential frontrunner. Galan's election pledge was to get tough on the drug trade by extraditing the likes of Escobar to the US for trial and punishment. A year after working with Escobar, Salcedo swapped sides and went to work for his arched rivals, the Cali cartel. VqTHIjLmAv cCM(Ja ]LP _@3l;nc}HKz79'@b;|pTsAT\]6'*Bd2t`M*de>FRt=j#QGK8`jQvWboNBa^N5UMYex[0%q-nCj0Y}|-9+a/jzxL+`H)N$}~A~746XSW6m;~coM9riZm7}[{>w?r^Bn~>mv|f=}=/b4 [citation needed], On 13 May 2005, a former Justice minister (1974) and congressman of the Colombian Liberal Party, Alberto Santofimio, known for his open connections to Pablo Escobar during the 1980s (Escobar joined Santofimio's political movement), was arrested and accused of being the intellectual author of Galn's murder. After these assassinations, Galn and his family restricted their travels, especially at night.[12]. His bloated dead body was photographed and ridiculed for the world to see. As a journalist Galn wrote no less than 150 editorial articles, followed by other 150 during his time in El Tiempo newspaper. 5, chemin du Pommier
No one has been brought to justice. Read about our approach to external linking. And yet, like JFK, the truth behind his killing has never emerged. [2] In 1972 Galn 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). His death was ordered by drugs baron Pablo Escobar and apparently plotted by high-level members of the security forces.
Activate your 30 day free trialto unlock unlimited reading. Maza, who has been jailed since 2013, denies any wrongdoing and said that he was also a victim of several cartel plots on his life. [2] Two years later he was transferred to another school, the Colegio Antonio Nario. 2022 BBC. Following this to its logical conclusion, while Escobar undoubtedly issued the final order to kill Galan, it's possible argue he may never have done it without the trained fighters the army had inadvertently handed him. He now lives a secret life, with a new identity on the US witness protection programme. GRULAC (Group of Latin America and the Caribbean), 14th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament (14SWSP), Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments, IPU to observe hearings of former Colombian MPs, MPs rights abused in 1 in 4 countries according to latest IPU data, Political instability accounts for record number of persecuted MPs worldwide, Common Principles for Support to Parliaments, Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections, IPU as a knowledge hub for women in politics, Womens, childrens and adolescents health, Conflict prevention, peacebuilding & reconciliation, Countering terrorism and violent extremism, Committee on Peace and International Security, Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade, Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law, High-Level Advisory Group on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism. But also army money could not be used to fund what was essentially an illegal, unauthorised mission. It goes something like this: In lawless, 1980s Colombia, Liberal politician Galan was the only person willing to stand up to cocaine drug lords, such as the notorious Pablo Escobar. [citation needed] He announced he would run for office on 4 July 1989 in the Tequendama Hotel in Bogot. Colombian senator and presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galn Sarmiento was murdered at a political rally in 1989. More than 20 years after his murder the comparisons to JFK continue.
[citation needed], Meanwhile, Escobar found some support in Tolima's political chief Alberto Santofimio affiliated also with a faction of the Liberal Party led by Alfonso Lpez Michelsen and with a movement called Movimiento de Renovacin Liberal (Liberal Renovation Movement) getting himself elected to the Chamber of Representatives as second runner up for Santofimios' congress candidate Jairo Rojas. Flyers were left in the mailbox threatening to kill or kidnap his children. We encourage youth participation in parliaments and empower young MPs. Luis Carlos Galn was a top presidential contender in 1989 when he was assassinated. But before Colombia can fully move on, the unanswered question must be addressed: Who killed Galan?