Luis Carlos Galan

[Judi Lynn]

Luis Carlos Galan
Sep 17, 2014 posted by Craig Corbett

Luis Carlos Galan was a Colombian journalist and Liberal politician who ran for president twice. He was defeated in his first attempt in 1982, but was tipped in the polls as the main contender for the 1990 election before his murder in August, 1989.

An outspoken opponent of drug trafficking, Galan was in favor of forming an extradition treaty with the USA, and thus found himself a target of organized crime networks in Colombia. He declared himself the enemy of Pablo Escobar and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez also known by the nickname “El Mexicano,” both leaders of the infamous Medellin cartel.

After a number of death threats and thwarted planned attempts on his life, Galan was assassinated at a political rally in Soacha, Cundinamarca on the August 18, 1989 in front of thousands of spectators.

With a political career spanning from 1970 until his death in 1989, he was a well-known Liberal politician who formed his own party Nuevo Liberalismo as offspring of the Liberal party, in 1979.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/luis-carlos-galan/

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Galan's politics rubbed the Colombian and US oligarchs the wrong way.

From the article:

Galan started the Nuevo Liberalismo party with Enrique Pardo Parra, Álvaro García Herrera and Rodrigo Lara Bonilla to combat what he saw as a crisis within not only the Liberal party, but Colombian politics as a whole.

The new party had five main goals:

•National independence based on modernized foreign policy and a new system of international relations

•Cultural independence for the country and its specific regions with a focus on defending the rights of indigenous communities.

•Organic democracy in the sense of a revitalized democracy including all tiers of society

•A new concept of state linked to cultural and economic decentralization

•A strategy of economic growth and social equality

The main aims were to involve the population more in politics, move away from social discrimination and political over-representation of the ruling elite, cleanse cronyism and corruption from politics and promote modernization of Colombian social and economic policy.

Galan spoke of the need to revitalize the Liberal party, which he saw in recent years as failing to represent the people due to having spent too much time as a ruling party, and thus focusing too much on the needs of the ruling elite, and having become marred by increasing corruption and cronyism partly linked to rising crime and narco-trafficking in Colombia.

Nuevo Liberalismo supported the formation of trade unions, grassroot organizations and various forms of popular participation in the formation of social democracy.

[Louisiana1976]

2. Galan's new party had some good goals. Pity he was assassinated.