Luis Carlos Galan

[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.