Viewpoint.

• Author: Diaz, Hector Pena
• Position: Viewpoint essay

Last year, many Colombians marked the twentieth anniversary of the death of Luis Carlos Galán, assassinated on August 18, 1989. Like other great men of the Americas, Galán died as he was still ascending to the height of his career, at a time when his political aspirations seemed to have found resonance among a majority of citizens. In fact, all of the surveys that year pointed to the likelihood that he would be the next president of Colombia. Like John F. Kennedy, he was only 46 when he died, and his death left a generation of citizens with a deep sadness and sense of hope destroyed.

Colombian history is frill of stories in which power struggles and conflicts of interest play out in political crimes. Examples abound: the case of Simón Bolivar, the ambush of Mariscal Antonio José Sucre in Berruecos, the axe murder of General Rafael Uribe Uribe on the steps of the capitol, and the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Galtán. Gaitán's murder led to the famous "bogotazo" in which incensed crowds almost destroyed the city, beginning a period of history that eventually became known as la violencia , a time in which thousands of Colombians were sacrificed on the altar of political hatred. Then, in the late 1980s, four opposition presidential candidates were murdered by drug mafias linked to powerful accomplices in the political establishment. One of the four was Galán.

Galán was still very young when he began his political activities in the 1960s. New social actors were appearing on the scene of Colombian social conflict at that time, including leftist guerrillas inspired by the Cuban revolution. Later, in the early 1970s, drug mafias entered the mix, leaving their trails of horror and violence.

Galán's political profile increased initially as he fought against clientelism and corruption in political parties. This inevitably led him into conflict with the drug mafias who aspired to infiltrate political parties and decision-making bodies, and the state apparatus in general, in order to manipulate public decisions in favor of their criminal interests. Galán did not hesitate to alert public opinion about the corrupting power of the drug trafficking network, and he confronted its insidious influence openly.

The story is well-known. The political movement Galán founded and led, New Liberalism, came under the attack of the drug lords. Two of the movement's leaders, both ministers of justice in the government of Belisario Betancourt, were targeted: Lara...