JUAN MANUEL GALAN

Senator of Colombia for three consecutive periods (2006-2018). Promoter of the most important drug policy reform in Colombia



Juan Manuel Galan is likely the best representative of a new generation of Colombian politicians. Since the beginning, he was driven by the firm intention to renew political traditions in Colombia and put an end to political clientelism forever, considered by him as the great social political cancer of his country. From the earliest age, he lived surrounded by ideals that oriented the fight of his father, Luis Carlos Galan, to make Colombians understand the seriousness of drug trafficking.

As Vice Minister for Youth in the Ministry of Education, he designed the Integrated Services for Youth project. He created and headed the presidential program Young Colombia, which still guides the National Policy for Youth. As plenipotentiary minister in the Colombian Embassy in UK, he was responsible for Human Rights matters and cooperation with the British government in terms of security.

He was elected as Senator in 2006 with one of the highest number of votes in his district. During his three periods as Senator, he chaired the Senate Commission Monitoring the Law on Victims and Land Restitution. He was also member of the Presidential Foreign Affairs Advisory Commission and spokesperson of the Liberal Party.

As member of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, he sponsored the drug policy reform, proposing to overcome the consumption prohibitionism and criminalization in order to implement a policy focused on Public Health and Human Rights, where the fight should be against drug traffickers instead of weak links, peasants, producers and consumers.

Galan is a political scientist and internationalist, MA in International Politics by the Institut d’études politiques of Paris and MSc in Foreign Service by the Georgetown University. He masters three languages: Spanish, French and English.

With more than 20 years of journalistic, academic and parliamentary experience, Juan Manuel Galan is a natural speaker. His simple and pleasant style and his life’s testimony make Galan one of the most authoritative voices to speak about the evolution and future of the fight against drugs, a topic that will become more and more important in the national and global agenda.

 
  • Drug Policy

  • Medical Cannabis

  • Victims in Colombia

  • Security

  • Foreign Affairs

  • Reconciliation and forgiveness