Guillermo Botero

Botero was born in Bogotá in 1948, the day of the events of El Bogotazo. He is the son of the Antioquian merchant Lorenzo Botero Jaramillo, who was the founder of FENALCO,[3] a guild that brings together all the merchants of Colombia, one of the most important sectors in the country.[4][5]

He studied law at the University of Los Andes, where he was also a professor, and is a businessman with extensive experience working in the Colombian territory. He has combined the practice of law with business activities in the areas of foreign trade, logistics operations, while always being linked to trade union activities.[6]

In his business activity, the export of cut flowers stands out since 1979, as well as the presidency for 10 years until 2003, of a company dedicated to the storage, handling and custody of merchandise associated with logistics processes.

Since November 2003, he has held the presidency of FENALCO (National Federation of Merchants), an entity to which he has been linked as a member of its Board of Directors on different occasions since 1985. He has been a speaker at different forums on political and economic issues. In 2021, he was appointed by President Iván Duque as Ambassador of Colombia to the Republic of Chile.[7]

In 2018, Botero was appointed by President Duque as the new minister of national defense.[8]

Within the framework of his duties, Botero has controversially confronted the rearmament of former FARC leaders;[9] the proposal to regulate social protest as a result of the constant marches against the government;[10] the scandal of the false evidence presented by President Duque before the General Assembly of the United Nations denouncing the guerrilla incursion into Venezuela and the support of the president of that country, Nicolás Maduro for these groups in September 2019,[11] as well as the denunciations of the so-called false positives scandal.[12]

During his mandate, he faced two attempts at motion of censureː The first in June 2019, which he overcame successfully due to the support of the government caucus,[13] and another in November 2019.[14][15]

Before the second motion was voted on, Botero announced his resignation on 6 November 2019, one day before it began, after immense citizen pressure caused by various events presented in his mandate, such as the murder of Dimar Torres (which raised suspicions of the return of extrajudicial executions, popularly known as "false positives"). Likewise, for the bombing of a place occupied by FARC dissidents in the municipality of Puerto Rico, Caquetá, where 18 minors died.[16]