Former presidential candidate Alberto Santofimio was acquitted for the
murder on his political rival Luis Carlos Galán in 1989. The High Court
of Cundinamarca found there was not enough evidence to confirm an
earlier sentence.
Santofimio had earlier been sentenced for been part of the murder plot together with Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel.
The right hand man of Escobar had testified Santofimio ordered the death of Galán, because he was in the way of his political aspirations.
“Pablo, kill him,” was what the former politician allegedly would have told the boss of Medellín’s then blossoming drug empire.
Galán was assassinated in Soacha, Cundinamarca while running for the 1990 presidential election. He was widely expected to win those elections. Both Galán and Santofimio were members of the Liberal Party.