- Camilo Villegas
Camilo Villegas is a Colombian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Villegas was born in Medellín, Colombia, and took up the game as a child. He excelled as a junior and played golf at the University of Florida. He was a three-time All American there, and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2002 and 2004. He began playing on the PGA Tour in 2006 and made a promising start at that level, with two second place finishes in his first seven events.
- Álvaro Uribe
President Uribe reacted to this most recent scandal by purging the military. But he tellingly said that human-rights scandals "make us look bad," as if the problem were simply one of perception. He also called a representative of Human Rights Watch, an organization that helped uncover the violations, an "accomplice of the FARC," Colombia's largest guerrilla group.
- Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is a Colombian politician born 10 August 1951 in the capital city of Bogotá, currently serving as Colombian Minister of National Defense.
- Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria. gained world infamy as a Colombian drug dealer. Escobar became so wealthy in the drug trade that in 1989 "Forbes" magazine had listed him as the seventh richest man in the world. He is widely considered to be one of the most brutally ruthless, ambitious, and powerful drug dealers in history.
- Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán is a race car driver in NASCAR for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is a former Formula One driver. He was born in Bogotá where he was taught the techniques of karting from an early age by his father Pablo, an architect and motorsport enthusiast. He has enjoyed great success, most famously in top open wheel racing series. The highlights of his career include winning the International F3000 championship in 1998, and the CART Championship Series in 1999, …
- Manuel Marulanda
Pedro Antonio Marín, also known by his "nom de guerre", Manuel Marulanda Vélez, and nicknamed by his comrades "Tirofijo" (which means, "Sureshot"), apparently because of a reputed ability to accurately aim firearms. He is the main leader of the FARC-EP ("Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo"). He was born on May 13, 1928 (a date that has been disputed), …
- Alfonso Cano
Alfonso Cano is the "nom de guerre" of Guillermo León Sáenz is an important ideological leader of the FARC-EP ("Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo"). It has been speculated the Cano would eventually be in line for assuming the position currently known to be held by FARC's Manuel Marulanda. After the death of former ideological leader Jacobo Arenas in August 1990 he soon became the ideological leader of the group.
- Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José García Márquez, also known as Gabo is a Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher, political activist, and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gabriel García Márquez has lived mostly in Mexico and Europe and currently spends much of his time in Mexico City. Widely credited with introducing the global public to magical realism, he has secured both significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success.
- Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero is a neo-figurative Colombian artist, self-titled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists." He won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958, He paints and draws in a style somewhat similar to Pablo Picasso whilst he lived in Dinard, Brittany, 1922, for example "Deux femmes courant sur la plage" (The Course). He strives in all his work to capture an essential part of himself and his subjects through color and form.
- Carlos Vives
Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo (born August 7, 1961 in Santa Marta, Magdalena) is a Grammy Award and three-times Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.
- Carlos Restrepo
Carlos Alberto Restrepo Izasa is a very successful football coach that has managed several Colombian and Costa Rican soccer teams. Never having the opportunity of playing the sport professionally because of an injury, he began his coaching career at his early 20's. After some time spent managing in minor leagues and regional teams in his home country, he took over several U-17 and U-20 Colombia national football teams. He then began coaching teams such as Once Caldas, …
- Mauricio Soler
Juan Mauricio Soler Hernández is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer for UCI Professional Continental team Barloworld. He competed in the Tour de France for the first time in 2007, winning stage 9 having broken away on the Col du Galibier. Soler stated the win was "a victory from heaven. It is the biggest win of my life, and in my first Tour de France. I didn't think it would come so quickly." Soler began racing at the age of 17, …
- Luis Carlos Restrepo
Luis Carlos Restrepo is a Colombian writer. In charge of the demobilization process of the paramilitary groups in Colombia. He is a psychiatrist and has published several books about the relation between violence in Colombia and psychological matters. He is a very controversial person, because his approach to the peace process is a terapeutical one. Also because he was before a left wing intellectual and now he supports what are viewed as right wing presidential policies.
- Salvatore Mancuso
Salvatore Mancuso Gómez also known as "el Mono Mancuso","Santander Lozada" or "Triple Cero", among other names (born August 17, 1964 in Montería, Córdoba) is a Colombian paramilitary leader, once second in command of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. The paramilitary groups commanded by Mancuso fought the guerrillas (mainly EPL, …
- Ernesto Samper
Ernesto Samper Pizano is a Colombian politician. He served as the President of Colombia from 7 August 1994 to 7 August, 1998, representing the Liberal Party. He studied in the Gimnasio Moderno school and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He was also involved in the 8000 process scandal in which money from the Cali Cartel entered his presidential campaign.
- John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo (born July 22, 1964) is an Emmy-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated American comedian, actor and producer.
- Rodrigo Granda
Rodrigo Granda is a member of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a powerful terrorist organisation in that country. His name became well-known because of events that took place in late 2004. Though still active in Colombia, Granda had by that time become a naturalised Venezuelan citizen, allegedly by presenting fraudulent paperwork during the process. While he was attending a conference in Caracas, Venezuela, he was kidnapped by Venezuelan officials.
- Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the penname and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and communist politician Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. Having his works translated into dozens of languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. Neruda was accomplished in a wide variety of styles, ranging from erotically charged love poems (such as "White Hills"), surrealist poems, historical epics, …
- Íngrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio is a Colombian politician, former senator, and anti-corruption activist. She is considered Colombia's most famous hostage, especially internationally. She was kidnapped by the FARC on February 23, 2002 while campaigning for the presidency, after she decided to campaign at a very dangerous location and ignored warnings from the government, police and military not to do so. As of the fifth anniversary of her abduction, …
- Joe Arroyo
Álvaro José Arroyo González is a Colombian salsa and tropical music singer and songwriter.
- Catalina Sandino Moreno
Catalina Sandino Moreno is an Academy Award-nominated Colombian actress. Sandino was born in Bogotá, Colombia to a pathologist mother. Before becoming an actress, she studied advertising at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. She relocated to New York City in 2004, after she was "discovered" at the Rubén Di Pietro acting school in Bogotá.
- Carlos Castaño
Carlos Castaño Gil was the founder of the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU), an extreme right paramilitary organization in Colombia. Castaño and his brothers Fidel and Vicente founded this group (and its previous incarnations) after their father was kidnapped and killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in association with other enemies or victims of the guerrillas.
- Carolina Barco
Ms. Carolina Barco Isakson (born 1951 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is Colombia's ambassador to the United States.
- César Gaviria
César Augusto Gaviria Trujillo is a Colombian politician and a Latin American stateman. He served as President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, and Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1994 until 2004.
- Alejandro Falla
Alejandro Falla (born 14 November, 1983 in Cali, Colombia) is a professional male tennis player from Colombia. He turned pro in 2000, plays left-handed, weighs 169 lb (76 kg) and measures 6'1" (185 cm). At the 2006 Wimbledon tournament, Falla upset 9th seed Nikolay Davydenko and at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open he beat 9th seed Tommy Haas in straight sets. As of June 28, 2007, Falla is 119th in the ATP rankings.
- Santiago Botero
Santiago Botero Echeverry is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer. He has been a pro since 1996, during which time he has raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of Vuelta a España (the Tour of Spain). He has been, for the greater part of his career, a member of the Kelme team, but in 2003 joined T-Mobile Team (then named "Team Telekom"). His often brilliant performance as part of the Kelme team turned lacklustre in Team Telekom, …
- Juan Carlos Osorio
Juan Carlos Osorio (born June 8, 1961 in Santa Rosa de Cabal, Risaralda), is a Colombian football (soccer) manager. He is currently head coach at Millonarios, but has come to an agreement to be released from his contract to be named head coach of MLS side Chicago Fire.
- Andrea Echeverri
Andrea Echeverri is a Colombian rock/pop singer and guitarist. She is the lead singer in Aterciopelados where she also plays the acoustic guitar. In 2005 she released a solo album named "Andrea Echeverri". Presently, she is touring with Aterciopelados in support of their new album, Oye.
- Doris Salcedo
Doris Salcedo is a Colombian-born sculptor. Salcedo completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Universidad de Bogotá in 1980, before travelling to New York, which she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at New York University. She then returned to Bogotá to teach at the Universidad. Her work is influenced by her experiences of life in Colombia, and is generally composed of items of furniture.
- Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur Cuartas is a Colombian statesman, the President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.
- Luis Alberto Moreno
Luis Alberto Moreno is a Colombian diplomat and journalist. He was elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank in July 2005. Moreno was appointed to be Colombia’s Ambassador to the United States in September 1998 by President Andrés Pastrana and ratified by President Álvaro Uribe upon his election in May 2002. Prior to his post as Ambassador, Moreno served both the public and private sectors in Colombia.
- Horacio Serpa
Horacio Serpa Uribe (born 3 January 1943 in Bucaramanga, Santander) is a Colombian politician and lawyer. Horacio Serpa has run for president on three occasions; 1998, 2002, and 2006; in representation of the Liberal Party. He previously served as congressman for Santander as Senator, Attorney General of Colombia, president of the National Constituent Assembly, Minister of the Interior, and as Ambassador of Colombia to the Organization of American States.
- Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was a politician, a leader of a populist movement in Colombia, a former Education Minister (1940) and Labor Minister (1943-1944), mayor of Bogotá (1936) and chief of the Colombian Liberal Party (1947-1948). He was assassinated during his second presidential campaign in 1948, setting off the "Bogotazo" and leading to a violent period of political unrest in Colombian history known as "La Violencia" (approx. 1948 to 1958).
- Rudolf Hommes
Rudolf Hommes Rodríguez is a Colombian politician and economist mostly knwon for serving a term as Colombian Minister of Finance under the government of President Cesar Gaviria and in which he introduced many liberalism policies in Colombia's Economy. He is also a regular columnist on many important Colombian media outlets on articles relating mostly to Finances and one of President Álvaro Uribe's principal advisors.
- Fernando Vallejo
Fernando Vallejo is a biologist, filmmaker and writer, born in Colombia. He obtained Mexican nationality in 2007. He was born and raised in Medellín, though he abandoned his home town early in life. He started studies in Philosophy at the National University of Bogotá, but after one year he abandoned the Faculty of Philosophy and Lettres. Soon after he began new studies on Biology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, which he finished.
- Alejo Duran
Gilberto Alejandro Durán Diaz, known to all as Alejo Durán or "El Negro Grande" (the Big Negro) (born on February 9, 1919 in El Paso, Cesar - died November 15, 1989 in Monteria, Córdoba) was a Colombian vallenato music traditional composer, singer and accordionist. He is notorious for lyrically "self-flagellating" himself in his songs.
- Pacho Galan
Pacho Galan (1906-1979) was a Colombian composer and band leader of several Colombian music forms, including porro, cumbia, gaita and merercumbe. His songs include "Boquita Sala, Rio Y Mar, Fiesta de Cumbia, Cumbia Alegre" and "Ay Cosita Linda", which became one of his most famous after Nat King Cole recorded his own rendition of the song.
- Antanas Mockus
Antanas Mockus Šivickas, is a Colombian mathematician, philosopher, and politician. The only son of Lithuanian immigrants, he left his post as principal of the National University of Colombia in Bogotá in 1993, and later that year ran a successful campaign for mayor. He proceeded to preside over Bogotá as mayor for two terms, during which he became known for springing surprising and humorous initiatives upon the city's inhabitants.
- Carlos Valderrama
Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (born September 2, 1961 in Santa Marta, Colombia) is a former Colombian soccer player. He was a creative midfielder who some pundits consider as the best Colombian player of all time. Nicknamed "El Pibe" ("The kid"), Valderrama is recognizable for his enormous dyed blondish-orange bush of hair and is known for his skillful passing and shielding.
- Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known simply as Shakira, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, dancer and occasional actress who has been a major figure in the pop music scene of Latin America since the mid-1990s. In 2001, she broke through into the English-speaking market with the release of her first album in that language, "Laundry Service", which has sold over fifteen million copies worldwide.