Carlos Holmes Trujillo

Duque won the 2018 elections and appointed Trujillo minister of foreign affairs.

Trujillo competed in the 2017 pre-election race to become the "uribista" candidate in 2018, but lost to the relatively unknown Senator Ivan Duque, whose political career had begun only four years earlier when he entered the Senate on the CD list.

Despite the fierce opposition from both the Democratic Center, conservative media and a large portion of the Colombian public, Santos signed peace with the country's oldest rebel group in November 2016 and kicked off a peace process in December that year.

Trujillo became Zuluaga's running-mate in opposition to Santos in the 2014 elections, but failed to defeat the incumbent president, who by then was in the middle of peace talks with the FARC that were fiercely opposed by the "Uribistas."

Trujillo remained close to Uribe after Santos announced peace talks with the FARC and joined other hard-line politicians like Francisco Santos and Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, and far-right politicians like Fernando Londoño and Fabio Valencia Cossio in 2013 to form the "Uribista" Democratic Center (CD) party.

Trujillo was born in Cartago, Valle del Cauca. He is the elder son of powerful Liberal Party mogul, congressman, diplomat and attorney Carlos Holmes Trujillo Sr. and Genoveva García. His younger brother José Renán was also active in politics until 2008.

In 2006, Uribe appointed Trujillo ambassador to the European Union, a post he would hold until after a year after the 2010 election of President Juan Manuel Santos.

Following a short break, Trujillo was again appointed ambassador For Scandinavia in 2004, this time by President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. A year later, Iceland also became part of Trujillo's diplomatic portfolio.

Samper's successor, Andres Pastrana (Conservative Party), took office in 1998 and appointed Trujillo ambassador to Austria. Between 1999 and 2001, Trujillo was ambassador to Russia.

Following elections that same year, President César Gaviria (Liberal Party) appointed Trujillo education minister, a position he held from 1992 until the end of Gaviria's term in 1994.

As FCM chairman and vice-president of the Liberal Party, Trujillo took part in formulating Colombia's 1991 constitution that was part of a peace process with the M-19, a guerrilla group that since 1970 had violently opposed the oligarchical political system of which Trujillo had become a prominent member.

Trujillo became Cali's first elected Mayor in 1988 and remained in that position until 1990, avoiding confrontations with the Cali Cartel that was becoming increasingly powerful in the city and corrupting much of Cali's public institutions. While formally running Colombia's third largest city, Trujillo expanded his power by founding the Colombian Federation of Municipalities (FCM) and becoming its chairman.

After finishing his education in Tokyo, Trujillo returned to Colombia in 1983 and was appointed Cali's Finance Secretary by Mayor Julio Riascos (Conservative Party). After Riascos resigned a year later, Trujillo became director of Colombia's metal federation. Meanwhile, Trujillo made career inside his father's Liberal Party and became the political powerhouse's vice-president.