He studied economics at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Universidad del Valle and specialized in bank management and international humanitarian law, among other areas of study. He was the secretary of community development (1988–1989) at the mayor’s office of Cali, secretary of social development (2002), and executive director of Fundación Coomeva (2003–2006). He began his work to pass secret messages between the government and the FARC during the Álvaro Uribe administration (2002–2010), and this work continued into the Juan Manuel Santos administration. He participated in the secret phase of the peace process as the person authorized by the national government to facilitate secret communications and exploratory meetings between national government and FARC-EP delegates.
