Colombia´s foremost newspaper, "El Tiempo" has maintained a constant, firm commitment to liberty and democracy over its seventy-five years in operation. In the last decade it has become a staunch enemy of drug traffic.

"El Tiempo" began its career on the 30th January 1911, in the city of Bogota. Its founder and first director was Alfonso Villegas Restrepo, but two years later his brother-in-law, Eduardo Santos Montejo, bought the newspaper over. Santos had contributed to the newspaper since its second edition, sending articles from Europe, where he lived. Since 1913 the name of "El Tiempo" has been historically linked to the surname Santos, a family where almost everyone works in the newspaper. Eduardo Santos defended the absolute independence of "El Tiempo" all the time he was at its head.

His brother Enrique, the author of one of the most widely-read newspaper columns in Colombia - under the pen-name "Caliban" - replaced him as director in 1917. Enrique Santos notably modernised the newspaper, buying a linotype in Europe in 1918 and in 1924 acquiring 24-page tabular duplex press. Thereafter "El Tiempo" became the leading Colombian newspaper in readership and influence.

"El Tiempo"´s struggle in support of liberty and democracy produced violent reactions from those under attack from its pages. In 1952 the newspaper´s buildings were set on fire. Thirteen years later the dictatorship of general Rojas Pinilla ordered its closure, when Eduardo Santos refused to publish a communique of the military government, considering that the publication of the text went against the ideals of the newspaper and his own dignity.

In the Sixties and Seventies "El Tiempo" underwent a process of growth and development, led by Roberto García Pena, who ran it from 1939 to 1981. In the latter year his post was taken over by Hernando Santos Castillo, who is still in charge; García Pena is the "emeritus" director.

This last decade has seen a step forward in "El Tiempo"´s commitment to democratic values, as the daily paper has taken on, with determination, the task of denouncing the activities of drug traffickers in Colombia. In its pages it has shown up the movements of the drug dealers´ "black" money, which has led to the newspaper and those in charge of it receiving constant threats; nowadays, "El Tiempo" is a sort of armoured bunker. The last action taken by the drug "godfathers" against the daily paper was the kidnapping of Hernando Santos´s son in September previous to the time of writing.