León Valencia is a writer and political analyst. He is the Director of the Pares Foundation, a centre for ideas that specializes in research into social and political conflict in Colombia. He has been a columnist for Semana magazine and the newspapers El Tiempo and El Colombiano. He managed the academic investigation into the Parapolitics scandal, one of the most important in his country’s history. He has written a range of books about the state of Colombia, including: Parapolítica: la ruta de la expansión paramilitary y los acuerdos políticos. La sombra del presidente (2020) is his latest publication.