He studied Civil Engineering at the National University of Colombia and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he graduated in 1943.

in economics at MIT, where he took classes under Nobel Prize winners Robert Solow and Paul Samuelson in 1952.

Barco returned to Colombia in 1954 to help negotiate the peace process which allowed the formation of the National Front between liberals and conservatives, which lasted two decades.

He became a member of the Senate, the upper house of Congress in 1958, left to become the ambassador to Britain in 1961, and returned to Colombia in 1962.

He supported anti-poverty programs, renewed dialogue with leftist guerillas and fought drug traffickers.