Senador alvaro uribe velez biography

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Archivado desde el original el 25 de junio de Archivado desde el original el 17 de diciembre de Consultado el 22 de julio de El Heraldo Colombia. Archivado desde el original el 3 de diciembre de Consultado el 18 de diciembre de El Mundo. El Colombiano. Consultado el 24 de julio de El Tiempo, ed. Consultado el 2 de diciembre de Consultado el 25 de agosto de El Heraldo.

Archivado desde el original el 11 de enero de Consultado el 2 de abril de Consultado el 18 de abril de Caracol Radio. El Universal Cartagena. Consultado el 1 de agosto de Consultado el 4 de agosto de Publimetro Colombia. Consultado el 12 de agosto de La Silla Vacia. Consultado el 10 de marzo de Consultado el 12 de mayo de Consultado el 24 de mayo de Consultado el 27 de mayo de Consultado el 27 de febrero de He forced the rebels out of Colombia's towns and cities and back into the countryside, so bringing peace to the everyday lives of many Colombians.

Mr Uribe can point to a series of successes against the guerrillas, in particular the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Farc. Senior rebel commanders were killed and desertions from the rebel ranks rose. On 2 July , an audacious military operation tricked the rebels into handing over 15 of their highest profile hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Mr Uribe repeatedly said he would offer peace talks to the Farc, who still control rural areas, especially southern jungle regions, but only if they first lay down their weapons. But although the Farc have suffered a series of blows, continuing attacks show they are not yet defeated and may well have rallied under new leadership. Mr Uribe can also point to success in tackling right-wing paramilitaries.

In , he negotiated a peace deal that saw paramilitary leaders surrender and demobilise 31, of their men in exchange for reduced jail terms and protection from extradition. Human rights groups have argued that the government has been too lenient with the paramilitaries. Many received an amnesty despite committing abuses, including massacres, forced displacements and disappearances.

Mr Uribe was Washington's staunchest ally in Latin America. But despite the close ties, a free trade agreement between Colombia and the US has long been delayed in the US Congress, where Democrats called for Mr Uribe's government to do more to tackle violence against trade union leaders. The warm ties with the US were in stark contrast to the tense and often fractured relations with Venezuela during Mr Uribe's time in office.

Credible reports indicate that some of the territories from which the military has ejected the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias de Colombia, FARC are now under the control of paramilitary groups, which continue to carry out indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population". A February report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the year stated: "Achievements and advances were observed in the field of human rights and international humanitarian law; however, there were also difficulties and contradictions.

Progress was recorded in terms of prevention and protection, including strengthening of the mechanism of community defenders and the early warning system, as well as regarding the Ministry of the Interior's programs for the protection of vulnerable groups. Weaknesses persisted in the Government's responses to warnings, as well as in decreasing risk factors for vulnerable groups.

The Government adopted positive measures regarding the destruction of stored anti-personnel mines. The armed forces occasionally carried out operations in which they failed to observe humanitarian principles". An anti-terror statute criticized by many human rights groups was approved by Congress on 11 December but was struck down in August by the Colombian Constitutional Court during its review.

The statute granted the military judicial police rights and allowed limited arrests and communication intercepts without warrants. It was struck down due to an error in the approval procedure, an objection the court has also presented towards other bills. After some of the AUC's main leaders had declared a cease-fire and agreed to concentrate in Santa Fe de Ralito , several paramilitary demobilizations began in earnest, thousands of their "rank and file" fighters were disarmed and incorporated into government rehabilitation programs late in The main AUC leaders, who would be held responsible for atrocities, remained in the concentration zone and continued talks with the government's High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo.

In , Uribe and Colombia's congressmen prepared for the elections held in May and March respectively. FARC, which had been perceived as relatively passive, began to show signs of what analysts considered renewed vigor in February. Negotiations with the AUC also increased public anxiety. Discussions continued about the legal provisions to assure "justice, reparation and truth" after a full demobilization.

Also according to many observers, paramilitary activity continued despite AUC's declared cease-fire, albeit at a reduced rate. The demobilizations were renewed in November and finished in the complete disbandment of the group by middle February , although some of the paramilitary units rejected disbandment and returned to criminal activity. These groups became known as the Black Eagles.

This group is relatively small in comparison to the AUC and have not been able to achieve the notoriety or the military power of their predecessor, but are present on some former paramilitary areas, like Catatumbo and Choco. The Colombian Congress agreed to prosecute AUC leaders under the controversial Justice and Peace Law , by which the paramilitary leaders would receive reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony and declarations of their entire criminal activity: links with drug dealers , assassinations, disappearances and massacres.

The paramilitary leaders are also forced to "repair" the damage caused to the victims or their families: By disclosing the location of mass graves and by repaying each of them through economic assistance. As of , these public hearings are still underway. To improve its results in the fight against guerrilla warfare, the Colombian army carried out mass executions of civilians transformed into false positives.

If exactions of this kind already existed, the phenomenon became widespread from , encouraged by the bonuses paid to the soldiers and by quasi-absolute impunity. This is the largest mass grave discovered to date in South America. A spokesperson for the organization stated: "It's true that there have been advances for some segments of society, but not for everyone, which casts into doubt the democratic component of the government's security policy".

In November , a political crisis emerged as several of Uribe's congressional supporters were questioned or charged by the Colombian Supreme Court and the office of the Attorney General for having alleged links to paramilitary groups. In April , Senator Gustavo Petro made several accusations against Uribe during a televised congressional debate about paramilitarism in Antioquia.

Petro said that some of the Uribe family's farms in the north of the country had been previously used as staging grounds for paramilitary forces. He also showed a picture of Santiago Uribe, the President's brother, together with Fabio Ochoa , a drug dealer, in Another accusation concerned the possible participation of a helicopter belonging to the former Antioquia Governor's administration during a paramilitary massacre.

Two days later, Uribe publicly revealed that former US Vice President Al Gore had canceled his participation in a pro-environment event Uribe was to attend in Miami due to the continuing allegations against him. The Colombian President reacted by organizing a press conference during which he addressed several of the accusations Senator Petro and others had made against him.

Uribe argued that his family had nothing to do with any massacres and that they had already sold the implicated farms several years before the alleged events. He also stated that the Uribes and the Ochoas were both famous in the horse breeding business, causing their meetings to be both common and public. He claimed that the helicopter's hours and missions had been strictly logged, making it impossible for it to have participated in any massacre.

Uribe said that he supported the CONVIVIR groups but was not solely responsible for their creation, adding that other civilian and military authorities also participated in their oversight. Mario Uribe has been accused of meeting with paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso in order to plan land seizures. On 23 April , Uribe revealed that a former paramilitary fighter had accused him of helping to plan the massacre of El Aro , a charge which he said was under official investigation.

Uribe described the accuser as a "disgruntled convict with an axe to grind", denied the charges and said there was proof of his innocence. The magazine also listed a number of possible inconsistencies in his most recent testimony, including the alleged presence of General Manosalva, who had died months before the date of the meeting where the massacre was planned.

In May Colombian prosecutors officially began an investigation on a series of illegal wiretapping and spying activities carried out against opposition politicians, judges, journalists and others by the Administrative Department of Security DAS. The DAS, an "intelligence service that answers to the president" as described by the Washington Post , [ 55 ] has been the subject of earlier controversies during the Uribe administration.

According to Revista Semana , revelations about the infiltration of paramilitaries affected the entity under former DAS chief Jorge Noguera in and further accusations have continued to surface. According to Reporters Without Borders , Colombia was demoted from th to th place between and on freedom of the press. Uribe's administration was responsible for arresting and extraditing more drug traffickers to the United States and to other countries than all other previous presidents.

He has been publicly recognized as a supporter of the US war on drugs by continually implementing the anti-drug strategy of Plan Colombia. He is also recognized as a supporter of the US war on terror , and the invasion of Iraq. In January , Uribe ended a radio interview by asking "why isn't there any thought of [making] an equivalent deployment [as in the invasion of Iraq] to put an end to this problem [the Colombian conflict], which has such potentially grave consequences?

Bush stood by the results of Uribe's security policies and declared he would continue to provide Plan Colombia aid in the future: "My nation will continue to help Colombia prevail in this vital struggle. We'll continue providing aid. We've helped Colombia to strengthen its democracy, to combat drug production, to create a more transparent and effective judicial system, to increase the size and professionalism of its military and police forces, to protect human rights, and to reduce corruption.

President, you and your government have not let us down. Plan Colombia enjoys wide bipartisan support in my country, and next year I will ask our Congress to renew its support so that this courageous nation can win its war against narco-terrorists". The Uribe administration has maintained generally positive diplomatic relations with Spain and most Latin American nations.

It signed several accords, including one in for the joint construction of a pipeline with Venezuela , a security and anti-drug trafficking cooperation deal with Paraguay in , a commercial and technological cooperation agreement with Bolivia in , [ 61 ] a defense agreement with Spain which was modified in but still remained valid , [ 62 ] and economic and cultural agreements with the People's Republic of China in April Several analysts consider that, being an ally of the US, Uribe would be ideologically opposed to left-wing governments in Latin America and elsewhere.

Colombia has also maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba and the People's Republic of China. There have been some diplomatic incidents and crises with Venezuela during his term, in particular around the Rodrigo Granda affair , Colombia's frustrated acquisition of 46 AMX tanks from Spain, and an Alleged planned Venezuelan coup in by Colombian paramilitaries.

These internationally worrying circumstances have been ultimately resolved through the use of official diplomatic channels and bilateral presidential summits in the first two cases. Uribe's government, along with Peru and Ecuador, negotiated and with Peru signed a free trade agreement with the US. On 30 December , Uribe signed a free trade agreement FTA with Mercosur and gives Colombian products preferential access to the market of million people.

Trade negotiations have also been underway with Mexico, Chile, the Andean community and the USA over its current proposal. In , bilateral negotiations between the United States and Colombia which would give U. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that "there was no intention to expand the number of permanent [U. Other Latin American nations, including Brazil , also expressed their own concerns about the matter.

It was done without bloodshed and led to the capture of two guerrilla leaders. The operation heightened Uribe's already soaring popularity. Uribe stated that the rescue operation "was guided in every way by the light of the Holy Spirit , the protection of our Lord and the Virgin Mary ". Betancourt, formerly a lapsed Catholic who prayed daily on a wooden rosary which she made while a hostage, [ 69 ] attributed the rescue as follows: "I am convinced this is a miracle of the Virgin Mary.

To me it is clear she has had a hand in all of this". Uribe's main political problem during was his handling of the humanitarian exchange situation: the FARC guerrillas held over hostages, living in poor conditions in the Colombian jungle. These hostages included presidential candidate and French citizen Ingrid Betancourt later freed , three American citizens later freed , and several Colombian politicians and law enforcers.

Some of the captives had been in the jungle for over 10 years. For the release of 40 of these hostages the so-called "canjeables" or "exchangeables" the FARC demands a Demilitarized Zone that includes the towns of Florida and Pradera. The government has refused to comply with this demand, deciding instead to push for a military rescue of the hostages, or by searching the mediation of third parties like Switzerland and the Catholic Church.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy was also willing to help in the mediation effort. After the event Chavez promised to deliver evidence that some of the hostages remained alive. Lacking the "proof of life" that was promised to the families of the hostages, and seeing prominent FARC members using the media attention to promote their own ideology, Uribe became disgruntled with the mediation process.

He announced his intent to sharply reduce bilateral commerce. Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which has a maritime dispute with Colombia, cut diplomatic ties with Colombia as a response, with Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa ordering troops to their respective borders with Colombia. Several countries in the Americas criticized the incursion into Ecuador as a violation of national sovereignty, [ 73 ] which was also denounced by an OAS resolution.

He got Uribe, Correa, and Chavez to shake hands. Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega also announced the restoration of relations with Colombia at which Uribe told him that he would send him the bill for the plane fare for his ambassador. The Uribe administration continuously dealt with the International Monetary Fund IMF and the World Bank , securing loans, agreeing to cut expenses, continue debt payments, privatize public companies, and foment investor confidence to comply with financial orthodoxy.

Most direct critics have considered Uribe's administration a key example of a government favoring neoliberal economic policies and argued that it has not addressed the root causes of poverty and unemployment, because continued application of traditional trade and tax policies tend to benefit private and foreign investors over small owners and workers.

Unions and labor groups claim that many privatizations and liquidations were done to please the IMF, the World Bank, and multinational companies, and hurt various national industries in the long run. A national referendum was promoted during Uribe's campaign and later modified by Congress and judicial review. The ability to revoke Congress was removed, as was the option to vote "Yes" or "No" as a whole.

The modified proposal was defeated at the polls on 25 October , and several left-wing candidates opposed to the referendum were victorious at regional elections the following day. All 15 proposals were approved by a substantial majority of those who voted. Analysts considered these events a political setback for Uribe, as one of his main campaign propositions had failed, despite his personal leadership.

The "active abstention" and blank voting campaigns that his opponents, in particular the Independent Democratic Pole and the Colombian Liberal Party , had promoted were allegedly successful in convincing enough of their sympathizers to stay home and instead participate in the next day's round of elections. A number of Uribe's own supporters did not participate, as they found the referendum, which had been modified by Congress and later by the Judicial branch, to be too complex, long and uninspiring.

Some also pointed out that extraordinary electoral initiatives that is, those voted outside standard electoral dates have traditionally suffered complications in Colombia, including a lack of participation. In September , Uribe issued a speech that contained allegations against what he called "agents of terrorism" inside a minority of human rights organizations , while at the same time declaring that he respected criticism from most other established organizations and sources.

Similar statements were later repeated in other instances. In , Uribe successfully sought a Congressional amendment to the Colombian Constitution of which allowed him to run for a second term as president.

Senador alvaro uribe velez biography

For years, Colombian presidents had been limited to a single four-year term and had been barred from any sort of reelection, even if nonconsecutive. Uribe originally had expressed his disagreement with consecutive reelection during his campaign, but later changed his mind, first at a private level and later in public appearances. Many analysts considered that, in order to secure the approval of this reform, Uribe may have slacked on his campaign promises, because of what has been perceived as his indirect bribing of congressmen, through the alleged assignment of their relatives to the diplomatic corps and through promises of investment in their regions of origin.

Uribe's supporters consider that no actual bribing took place, and that a consensus among the diverse sectors that back Uribe's policies in Congress had to be reached through political negotiation. The amendment permitting a single reelection was approved by Congress in December , and by the Constitutional Court in October In , Uribe's political supporters amended the constitution to allow him to run for a second term, previously proscribed by the Colombian constitution, and his own decision to run for a second term was announced in late In a statement made on 28 May, OAS mentioned that the elections "have taken place in an atmosphere of freedom, transparency and normalcy", despite incidents "related to the use of indelible ink, voter substitution and the accreditation of electoral witnesses, though these have no effect on the electoral process as a whole" and "developments in northern Santander province that took the lives of army personnel and left others injured in an ambush carried out by subversive groups".

In April , Yidis Medina, a former congresswoman from the pro-government Colombian Conservative Party , claimed that members of Uribe's administration had offered her to appoint local officials in her home province, in exchange for voting in favor of the reelection bill. According to Medina, the government had not fulfilled that promise, prompting her declaration.

The Attorney General of Colombia ordered her arrest, after which she turned herself over to authorities and testified to the Supreme Court as part of the investigation. The opposition Alternative Democratic Pole party asked for Uribe to be investigated for bribery. The Accusations Commission of the Colombian Congress will study the matter and decide if there are enough merits to officially investigate Uribe.

Since his election Uribe's approval ratings had remained high, usually staying between 60 and 70 percent after eight years in office, but this status has radically changed. During the eight years of Uribe's government, internal polling, communications strategy and government and presidential image were managed by Uribe's Communications Advisors Jaime Bermudez , who later became Ambassador to Argentina and then Foreign Affairs Minister; Jorge Mario Eastman, who was Vice-minister of Defense before and left to become Vice-minister of Defense again; and Mauricio Carradini who served under Uribe until the end the period in office.

As the end of Uribe's second term approached, his followers sought a new amendment that would grant him the right to run for a third term. In May , Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos resigned so he could run for president in case Uribe either did not or could not run again. Santos said before resigning that he did not want to run against Uribe.

Congress backed a proposed referendum on the matter, but the Constitutional Court rejected it after reviewing the resulting law. On 26 February lead justice Mauricio Gonzalez publicly announced the Court's decision. Gonzalez said that the Court had found numerous irregularities in the way signatures were obtained to allow the referendum to pass.

Uribe stated that he would respect the decision but called for voters to continue supporting his administration's policies in the upcoming elections. The Constitutional Court not only threw out the referendum, but declared Colombian presidents could only serve two terms, even if they were nonconsecutive. This effectively foreclosed a potential Uribe run for president in In late , a few months after leaving office, Uribe was named visiting scholar at Georgetown University 's Walsh School of Foreign Service, [ ] where he taught students in different disciplines as a guest lecturer in seminars and classes.

In , Uribe was granted an honorary award by the Latin American Student Association of Georgetown, for his leadership and commitment with the Latin American community of the university. Uribe's appointment at Georgetown sparked controversy. In September, more than scholars, including 10 Georgetown professors and leading experts on Latin America and Colombia, signed a letter calling for Uribe's firing.

In November , while at the Georgetown campus, Uribe was served a criminal subpoena in the case Claudia Balcero Giraldo v. Drummond , regarding hundreds of civilians murdered by paramilitary forces loyal to Uribe. In , Uribe joined the Leadership Council of Concordia, a nonprofit organization in New York City that creates public-private partnerships.

Uribe, who had served in the Senate prior to his election as president, is the only former Colombian head of state in history to have become a Senator after occupying the presidency. Uribe's new Democratic Center party also won 19 of the House of Representatives ' seats. Another court case called " Caso Uribe " was also levied against Uribe.

The process passed into the hands of the Office of the Colombian Attorney General, thus evading the jurisdiction that the Supreme Court of Justice had over it. In May , Uribe was formally charged with witness tampering and bribery in the Caso Uribe, following the release of wiretapped phone conversations in which he was heard discussing efforts to reverse two former paramilitaries who were set to testify against him with one of his lawyers.

In , the case of so-called false positives, or extrajudicial executions, was revealed. Several Army brigades created a policy, according to which commanders and soldiers reporting combat casualties, received prizes, vacations and promotions, while commanders who did not report results were disciplined and punished. Such policy did not reward the military for capturing guerrillas but for reporting the death toll in combat.

It subsequently came to light that several National Army units executed civilians, often from a poor background, to pass them off as combat casualties and thus inflate the number of deaths in combat, which sought to demonstrate the success of the democratic security policy.