Alvaro Uribe (4 July 1952-) was President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010, succeeding Andres Pastrana Arango and preceding Juan Manuel Santos.
Biography[]
Alvaro Uribe was born in Medellin, Colombia on 4 July 1952, and he studied law before becoming a Colombian Liberal Party member. He started his political career in his home department of Antioquia, holding office in the Empresas Públicas de Medellín and in the Ministry of Labor. In 1982, President Belisario Betancur appointed Uribe as Mayor of Medellin, but Betancur discharged him five months later for his alleged collaboration with Medellin Cartel drug traffickers. He was an intimate friend of Pablo Escobar and was listed as the 82nd most-important drug dealer in the country in 1991, assisting the cartel with regard to extradition laws, and holding financial interests in companies engaged in drug trafficking. He served as a Senator from 1986 to 1994 and Governor of Antioquia from 1995 to 1997, and he was elected President in 2002 as the leader of Colombia First, which he formed in 2001 after leaving the Liberal Party. He led successful campaigns against the FARC and ELN, and the United States awarded Uribe the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. However, that year saw the Colombian Army kill thousands of civilians with almost total impunity, and millions were forcibly displaced. He left the presidency in 2010, and he was elected a Senator in 2014; he went on to criticize his successor Jose Manuel Santos' peace talks with FARC.