Álvaro Uribe

Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.

Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia.

He graduated in 1970 from the Instituto Jorge Robledo, after being expelled from the Medellín Benedictine School for arguing with the Benedictine monks.

In 1976, at the age of 24, Uribe was Chief of Assets for the Public Utilities of Medellín (Empresas Públicas de Medellín).

Uribe studied law at the University of Antioquia and graduated in 1977.

He served as Secretary General of the Ministry of Labor under Alfonso López Michelsen from 1977 to 1978.

During this time, he married Lina Moreno, a philosopher from Medellín.

Uribe married Lina María Moreno Mejía in 1979.

They have two sons, Tomás and Jerónimo.

He held offices in the Public Enterprises of Medellín and in the Ministry of Labor and was the director of the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics (1980–1982).

President Julio César Turbay named him Director of Civil Aviation from 1980 to 1982, at the age of 28, after the previous director was assassinated.

He became the Mayor of Medellín in October 1982.

Uribe was appointed mayor of Medellín by Antioquia governor Álvaro Villegas in 1982, although he only held the post for five months as he resigned for reasons that remain controversial.

According to Villegas, then President Belisario Betancur pressured the governor to ask for his resignation because he claimed that Uribe had links to the Medellín Cartel.

He was appointed Mayor of Medellín in 1982, but was removed five months later due to alleged connections with drug cartels.

His father, who was close to the Medellín Cartel and a paramilitary militia, was killed by a guerrilla group during a 1983 kidnapping attempt.

After his father's death, Uribe focused on his political career and became a member of the Colombian Liberal Party.

He was a senator between 1986 and 1994 and finally the Governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997 before being elected President of Colombia in 2002.

Uribe was elected one of Antioquia's senators from 1986 to 1990, and again from 1990 to 1994.

As senator, he served as president of the Seventh Commission and he supported laws dealing with reform of pensions, labor and social security, as well as promotion of administrative careers, cooperative banking, Brown Sugar, and protection for women.

Some of the legislation later drew criticism, in particular some which reduced the state's responsibility for social security.

In 1993, he attended Harvard University, receiving a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard Extension School and a Certificate in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Harvard Law School.

Between 1998 and 1999, after having completed his term in office as the governor of Antioquia, he studied at St Antony's College, Oxford, England, on a Chevening-Simón Bolívar scholarship and was appointed Senior Associate Member at St Antony's College.

Following his 2002 election, Uribe led an all-out military offensive against leftist guerrilla groups such as the FARC and the ELN with funding and backing from the Clinton and Bush administrations in the form of a $2.8 billion USD direct foreign aid package called "Plan Colombia".

He also led a controversial effort to demobilize the right-wing paramilitary group known as the AUC.

All of these groups were part of the Colombian Armed Conflict.

His role in the conflict was accompanied by large-scale alleged exactions: thousands of civilians were killed by the Colombian army, as part of the "false positives" scandal, with almost total impunity.

Their deaths are being investigated by the United Nations.

Millions of people were the victims of forced displacement.

In August 2010, Uribe was appointed vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid.

In 2012 Uribe and a group of political allies founded the right-wing Democratic Center movement to contest the 2014 national elections.

He was elected senator in the 2014 parliamentary election and took office in July 2014.

Uribe was critical of his successor Juan Manuel Santos's peace talks with the FARC guerrillas.

In August 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ordered his arrest as part of an investigation into bribery and witness tampering.

He was released from house arrest on 10 October.

The case went to the Fiscalía General de la Nación, after which Uribe resigned from his Senate seat.

A number of his political opponents have claimed for years that Uribe should be prosecuted, alleging he has ties with paramilitarism.

Álvaro Uribe was born in Medellín, the oldest of five children.

His father, Alberto Uribe, was a landowner.

When he was 10, his family left their Salgar ranch and moved to Medellín.