Alvaro Uribe

Alvaro Uribe Velez (July 4th, 1952 - ) is the President of the Republic of Colombia. Alvaro Uribe was born in Medellin, capital of the department of Antioquia in Colombia. Uribe holds a degree in law from the Universidad de Antioquia and a post-graduate degree in Management and Administration from Harvard University. From 1998 to 1999 after being awarded the Simon Bolivar fellowship by the British Council in Bogotá, he worked as an associate professor at Oxford University.

Early career

In 1976 he became head of the Real Estate Department of the city of Medellín's Public Works. From 1977 to 1978 he was Secretary General of the Labor Ministry and from 1980 to 1982, head of the Department of Civil Aeronautics. He was the mayor of his native city of Medellín in 1982 and later, from 1984 to 1986, he was elected as city counselor.

Uribe was elected governor of the department of Antioquia for the 1995-1997 period, during which he developed a model of communal participation in key government decisions such as the creation of new jobs, education, the granting of official state contracts and public safety, which he called Community State. During his term as governor, Alvaro Uribe sized down the number of government jobs by 34% and the number of official vehicles by 35%. Such savings in government spending meant schooling for 103,000 new students. As governor he also devised a program by which, 40,000 people received training in the peaceful negotiation of conflicts. 200,000 of Antioquia's poor became eligible for free health care under the nation's subsidized health insurance System.

Uribe was also responsible for the paving of 939 kilometers of roads. More than double the amount of paved roads in all of Antioquia's history. And extensive repair work was done on the roads which link Antioquia with the nation's capital, Bogotá. The number of kidnapping cases in the department, went down by 60% thanks to the cooperation of the community with the local authorities.

He was elected Senator for the periods 1986-1990 and 1990-1994, terms during which he received the Star Senator, Senator with the Best Programs and Best Senator awards.

Situation in Colombia

Uribe was democratically elected with 62 per cent of the vote and has built roads and lowered crime rates in major cities. he has been harshly criticized by human rights groups for alleged violations of human rights. There are accusations that Uribe has personal connections to the United Self-Defence group of Colombia (AUC) terrorist group. The Colombian military is known to work hand-in-hand with this terrorist group because they share a common enemy, the leftist terrorist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) . Protestors in Washington and Bogota have condemned Uribe and his regime, calling him an "assassin". They allege of the around the number of 400 unionist killed in Colombia, there have been 10 convictions so far.[1]. Amnesty International in a statement acknowledged, "undoubtedly, Colombia is facing an extremely difficult situation due to the action of armed groups refusing to respect international humanitarian law and to acknowledge the right of the civilian population to stay out of the hostilities" but "expressed dismay for the measures adopted to guarantee greater security are being aime at others whose security against abuses of power maybe undermined." [2].

Source

• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/world/americas/21colombia.html?ex=1327035600&en=ad8d53a3750a2092&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
• http://web.amnesty.org/web/content.nsf/pages/gbr_colombia
• http://colombiaherald.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/demonstrators-in-washington-call-uribe-an-assassin-pictures/
• http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/05/16/Colombia.Watergate.reut/index.html