Andrés Pastrana Arango

Andrés Pastrana Arango ( born August 17, 1954 in Bogotá ) is a Colombian politician. From 1998 to 2002 he was President of Colombia.

Life

Andrés Pastrana Arango was born in 1954 as son of former President Misael Pastrana Borrero, who ruled the country between 1970 and 1974. He studied law at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá and completed a postgraduate course in international law at Harvard University in Boston, USA. During his father's tenure, he was represented by the Colombian media as a hippie.

He founded the magazine Guion (1978) and the news channel Noticiero TV Hoy (1979 ), in which he became known as a speaker. In 1982 he was awarded a seat on the city council of Bogotá and began his career as a politician. As a journalist, he saw himself in writing articles about drug trafficking, for which he received awards.

On January 18, 1988, he was kidnapped in Antioquia by the Medellin cartel. Pablo Escobar tried by putting pressure on the government not to extradite him to the United States. A week later, Pastrana was freed by the police and was elected in March to the Mayor of Bogotá. His term was marked by the improved security situation in the capital and ended in 1990.

In 1994, Pastrana put on as a presidential candidate against Ernesto Samper and his newly founded party Nueva Fuerza Democrática. He lost this election with only two missing percentage points, after which he accused his opponent of having financed the campaign with drug money. In the subsequent election in June 1998, he was elected on the second ballot with 51% of the vote against Horacio Serpa Uribe for Colombian President.

As president, he made ​​especially by he initiated peace talks with the guerrilla groups FARC and ELN attention, during which he agreed to the establishment of a " demilitarized zone ", which served as a retreat of the FARC. The project failed due to several circumstances, among others, to further attacks and kidnappings that the FARC carried out shortly after the start of the Friedensgespäche in response to an encroachment of the ELN on the civilian population in an area controlled by the FARC territory. Meanwhile, the " demilitarized zone " largely under control of the state army.

After the demolition of the peace negotiations Pastrana's government began with the implementation of the controversial Plan Colombia.

After following assumes office, Álvaro Uribe Vélez in 2002 massive financial gaps were in the millions to the fore. However, this could not be attributed to Pastrana.

On August 1, 2005 Pastrana was sent as ambassador to the United States Colombian, although he had significant disagreements with the government of then-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez in relation to the reintegration of paramilitaries in the past. He replaced Luis Alberto Moreno in this item. In early July 2006, he resigned in protest against the proposed appointment of his longtime political opponent Ernesto Samper to the post of Colombian Ambassador in Paris by this office.