Andrés Pastrana Arango

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Andrés Pastrana Arango
Image:Andrespastranaarango.png <small/>
42nd President of the Republic of Colombia
In office August 7, 1998 – August 7, 2002
Vice President(s)	Gustavo Bell Lemus
Preceded by	Ernesto Samper
Succeeded by	Álvaro Uribe

Born	August 17, 1954 Bogotá
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Nohra Puyana de Pastrana

Andrés Pastrana Arango (born August 17, 1954) was the President of Colombia from 1998 to 2002, following in the footsteps of his father, Misael Pastrana Borrero, who was president from 1970 to 1974.

1 Early years
2 1998-2002 Presidency
3 Later years
4 See also

[edit] Early years

During his father's rule, he was a student in the prestigious Colegio San Carlos. After obtaining a postgraduate in the USA, he returned to Colombia. On his return he founded a magazine called Guión and a television news program called Noticiero TV Hoy. As a regular news anchor he became a nationally known figure.

In 1982 he formally began his political career, gaining a seat on the local Bogotá council. He also specialized in press articles on the production and trafficking of cocaine, for which he gained many journalistic awards.

He was kidnapped on 18 January 1988 in Antioquia by the Medellín drug cartel, which was pressuring the Colombian government into preventing the extradition of Pablo Escobar and other druglords to the USA. He was found by the police a week later, and in March he was elected mayor of Bogotá, a position he held until 1990. He gained notoriety by strengthening security and reducing crime.

In 1994 he stood for the presidency against Ernesto Samper, losing by only 2 points in the second round. Pastrana immediately accused Samper of using drug money to finance his campaign, and provided audio recordings to the authorities which subsequently attracted much media attention and eventually led to a scandal known as "Process 8.000" (Proceso 8.000).

While this accusation underwent a parliamentary investigation, Pastrana retired into his private life. In 1998, Pastrana announced his intention to run for President. This time he won.

[edit] 1998-2002 Presidency

Image:Pastrana-rumsfeld.png

His presidency is remembered first for his negotiations with the two left-wing guerrilla groups FARC and ELN, culminating in the grant of a demilitarized safe haven to the guerrillas the size of Switzerland, and second for his breaking off said negotiations. It is also remembered for a growing degree of unpopularity in polls as his term progressed and for accusations of corruption. Some critics accused him of possibly accepting unspecified bribes from leading FARC and ELN members, but no concrete evidence of that was presented during his presidency. His administration proposed and initially oversaw the implementation of the controversial Plan Colombia aid package and anti-drug strategy.

[edit] Later years

After President Álvaro Uribe Vélez took office, financial files of President Pastrana's Government were unsealed and millions of dollars of loss and misbudgets were found, including almost 20 million dollars in missing funds that were assumed to be caused by corruption. Despite this, none of the files were able to be tracked back to President Pastrana himself, although some of his administration's former officials were implicated.

In 2005 President Uribe, who had been a critic of Pastrana's peace process with the FARC and had received criticisms from Pastrana regarding his negotiations with Colombian paramilitary groups, surprisingly offered the former president the post of Ambassador to Washington. After consulting his family and political supporters, Pastrana accepted.

Some political analysts theorized that Uribe considered that Pastrana would be an useful diplomat in Washington, because he would help to renegotiate Plan Colombia and in general to maintain U.S. aid to Colombia, which has contributed to the successes of the Uribe administration.

In July 2006, a few days after President Uribe had appointed former president Ernesto Samper as Colombian ambassador to France, Pastrana told the President that he was "morally impeded" to participate in a government along with former president Samper. Pastrana resigned and returned to Colombia and Samper rejected his own appointment. It has been especulated that that after his retun he may eventually become head of the Conservative party.