Andrés Pastrana Arango
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Andrés Pastrana Arango | |
|---|---|
 Pastrana in 2001 | |
| 30thPresident of Colombia | |
| In office 7 August 1998 – 7 August 2002 | |
| Vice President | Gustavo Bell Lemus |
| Preceded by | Ernesto Samper |
| Succeeded by | Álvaro Uribe |
| 30thAmbassador of Colombia to the United States | |
| In office 24 October 2005 – 11 July 2006 | |
| President | Álvaro Uribe |
| Preceded by | Luis Alberto Moreno |
| Succeeded by | Carolina Barco Isakson |
| 18th Secretary General of theNon-Aligned Movement | |
| In office 7 August 1998 – 2 September 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Ernesto Samper Pizano |
| Succeeded by | Nelson Mandela |
| 18thMayor of Bogotá | |
| In office 1 January 1988 – 1 January 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Julio César Sánchez |
| Succeeded by | Juan Martín Caycedo Ferrer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 August 1954 Bogotá, D.C.,Colombia |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | Great Alliance for Change |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Misael Pastrana Borrero(father) María Cristina Arango Vega(mother) |
| Children |
|
| Alma mater | |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Signature |  |
Andrés Pastrana Arango(born 17 August 1954) is a Colombian politician who was the30thPresident of Colombiafrom 1998 to 2002,[1]following in the footsteps of his father,Misael Pastrana Borrero,who was president from 1970 to 1974.
Early years
[edit]Pastrana was born on 17 August 1954 inBogotátoMisael Pastrana Borrero,who later served as the 23rd President of Colombia, andMaría Cristina Arango Vega,the formerFirst Lady of Colombia.[2]
During his father's presidency, he was a high school student atColegio San Carloswhere he served as president of the student council and graduated in 1973. He later acquired a degree in law at theOur Lady of the Rosary Universityin 1977, and attendedHarvard Universityas a 1978Weatherhead Center for International AffairsFellow.[2]He founded the magazineGuiónand aprogramadoraknown as Datos y Mensajes, whose flagship program was the newscastNoticiero TV Hoy.As a regular news anchor he became a nationally known figure.[3]
In 1982, he formally began his political career by gaining a seat on the localBogotácouncil. He also specialized in press articles on the production and trafficking ofcocainefor which he gained many journalistic awards. In 1991, he was electedSenator.
Kidnapping by Medellín Cartel and elected Mayor of Bogotá
[edit]He was kidnapped on January 18, 1988, inAntioquiaby theMedellín Cartel,which was pressuring the Colombian government into preventing the extradition ofPablo Escobarand other drug lords to the United States. He was found by theNational Policea week later, and in March, he was electedMayor of Bogotá,a position that he held until 1990.
First candidacy for President of Colombia
[edit]In 1994, he stood for the presidency against theLiberalcandidate,Ernesto Samper,and lost by only 2% in the second round. Pastrana immediately accused Samper of using drug money to finance his campaign and provided audio recordings to the authorities that subsequently attracted much media attention and eventually led to a scandal known as8.000 Process(Proceso 8.000).
While the accusation underwent a parliamentary investigation, Pastrana retired into his private life. In 1998, Pastrana announced his intention to run for president. This time, he wonthat year's presidential election.
Former paramilitarySalvatore Mancuso,commander of theAUC,admitted in 2023 that his organisation had supported Andres Pastrana's presidential campaign in 2002.[4]
President of Colombia (1998–2002)
[edit]
His presidency is remembered for his negotiations with the two left-wing guerrilla groupsFARCandELN,culminating in the grant of a demilitarized safe haven to the guerrillas the size of Switzerland, and for his breaking off the negotiations. It is also remembered for a growing degree of unpopularity in polls as his term progressed. 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. He was also heavily criticized for all the seemingly-pleasure trips that he took around the world during his term.
In 1999, he and U.S. PresidentBill ClintonlaunchedPlan Colombiato fight the communist guerrillas with the payment by the United States of $1.6 billion over three years to the Colombian army. An amendment quickly emphasized the plan's second function: to encourage foreign investment by "insisting that the Colombian government complete the urgent reforms designed to open its economy completely to foreign investment and trade."[5]
Military counterguerrilla operations cause theforced displacementof more than one million people in four years.Cocaine productionincreased by 47% during that period.[6]'[7]
Ambassador of Colombia to the United States
[edit]
In 2005 PresidentÁlvaro Uribe Vélez,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 the United States in Washington, DC. After consulting his family and his political supporters, Pastrana accepted.
Some political analysts theorized that Uribe considered that Pastrana would be a 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.
Resignation
[edit]In July 2006, a few days after Uribe had appointed former PresidentErnesto Samperas Colombian ambassador to France, Pastrana told Uribe that he was "morally impeded" from participating in a government along with ex-President Samper. Pastrana resigned and returned to Colombia, and Samper rejected his own appointment. However, that move was not well received by the Conservative Party, which was committed to Uribe, who had won the presidency as an independent, and left Pastrana alone.
Other activities
[edit]Pastrana is a board member in theInternational Foundation for Electoral Systems,[8]and the honorary president of theUnion of Latin American Parties(UPLA).[8]He is also a member of theFondation Chirac's honour committee,[9]and of the Club de Madrid, a group of more than 80 former leaders of democratic countries, which works to strengthen democratic leadership worldwide.[10]Pastrana also serves on the board of advisors for theGlobal Panel Foundation,[11]and as a counsellor for the One Young WorldDublinsummit in 2014, along with four other former presidents fromLatin Americancountries.[12]
He now maintains a distant and hostile relation with his own party, even referring to it as "absolutely corrupt". He has also levied accusations of corruption against two of the most prominent party leaders, Efraín Cepeda and Hernán Andrade.[13]
He campaigns in 2016 against thepeace agreementssigned between the Colombian government and the guerrilla.[14]
He is a signatory of the Madrid Charter launched in 2020 by the Spanish partyVoxto unite the radical right in Spain and Latin America against "narco-communism, the left and organized crime."[15]
In October 2021, his name was mentioned in thePandora Papersas the owner of a company located in Panama, a country considered a tax haven, through which he makes investments in Colombia.[16]
He supports far-right candidateJavier Mileiin2023 Argentine general election.[17]
Awards and honors
[edit]In 2013, Pastrana was awarded theHanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Awardjointly by thePrague Society for International CooperationandGlobal Panel Foundation.[18]
Foreign honours
[edit]- Spain:
Knight of the Collar of theOrder of Isabella the Catholic(1999)[19]
- Malaysia:
Honorary Recipient of theOrder of the Crown of the Realm(2001)[20]
- Poland:
Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Republic of Poland(2002)[21]
Popular culture
[edit]- Pastrana was a guest star on the TV Soap OperaYo soy Betty, la fea.
- Andrés Pastrana is portrayed by the actorAndrés Ogilviein TV SeriesEscobar, el Patrón del Mal.
- In TV seriesTres Caínesis portrayed by Andrés Suárez as the character of Antonio Arango.
- In TV SeriesEn la boca del lobois portrayed by an unknown model as the character of Esteban Aldana.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Andrés Pastrana Arango." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 21 Jan. 2010[1].
- ^abHugo Sabogal."AL ESTILO DE ANDRÉS".El Tiempo(in Spanish). Archived fromthe originalon 16 April 2021.Retrieved9 July2022.
- ^"Andrés Pastrana Arango"(in Spanish). Banrepcultural. Archived fromthe originalon 25 October 2021.
- ^"Mancuso dice que paramilitares apoyaron campañas presidenciales de Uribe y Andrés Pastrana".SWI swissinfo.ch(in Spanish). 15 May 2023.Retrieved12 January2024.
- ^"Garantizar la seguridad de los inversores. Fiebre del oro en Colombia"(PDF).2010.
- ^"Pastrana y Uribe los gobiernos con mas victimas en el conflicto armado".2014.
- ^"COLOMBIA: Aumento de narcotráfico agrava la guerra civil".1999.
- ^ab"Board".IFES. 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 1 March 2009.Retrieved16 October2009.
- ^"Honor Committee".Fondation Chirac.Retrieved23 September2015.
- ^Club de Madrid."Former Heads of State and Government".Archived fromthe originalon 23 September 2015.Retrieved23 September2015.
- ^"Global Panel Foundation - Meeting the World in Person".Archived fromthe originalon 20 September 2012.Retrieved23 September2015.
- ^"One Young World".Archived fromthe originalon 25 September 2015.Retrieved23 September2015.
- ^"'El Partido Conservador es absolutamente corrupto': Andrés Pastrana ".23 August 2017.
- ^"Álvaro Uribe y Andrés Pastrana se reunieron con Donald Trump en Florida".15 August 2017.
- ^"Quiénes son los amigos internacionales de José Antonio Kast".24 October 2021.
- ^"Pastrana y Gaviria, dos de los cinco expresidentes vivos de Colombia, en los 'Papeles de Pandora'".3 October 2021.
- ^"El Nobel Vargas Llosa y los expresidentes Rajoy, Duque y Piñera piden el voto para el ultraderechista Milei en Argentina".12 November 2023.
- ^"The Prague Society - Promoting a global approach to business, politics and academia in Central Europe through transparent networking and off the record dialogue".Archived fromthe originalon 3 September 2014.Retrieved23 September2015.
- ^"Real Decreto 439/1999, de 12 de marzo, por el que se concede el Collar de la Orden de Isabel la Católica a su excelencia señor Andrés Pastrana Arango Presidente de la República de Colombia".boe.es.Spanish Official Journal.
- ^"Senarai Penuh Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat Persekutuan Tahun 2001"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 28 May 2016.Retrieved7 June2016.
- ^"Order Zasługi RP".prezydent.pl(in Polish). Archived fromthe originalon 9 August 2022.Retrieved12 April2023.
Web pages
[edit]- (in Spanish)El Colombiano - President Pastrana's job performance
- (in Spanish)El Tiempo - President Uribe and ambassador Pastrana meet
- (in Spanish)El Tiempo - Ex president Pastrana accuses Constitutional Court
External links
[edit]
Media related toAndrés Pastrana Arangoat Wikimedia Commons- Biography by CIDOBArchived4 October 2013 at theWayback Machine(in Spanish)
- 1954 births
- Pastrana family
- Children of presidents of Colombia
- Harvard University alumni
- 20th-century Colombian lawyers
- Colombian television journalists
- Colombian Conservative Party politicians
- Ambassadors of Colombia to the United States
- Living people
- Mayors of Bogotá
- Presidents of Colombia
- Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
- Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin
- Kidnapped Colombian people
- Secretaries-general of the Non-Aligned Movement
- People named in the Pandora Papers