Presidential elections were held in Colombia on 28 May 2006. Álvaro Uribe was re-elected as President for another four-year term, starting on 7 August 2006. Uribe obtained 62.35% of the vote, surpassing the 50% needed to avoid a runoff against the second-placed candidate.
Following a constitutional amendment enacted by the government, this was the first occasion in over 100 years that a Colombian president was eligible for immediate re-election.
Background
Presidential Elections
Traditionally, Colombian politics have been dominated by two major political parties: the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party. However, 2002 presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe broke with precedent by splintering from the Liberal Party and campaigning as an independent under the unrecognized party, Colombia First. Due in part to declining public support for dialogue with FARC following president Andrés Pastrana Arango's failed ceasefire agreement, Uribe gained an edge over his liberal opponent, Horacio Serpa.
Colombia is a presidential republic wherein a president is elected by absolute majority vote in one or two rounds. Although the government of Colombia is separated into legislative, judicial, and executive branches, the President of Colombia serves as both the nation's head of state and head of government (as per the American model). Before 2005 and after a congressional vote in 2015, the president is prohibited from seeking reelection; however, a constitutional reform backed by incumbent president Álvaro Uribe suspended the term limit, allowing him to run for reelection in 2006.
Paramilitary Violence and Government Collusion
Uribe's 2002 inauguration coincided with a fatal missile attack by FARC on the Casa de Nariño and surrounding Bogotá, leaving 13 dead. The president used the attack as pretext to enact a state of emergency, expanding the power of the military and establishing "special combat zones" around the country. Aside from colluding with right-wing paramilitary groups and receiving military assistance from the United States, Uribe restricted the freedom of the foreign press; in 2004, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Colombia as the second most dangerous country for the media in the world (after Algeria).
Starting in 2003, Uribe began extending offers of amnesty to members of the paramilitary coalition UAC in an effort to demobilize the group. His offer of short-term prison sentences for human rights violators earned rebukes from both the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This effort for demobilization have been widely considered a failure. Despite the dissolution of the UAC, the emergence of new right wing paramilitary groups, known collectively as The Black Eagles, has resulted in the continuation of atrocities against civilians and human rights workers (including torture, rape, extortion, and murder) in what has been described as a recycling of paramilitarism.
Cooperation between the Government of Colombia, the United States, and anti leftist paramilitaries had been occurring since 1962, primarily to combat FARC and the National Liberation Army (see Plan LAZO, Alianza Americana Anticomunista, Peasant Self-Defenders of Córdoba and Urabá, Los Pepes, and CONVIVIR). In many cases, these connections directly linked government officials to extreme paramilitary violence; in the 1997 Mapiripán Massacre dozens of civilians were mutilated by UAC paramilitaries with the cooperation of the National Army of Colombia through omission (specifically under the orders of U.S. trained Colonel Lino Sánchez). The military was also implicated in participating in and assisting paramilitaries in the 2001 Alto Naya massacre and the 2003 Betoyes Massacre, in the latter instance disguising themselves as members of the UAC.
Colombia Parapolitics Scandal
On November 9, 2006, the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ordered the arrest of three congressmen accused of collaborating with the UAC, with dozens more to follow (including many of Uribe's allies and his cousin Mario Uribe Escobar). To date, 37 lawmakers and 5 governors have been arrested in connection to the Colombian parapolitics scandal (dubbed "parauribismo" by Jorge Enrique Robledo of the Alternative Democratic Pole in reference to the connection between parapolismo and supporters of Uribe).
Plan Colombia
The original Plan Colombia was proposed by president Andrés Pastrana Arango in 1999 as a "Marshall Plan for Colombia", suggesting increased developmental investment by developed countries to offer peasants an alternative means of income to coca planting. Rather than fumigation or increased military aid, Pastrana proposed the manual eradication of crops as more effective. U.S. president Bill Clinton offered to financially support the plan, the result of which was the plan's total revision by the United States. The final version of the plan was written entirely in English (not to be translated into Spanish until months after it had taken effect).
Corruption and Freedom
In 2006, Freedom House upgraded Colombia's political rights and civil liberties ratings from 4 to 3, due to improving citizen security, increasing freedom of the press, and declining perceptions of government corruption. Despite this, the rise of press lawsuits as an alternative form of intimidation has been cited as a threat to free journalism in the country.
Candidates
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (Incumbent)
Álvaro Uribe was notable for his hardline stance against leftist insurgent groups, initially advocating against any concessions and negotiations with groups such as FARC, and for greater military action, and economic and infrastructure development. His actions successfully weakened and fought back the leftist rebel groups, decreasing their territory and scope of control as well as removing their ability to govern great areas of land and even some urban areas. He controversially had negotiated agreements and passed laws granting amnesty to demobilized paramilitary groups, and was referred to by some opponents as "authoritarian." However, his ability to improve the security and economic situation of the country made him overall popular.
Political Career and Allegations
Having earned a law degree from Universidad de Antioquia and a postgraduate degree in Management and Administration from Harvard university, Uribe became a civil servant by the age of 24. He was appointed Secretary General of the Labor Ministry by 1977–8. Afterwards Uribe lead the Civil Aviation Ministry from 1980 to 1982, and was elected to be the mayor and later a city council member of Medellin from 1982 to 1986. He was elected Senator from 1986 to 1990, under which he won the Star Senator, Senator with the Best Programs and Best Senator awards.
From 1995 to 1997 Uribe was elected governor of Antioquia. During his tenure, he developed a method of civil participation called the Community State. His actions led to around a third of government jobs and official vehicle use to be cut, the funding allocated instead to educating 103,000 new students. Uribe's decisions lead to 939 km of new roads to be paved, as well as existing highways to be repaired. Kidnappings dropped 60% under his tenure. From 1998 to 1999, Uribe was an associate professor at Oxford University. Up until this point, Uribe ran and served as elected officials under the Liberal Party.
The books The Lord of Shadows by Newsweek journalist, Joseph Contreras, and The Horsemen of Cocaine, by Fernando Garavito and Fabio Castillo, accuse Uribe of having granted known drug traffickers licences to fly when working in the Civil Aviation Ministry. The United States State Department in a 1991 report referred to Uribe as "Pablo Escobar's close friend" as well as linked Uribe's father, Alberto Uribe to drug trafficking groups and paramilitaries. Alberto, Álvero's father was a known friend of Pablo Escobar and mafia boss Fabio Ochoa. In 1983, Alberto was assassinated by FARC rebels at his estate, after which Alvaro sold off the property and dedicated himself to politics. However, Mary Beth Long, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics, in a 2004 opinion letter to the New York Times claimed that allegations of links between Alvaro and the Medellin drug cartel or Pablo Escobar from 1991 were never substantiated.
As governor of Antioquia, Uribe held known contacts with the paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the goal of which was fighting leftist insurgents. His Community State plan involved arming and involving civilians in efforts against rebel groups, a strategy largely credited with drastically reducing kidnapping rates. At the same time, the national program CONVIVIR, which Uribe supported and enacted in his state, gained controversy for creating anti-insurgency defense forces from known past paramilitaries who had committed atrocities against civilians. Several groups under CONVIVIR would become illegal paramilitary "self-defense" forces.
First Term As President
Uribe was elected the presidency on the first round in 2002, the first presidential candidate in Colombia's history to do so. Uribe campaigned on a platform of providing no concessions to insurgents and heavier use of military force. He ran as an independent, separating himself from the Liberal Party due to their support for peace negotiations with FARC. This was a turn away from his predecessor's (Andres Pastrana) strategy, which had negotiated a peace deal that had allowed for a demilitarized zone the leftist FARC rebels had used for hiding hostages, drug trafficking and planning military campaigns in the rest of the country.
Immediately upon becoming president Uribe decreed a state of emergency, allowing him to restrict the foreign press and issued special decrees, as well as granting the military license to restrict civilian movement and conduct searches without warrant in 27 districts called "special combat zones." The Constitutional Court would judge these actions to be unconstitutional the next year. Also upon inauguration, Uribe and the AUC (the right wing paramilitary group) declared an indefinite truce conditioned on 10,000 troops being demobilized and 1,500 members weapons being handed over.
In 2003, Uribe granted amnesty to paramilitaries that laid down their weapons, meaning those guilty of atrocities would be allowed lessened jail times or payment of reparations instead of imprisonment, provoking 850 members of a right wing paramilitary group responsible for bloody massacres lay down their arms. A public referendum voted against Uribe's plan to freeze government spending to pay for the anti-guerrilla, anti-corruption, and government efficiency efforts, but the referendum held to allow this votes against his attempts.
In 2004, Uribe announced a $7 billion—dollar initiative called "Phase II" aimed at fighting crime, insurgents and paramilitary groups as well as strengthening institutions, invigorating the economy, and building infrastructure. Retreating from his hardline stance against right-wing paramilitaries by attempting, Uribe attempted to integrate the AUC into the political system, even after revelations of paramilitary infiltration into the government surface. At this point, 3000 paramilitary troops are demobilized, but the United States, opposition leaders, and Human Rights groups, such as Amnesty International, criticize Uribe's bargaining strategy and amnesty. Critics also condemn the growing deficit due to the intensified military actions as well as the power of the paramilitary groups in the country. In December, the House of Representatives passed a constitutional reform allowing for presidents to be reelected.