Uribe's Colombia: research analyzes political change during his term and his bequest

An opportunity to help understand a core topic period core topic the history of Colombia and the region. This is how historian Juan Diego Molina, researcher group , Creativity and Culture'group at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra, defines his thesis dedicated to Álvaro Uribe's two terms in office. The politician from Antioquia, a member of the Democratic Center party, presided over Colombia between 2002 and 2010, a turbulent and exciting period in the history of the South American country. graduate work graduate Political graduate in Colombia during the Álvaro Uribe Administration (2002-2010), work supervised by Pablo Pérez López, Full Professor Contemporary History and director of the ICS.

"Uribe's two terms in office brought about a substantial change in the way politics was conducted in Colombia, transforming a highly traditional system that in the last years of the 20th century had proved incapable of offering real solutions to the violence," explains Molina. In this regard, he points out that "his proposal deal with guerrillas, paramilitary groups, and drug traffickers was radical and, without abandoning the agreed-upon solution, he never ruled out military action to achieve his objectives." He also recalls that foreign support, especially from the United States, was one of the cornerstones of this period: "There was a very close relationship with Washington under the George Bush administration. The two presidents had a staff good staff relationship, which led to extensive cooperation between the two countries. For example, to combat drug trafficking, one of Colombia's most serious problems."

Along with the Democratic Defense and Security Policy (PDSD), trade and investment attraction policy and social policy constitute the three main pillars of the Uribe era. For example, during his term in office, negotiations took place to achieve a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, which came into force in 2012, with Juan Manuel Santos and Barack Obama as presidents.

Historical sources

Unlike other programs of study the Uribe administration, which have been conducted from a legal, political science, or economic perspective, Molina draws on available historical sources, some of which were inaccessible until the time of the research. "It has been 23 years since Uribe was elected president, and only 15 years have passed since he left office. But there are political processes that we can already see where they were headed, and we can make an assessment the sources. And this is one of the interesting aspects of this work, worknotes the researcher. Among the documents consulted are the archives of the Presidency up to 2008, kept at the Casa de Nariño.

He was also able to access essential information about the relationship between Colombia and the United States thanks to the Digital National Security Archive, run by George Washington University. Through this service, he was able to access diplomatic cables from the Embassy in Bogotá, follow-up reports on Plan Colombia for the fight against drug trafficking, and even executive reports from meetings of senior government officials.

FARC mail

The study of the activities of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) was another key aspect of research , who managed to access the emails of guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes. These were found on computers seized during Operation Phoenix in 2008. After analyzing and processing this information, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London published a book that included a CD with these emails. However, this material was soon taken out of circulation. Molina searched tirelessly until he found it on eBay and was able to access its contents.

The result a study that brings together a wide variety of sources, from diplomatic cables and presidential speeches to news reports: "The dialogue between the sources provides a broader picture of what happened during those years in Colombia and Latin America." The author also emphasizes that "Uribe is a contemporary of presidents such as Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Lula da Silva, the Kirchners, Rafael Correa, and Daniel Ortega, known as the leftist shift or pink tide in Latin America. And Uribe was the only politician of a different political persuasion. In these pages, we also find a sort of history of the genesis of 21st-century Latin American socialism."