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.
During his father's rule, he was a student with a reputation as a sensitive hippy. After obtaining a postgraduate in the USA. On his return he founded a magazine called Guión and a television station called Noticiero TV Hoy. As a regular presenter he became a nationally known figure. In 1982 he 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 18 January 1988 in Antioquia by the Medellin drug cartel in order to stop the Colombian government allowing Pablo Escobar to be extradited to the USA. He was found by the police a week later. The same 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. While this accusation saw a parliamentary investigation Pastrana retired into his private life. In 1998 he announced his intention to run for President. This time he won.
His presidency is remembered first for his negotiations with the two left-wing guerrilla groups FARC and ELN, 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 accusations of corruption. Some critics accused him of accepting bribes from leading FARC and ELN members, but no concrete and specific evidence of that was presented during his presidency. His administration proposed and initially oversaw the implementation of the controversial Plan Colombia anti-drug strategy.
After President Álvaro Uribe Vélez took office, financial files of President Pastrana's Goverment 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.
