CURRICULUM VITAE
Álvaro Uribe was born in Medellin,
the capital of the department of Antioquia on July 4th, 1952.
He has been married to Lina Moreno, a philosopher, for 22 years.
They have two children, Tomás and Jerónimo.
He graduated from High School in 1970 at the Jorge Robledo Institute
in Medellin, where he was exempted from final exams during the
last two years for his excellent academic record and was declared
as the best High School graduate. Renowned psychiatrist Mauricio
Fernández Arcila and mathematician Debora Tejada, were
among his classmates.
In 1977, after having finished law school as an honor student
for the most part of his career, he got his degree in Law and
Political Science from the Universidad de Antioquia.
In 1993, he got a degree in Administration and Management, as
well as in Conflict Negotiation from Harvard University.
In 1998 he was awarded the Simón Bolivar fellowship by
the British Council and named Senior Associate Member at Saint
Anthony's College at Oxford University.
ACHIEVEMENTS
HEAD of the Real Estate Department of Medellín's
Public Works, where he was in charge of the acquisition of the
properties needed to build the El Peñol dam as well as
of the relocation of the population of El Peñol.
GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE LABOR MINISTRY under President Alfonso
Lopez Michelsen and for Labor Ministers Oscar Montoya and Juan
Gonzalo Restrepo, time during which he pushed through in Congress
the Decree numbered 1468 of 1978, on labor union liberties.
DIRECTOR OF CIVIL AERONAUTICS under President Julio Cesar Turbay,
with the following achievements:
- He hired and oversaw the construction of 60% of Rionegro's
Jose Maria Córdoba airport which cost 30 million dollars
in a negotiation which for the first time was
- supervised by the local community under the direction of Medellín's
Chamber of Commerce.
- He was responsible for finishing the construction of the Barranquilla
airport building.
- He devised the closing steps for the Development Plan for Cartagena's
airport.
- Was responsible for the construction of Avianca airline's terminal.
The airline took charge of its administration.
- Decentralized the administration of the Cali and Medellín
airports in agreement with both cities' Chambers of Commerce.
- Ordered important investments towards improving the airports
of some of the country's cities and faraway regions, such as night
operations in the Bucaramanga and Cúcuta airports and jet
operations in those of Valledupar and Arauca.
- Wrote and put into effect Decree 2303 under which the operation
of all runways in the country must be approved by the military
and drug enforcement agencies.
- He gave a boost to regional air operations. Aces airline aircraft
went from 6 airplanes to 19. And Aires, a new regional airline
which serves the departments of Tolima and Huila was created.
- He hired and oversaw the design for Bogotá's Eldorado
airport second runway as well as the updating of the airport's
passenger terminal.
- He privatized the operation designed to collect airport and
exit taxes. Evasion and corruption went down and the tax provision
went from $ 2.184 million pesos to $ 4.600 million in a year as
a direct consequence of this measure.
- He acquired specialized aircraft to monitor radio signals
AS MAYOR OF MEDELLIN: under President
Belisario Betancur
Started city companies such as "Metroseguridad" and
"Metromezclas"
Completed the studies and obtained the needed nation's funds for
the Medellín metro system.
Closed down the old city dump and got private contractors for
the new sanitary refill at Curva de Rodas
Designed the plans for urban renewal of the Moravia sector in
the surroundings of the old city dump
Got the central government's approval for improvement plans in
the underprivileged sectors of Medellin called "comunas" looking to create job opportunities and a better quality of life
Jump-started the so-called Intermediate Health Units
Created civic organizations for joint work with the town's administration,
one of which carried out the city's tree-planting program
Suppressed bureaucracy
PARLIAMENTARY WORK: As part of his
work as a senator, he presided over the
Senate's Seventh Committee which put through the following laws:
Law 11/1988 by which housemaid work was included in the national
health insurance
System.
Law 71/1988 or the so-called " Reforma Pensional" (
a revision of the country's retirement plans)
Law79/ 1988 An update of the cooperative banking system
Law 16/ 1990 Democratic funding of soccer clubs
Law 40/1990 Protection and development of "panela" (
raw sugar) production
Law 91/1990 Jumpstarted the national Teacher's Work Benefits Fund
Law 50/ 1990 or Labor Reform Law
Law 100/ 1993 Social Security System
Law 82/ 1993 Protection for women heads of one-parent families
Awards for senatorial service:
- "Star Senator" in 1990
- One of 5 best senators in 1992
- Elected "Senator with the Best Projects" in 1992 by
the media and his fellow congressmen.
- Best Senator of 1993
AS GOVERNOR OF ANTIOQUIA (1995-1997)
As the department of Antioquia's governor
his goals were a reduction of public spending, putting an end
to politicking, placing strict controls over the department's
public funds, encouraging savings and generating more investment
funds on behalf of the community.
He scaled down bureaucracy in Antioquia while strengthening the
state. On January 2nd 1995 there were 14.061 government jobs,
by December 1997 the number had gone down to 5, 499.
This reduction notwithstanding, he confirmed in their jobs, 348
women heads of single parent families and 70 pre-retirement age
and 45 handicapped people received special benefits.
In 1995, the department's government office had 409 cars whose
maintenance cost the nation 12.432 million pesos a year. After
the reform the number of official cars was set at 149 which meant
earnings for 7.320 million pesos. A sum which went into paving
the Fredonia-Puente Iglesias highway with left-over funds to spare.
In 1994 official spending on office supplies was 10.000 million
pesos. In 1995, it had gone down to 7.191 millions, in 1996 to
2.461 million pesos and in 1997 to 1.580 million. Total savings
in office supply spending between 1995 and 1997, was 8.420 million
pesos.
Savings in other areas such as fuel, insurance, travel allowance,
maintenance and security reached 2.778 million pesos.
IN EDUCATION
As governor of Antioquia, Alvaro Uribe
created 102.161 new openings in primary and secondary schools,
16.000 of which were used by students in rural areas who benefited
from the SAT, "Sistema de Apendizaje Tutorial" ( Tutorial
Learning System) and created 3.500 new jobs as well.
Alvaro Uribe created 13.180 new openings in higher education
as well as 62 in the fields of high technology and craftsmanship.
In conjunction with several savings banks he brought credit to
46 municipalities. In 1997, 58,317 people had savings for $22.022
millions and credit for 26,835 millions.
The department of Antioquia which up till then had 49,956 telephone
lines, got 85,648 additional ones during the Uribe administration.
And now the whole of the department's municipalities have digital
plants and 80 among them, have Internet connections.
HEALTH SERVICES
The poorest sector of the department,
some million 20,000 people, were included in the national subsidized
health insurance system. The so-called "Servicio Seccional
de Salud" (local health services) became the country's most
efficient and won the race for productivity.
The Uribe administration eliminated 1,355 bureaucratic jobs.
By December 1997, the department had only 342 public workers and
the number of official vehicles went down from 51 to 3, such savings
were later used for investments in the health sector.
ROADS
The number of paved roads during the Uribe
administration was the highest in the history of the department.
Paved roads went from 305 kilometers to 939 in only three years.
AGRICULTURE
During his three-year tenure, Governor
Uribe greatly boosted agriculture by creating 22 community sugar
cane mills, 6 fish breeding farms and 40 community tanks.
In order to stimulate the production of rubber, the Agriculture
Department planted 170 hectares in the town of Tarazá and
70 more in the town of Mutatá.
The Uribe administration also greatly boosted farmer associations
as well as storage centers. Six dairy centers were built and five
more were updated. Plus encouraging the building of 11 storage
centers for different products. An additional thirty-eight farmer
groups received production and marketing support for their products.
As governor, Uribe urged the cattle farmers of the regions of
Urabá and Magdalena Medio to rent 10% of their land to
farmer community groups for cultivation and as a way to create
jobs. In an act of reconciliation, they agreed to giving 650 hectares
in Urabá and 900 in Magdalena Medio. The Agriculture Department
gave the farmers the necessary technical assistance.
HOUSING
The Uribe administration also gave technical
assistance to low-cost housing projects in the department. One-hundred
five projects in 74 municipalities which meant 3,463 new houses
were given technical assistance and 17, 315 people got new homes.
An additional 21 such projects in an equal number of municipalities
benefited 4.272 people.
INDIGENOUS GROUPS
The department's different indigenous groups
were given special attention during Uribe's three-year tenure.
Governor Uribe created the "Consejería Indigena" (Indian Council) which was especially designed to contribute to
the well-being of several indigenous groups. A 3.000 million peso
investment was made in the acquisition of land and land reform
projects on their behalf plus health benefits for 14,000 of their
members.
One of the Uribe administration's flagship programs was the Juvenile
Music Bands Program for the department's youth. A young people's
musical band was created in each of the department's municipality
and 20,000 young people were enrolled in what was deemed to be
a program to keep them away from violence.
PEACEFUL NEGOTIATION OF CONFLICTS
This program's initial goal was to train
40.000 people in Harvard University's professor Roger Fisher's
program. But by 1997, 82,756 people had received training and
most of them were in turn, to become the program's instructors.