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.

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).

[7] 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).

[18] 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.

[19] 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.

[20] 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.

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.

[18][19][21] 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.

[21] 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.

[21] 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.

By this point, the National Liberation Army (ELN), a leftist insurgent group, was almost entirely defeated,[18] the FARC was weakened and limited to smaller territory outside of urban areas.

[18] Carlos Gaviria Díaz was a Harvard educated lawyer and professor of 30 years from University of Antioquia, where he earned his doctorate, a senator from 2002-2006 and the first president of the Constitutional Court.

[24] As senator and throughout the campaign, Gaviria promoted redistribution policies that lead to more material equality, and fairer treatment of marginalized groups such as LGBT, indigenous, female, and Afro-Colombians.

Gaviria unapologetically called himself a pure liberal and claimed he will not change his positions of negotiating peace with the FARC as well as decriminalizing abortion, gay marriage, and possession of a personal dose of drugs.

Not supporting the FTA because he claimed it benefits United States interests over Colombia (for example by allowing US subsidies of agricultural products) and hurt the Colombian education and health sectors of the economy, Gaviria instead focused his economic ideas on developing national industry by supporting Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), cooperatives and community groups, and developing the internal market.

Despite a movement of academics and journalists against him, he won the first round, though lost the second to conservative Andres Pastrana, a candidate many in the liberal party supported to distance themselves from the previous scandal.

He claimed that the figures stating the number of reintegrated paramilitary officers are exaggerated and promised if the economic conditions continue to improve he would double the minimum wage by the end of his term.

[22] Having earned a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy and been Lector of the National University, Antanas Mockus Sivickas became mayor of Bogotá, for two nonconsecutive terms.

Mockus is notable for privatizing the Telecommunications Company of Bogotá, prohibiting the use of gunpowder, and repeatedly working to change the culture through symbolic acts.

[30] As mayor, he gained much notoriety and publicity for the symbolic acts he took to change society and behavior, such as making a commercial of him taking a shower and turning off the water when using soap during a drought.

He argued that taxes could distribute wealth more fairly, that the state should be present in all territories and help ensure compliance and respect for the law as well as be able to function in providing necessary services.

[citation needed] Major subjects debated during the election included the extradition and demilitarization of private military groups, drugs and crime, corruption, refugees, the economy, and the reelection itself.

The campaign for reelection was marked by scandal when in October, 2005 members of the Constitutional Court publicly accused each other of accepting bribes to vote in Uribe's favor.

Human rights groups pressured the government that year, cautioning that the process of demilitarization would come to an end if promises about extradition and other issues were not upheld.

Opponents say that they are not required to collaborate with the government or tell the full truth to get the light sentence, proponents countered with the fact that the law does not apply to drug-related offenders.

Preliminary peace meetings were successfully negotiated with the ELN, but none with the FARC, who wanted to swap prisoners for hostages, regularly extort payments from businesses, and are involved with drug trafficking.

[42] The continuation of Uribe's Democratic Security policy led to further movement against the ELN and the FARC, including new anti-terrorist and anti-drug trafficking laws, increasing the power of the police.

In November 2006, a document was discovered connecting various members of Uribe's coalition ("uribistas") and the paramilitary group AUC, involving negotiations for votes and support.

[44] The resulting Colombian Parapolitics Scandal led to the investigation and arrest of many members of congress, including the former senator and cousin to the president (at the time) Mario Uribe.

The first vote took place during Uribe's first presidential term (involving the bribing of Congresswoman Yidis Medina), allowing him to be the first of Colombia's presidents in more than 100 years to run for re-election.