Andres Pastrana

Andrés Pastrana Arango (Bogotá, August 17, 1954) is a Colombian lawyer, businessman, diplomat, journalist and politician, member and one of the historical figures of the Colombian Conservative Party. He was mayor of Bogotá, senator and president of Colombia between 1998 and 2002, he is remembered for the failed peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP).

During the preparations for the 1988 Colombian regional elections, Andrés Pastrana was kidnapped by 'Los Extraditables' of the Medellín Cartel, at the headquarters of his campaign for mayor of Bogotá in the La Soledad neighborhood. He was held in captivity between January 18 and 25 of that year when he was released, which allowed him to win the elections of the following March.

He served as President of the Republic between 1998 and 2002, being the 56th President of the Republic of Colombia. He is the son of Misael Pastrana Borrero, who was president of Colombia between 1970 and 1974.

In the 1998 presidential elections, he was elected president of the Republic of Colombia with 50.4% of the votes, defeating the liberal Horacio Serpa Uribe and immediately initiating peace talks with the guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -People's Army (FARC-EP), in the so-called "Dialogues in San Vicente del Caguan", which failed, parallel to the development and implementation of a military agreement with the United States government called "Plan Colombia" and the intensification of the internal armed conflict in Colombia. Under his government, counter-guerrilla military operations caused the forced displacement of more than a million people in four years, with cocaine production increasing 47% during this period.

He is currently a member of the Conservative Party. He is honorary president of Millionaires Football Club.

Biography

Andrés Pastrana Arango was born in Bogotá on August 17, 1954, into a conservative family of the Bogota elite.

He studied at Colegio San Carlos in Bogotá where he stood out as captain of the institution's soccer team, and later as president of the student council.

Political Activism

His political activity began during the presidency of his father Misael (Pastrana in 1973).

In 1970 his father was elected president of Colombia and Andrés became a young political activist through several works, the best known being the civic day known as Caminata Nacional de la Solidaridad which had the motto " Walk for those who cannot walk", which began to take place annually since 1974. During the walks, he became friends with great Colombian sports personalities such as Kid Pambelé.

In 1977, he graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, from which his father Misael also graduated, who commissioned him to direct the magazine Guión, founded by himself. He also studied international law at Harvard University. After returning to the country, he became a news anchor on TV Hoy, a newscast owned by his family.

Political and journalistic activity

When he was 30 years old, he was elected councilor of Bogotá for the period 1984-1986, alternating his position with his work as a journalist. His outstanding journalistic work earned him several awards, being awarded twice by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, who gave him two King of Spain International Journalism Awards, together with his partner, Gonzalo Guillén, one in 1985 and the other in 1987.

In 1985, he was elected head of the Conservative Party, thanks to the influence of his father, who was still a powerful political leader within that party. As a leader of conservatism, Pastrana supported the presidential candidacy of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, who faced off in the 1986 elections with the liberal businessman Virgilio Barco Vargas, and with the popular liberal dissident Luis Carlos Galán. In 1986 he handed over the leadership of the conservatism to his father Misael, who continued the Gómez campaign, being defeated by Barco.

Candidacy for mayor of Bogotá and kidnapping (1987-1988)

In 1986, a constitutional reform was approved that allowed Colombian citizens to elect their governors and mayors, for the first time in the country's history, since these positions were previously appointed by the governor of the department to which the city belonged in dispute, or by the president (who chose the governors). In 1987, Pastrana registered his candidacy to run for mayor of Bogotá in 1988.

On Monday, January 18, 1988, Pastrana was kidnapped by Los Extraditables belonging to Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel, when he was at his campaign headquarters. These, for a few years, had been trying to negotiate with the government to avoid being sent to the United States, to be tried, when that country requested it. Jhon Jairo Velásquez, alias Popeye, was in charge of organizing the kidnapping.

Andrés Pastrana worked as director of the news program Tv Hoy and was targeted for kidnapping by Pablo Escobar, thinking in terms of pressing for an end to extradition in Colombia (because his father was the visible head of conservatism in Colombia at that time). John Jairo Velásquez began to frequent Andrés Pastrana's campaign headquarters, posing as a leader from the Antioquia neighborhood that supported the candidate. He would go there several times to gain the confidence of the campaign headquarters workers.

On January 18, 1988, at around 7:30 p.m., 10 men who claimed to belong to the April 19 Movement (M-19) entered the headquarters. The ruse of using the M-19 as a front came at a time when, at that time, the guerrilla group was making approaches to start peace talks. Pastrana was locked in the trunk of a Renault 21 and transported to Sopó, Cundinamarca. Thinking that his captors were from the M-19, he asked to see Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, whom he claimed to know personally. The next day they informed him that he was in the hands of Los Extraditables.

He was sent in a Bell Ranger helicopter to rural Antioquia where he was guarded by Valentín Taborda and Carlos Bustamante, while the food was entrusted to Martha Veloza, wife of Jorge Restrepo, who was a figurehead for Popeye i> and looked after the El Retiro farm, owned by Pablo Escobar. The captivity lasted until January 25, the same day that the attorney general of the nation Carlos Mauro Hoyos was assassinated in the vicinity of where he was held captive and when the kidnappers intended to keep him and the attorney general captive in one place.

The mayor of El Retiro (Antioquia), seeing the excesses and waste of Jorge Restrepo in each trip to the town (15 million pesos he received from Pablo Escobar to support the kidnapped man), went with 6 policemen to the farm, intrigued by Mr. Restrepo's sudden fortune, thinking that he would have at least a cocaine processing laboratory or the kidnapped prosecutor.

When the police surround the place, Pastrana warns of his identity being pointed at by his captors and after being cornered the kidnappers they ask for a hostage to be able to get out alive and avoid reprisals, Roberto de Jesús Zapata, one of the policemen, exchanges with the kidnapped, said police officer would be released later. In this way, Pastrana was released and his release ensured his popularity for the mayoral elections.

Years later, Pastrana recounted that his kidnapping occurred because he was a potentially dangerous presidential candidate for the interests of the drug traffickers and the politicians allied to them, such as Alberto Santofimio, wanted to kill him. His captor told him that Escobar was interested in keeping him alive instead of giving the order to assassinate him, since his importance allowed him to lobby against the extradition treaty. Pastrana also said that he had spoken with Escobar personally during his kidnapping, being even knowing of the kidnapping of the prosecutor Hoyos.

Mayor of Bogota (1988-1990)

Pastrana returned to his campaign with the support of the press and became a popular and charismatic candidate, and was elected mayor of Bogotá with 400,000 votes. His father, however, and according to his own words, did not participate in the campaign, since he considered that his chances of success were few (María Eugenia Rojas led him in the polls and in his own party for Diego Pardo Koppel), which generated the rumor that the kidnapping of his son was a ploy to position the campaign of Pastrana.

Garbage problem

Days after taking office, in March of that year, Pastrana acquired the Mondoñedo property, which was the beginning of a long list of controversies during his tenure. At that time, garbage was a serious problem for the city, and after the collapse of the garbage collection system, Pastrana built the Doña Juana Landfill, inaugurated in November 1988, which has become famous for its multiple collapses. over time. To give a definitive solution to the problem, he privatized the garbage collection service, which despite being one of his campaign promises, is now considered a negative fact, since his detractors consider that he turned this public service into a business. because it put the company that controlled the sector in competition with two others, which together came to collect 40% of the city's garbage. However, there are also several voices that consider that this fact provided a solution to this problem that afflicted the city strongly.

Unfinished and delivered works

Caracas Avenue with 41st Street today.

In 1989 he tried unsuccessfully to start the works for the construction of the Bogotá Metro, work that had been in progress since the then mayor of the city, Carlos Sanz de Santamaría, proposed it in 1942. Pastrana negotiated with an Italian company the work, but it was discarded, according to the local government, due to the lack of resources to finance the project. This initiative and other works that it did carry out left the city with a 300% external debt, and yet Pastrana affirmed that he achieved reduce it during his tenure. He built the trunk of Caracas avenue; in which exclusive lanes for buses with demarcated stops and signage were created and until the end of the 1990s when bus drivers because of the penny war caused multiple accidents and several stops became sources of insecurity, for which the Troncal was later replaced by the current Transmilenio public transport system.

The bridge on Calle 92 that connects Carrera 30 with the Autopista Norte that due to its poor design caused several accidents, including the one that caused the death of journalist and businessman Thomas Quinn of RTI Colombia and his wife. Due to its structural weakness, the bridge collapsed twice until it was demolished and completely rebuilt during the administration of Enrique Peñalosa.

Avenida Suba that split the Humedal de Córdoba in two, the avenue was modernized and restored for phase II of Transmilenio. The Guavio reservoir.

Positive aspects

Despite all the setbacks of his short government, Pastrana dedicated his efforts to combat drug use in the city, partnering with the Colombian Catholic Church, especially with the priest Rafael García Herreros, NGOs and counterparts from other cities in the country and the world, despite the fact that drug trafficking continued to be a threat to the country, and especially to the city. Together with his wife, he promoted cultural and sports activities for youth and children in the city, with the "Recreational Vacations" program for the school break period, and recovered the "Glass of milk and mogolla" (a type of bread typical of the country), with which he sought to combat malnutrition of low-income children, and which, curiously, was implemented for the first time during the government of his father and headed by his mother.

In 1989, the headquarters of El Espectador was bombarded by the Cartel de Medellín, along with other attacks and crimes that shook the city between 1989 and 1990.

Between September 17 and 18, 1988, he supported the initiative of the musical entrepreneurs Felipe Santos Calderón, Armín Torres and Julio Correal to organize a musical event to promote the wave of rock in Spanish, and which sought to discourage drug use through music; The event, called Bogotá in Harmony Concert was known to posterity as The Concert of Concerts, taking place at the El Campín Stadium, despite the refusal of athletes and journalists of the time. The event is considered by experts and fans as one of the most important in the country, and the one that gave Colombian businessmen the confidence to invest in Bogotá, and for more massive events of that level. His government was described by the press and by government experts as good management of public resources and good results in terms of security and public order, with programs such as & # 34; The Good Neighbor & # 34; and the strengthening of the CAI. Despite the fact that in 1988 Álvaro Gómez was kidnapped by the M-19, in 1989 several politicians, journalists, police officers and soldiers were murdered and that the headquarters of the DAS and El Espectador were bombed, and that in 1990 the presidential candidates Carlos Pizarro and Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa were assassinated in the city.

Senator of the Republic (1991-1994)

In 1991, after the change in the Constitution of 1886, (in which his father participated), and the new Political Charter of July 4, 1991 was proclaimed, Pastrana was elected senator as head of the list of the New Democratic Force, a supra-partisan movement that he created as a split from the Conservative Party, which his father still controlled.

Despite the fact that the Congress in Colombia is commonly elected for 4 years, the repeal of the constitution achieved that all current regulations were also abolished, including the congress itself. In Congress, Pastrana surrounded himself with young conservatives who would later become his political allies and protégés ː Claudia Blum, Efraín Cepeda, among others. In 1993, Pastrana resigned from his seat to seek the presidency of Colombia, during the 1994 elections.

First presidential candidacy (1994)

Three days after the second electoral round of 1994 for the period from 1994 to 1998, then President César Gaviria Trujillo and Defense Minister Rafael Pardo Rueda received some cassettes from Andrés Pastrana Arango (hereinafter known as the narco-cassettes) that Lieutenant Colonel Barragán de la Dijin had given him the day before. President Gaviria sent the cassettes to the then Attorney General of the Nation Gustavo de Greiff who confirmed their origin and informed the president, but refrained from opening an investigation (his daughter Mónica de Greiff was treasurer of Samper's campaign). Pastrana was never notified of the content of the narco-cassettes and arrived at the elections unaware of this infiltration of drug trafficking in his opponent's campaign, until four days before the second round.

Subsequently, the successor to the attorney general, Alfonso Valdivieso, released them to public opinion on June 20, 1995. That day, the audio cassettes were released in which the journalist Alberto Giraldo spoke with the brothers Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela (heads of the Cali cartel) about money to support Ernesto Samper's campaign. On Monday, February 27, 1996, the Committee on Accusations of the House of Representatives decided to open a formal investigation against President Ernesto Samper. The 15 members of the commission, after evaluating the evidence provided by prosecutor Alfonso Valdivieso, considered that there were grounds for opening a criminal investigation against President Samper.

On July 6, 1996, through the figure of estoppel, the case of Ernesto Samper was archived and thus moved to res judicata in the plenary session of the Chamber by 111 votes in favor and 43 against. Which means that Samper was found neither innocent nor guilty, but with this he closed the possibility of any other trial.

According to former President César Gaviria, much of Pastrana's presidential campaign was financed by the Cali cartel.

Second Presidential Candidacy (1998)

After four years of opposition to then-president Samper, Pastrana faced senator and former Mines Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo for the conservative candidacy, whom he defeated. In the second round of the Presidential Elections, in June 1998, he was elected president with 51% of the votes, after defeating the liberal candidate Horacio Serpa Uribe.

During his campaign for the presidency Pastrana advanced talks with the FARC-EP guerrillas and promised a peace dialogue if he were elected, Pastrana took a photo with the guerrilla Manuel Marulanda in which he was wearing a watch symbol of the Pastrana campaign. Once elected, Pastrana immediately began a dialogue process with the guerrillas. As a candidate, Pastrana had offered the guerrillas a demilitarized zone, in the municipalities of La Uribe, Mesetas, La Macarena and Vista Hermosa (Meta), and in San Vicente del Caguan (Caquetá), to carry out the talks there.

President of Colombia (1998-2002)

Fragment of the presidential portrait of Pastrana, located in the presidential gallery of the University of Rosario, Bogortá.

Pastrana and William Cohen, 1998.

The government of Andrés Pastrana began on August 7, 1998 and ended on August 7, 2002. Its predecessor was the government of Ernesto Samper and its successor was the government of Álvaro Uribe.

Ministerial Cabinet

Security and internal armed conflict

Andrés Pastrana receiving a visit from President Bill Clinton. Cartagena de Indias (2000).

At this point in the armed conflict, which can be called the war for coca between guerrillas and paramilitaries, President Andrés Pastrana Arango attempted a peace negotiation with the FARC-EP and as a guarantee for the guerrilla negotiators, cleared Public Force (Military Forces and National Police), four municipalities in Meta and one in Caquetá, in the Caguán River region, since November 7, 1998. Peace talks, with the participation of civil society organizations in roundtables Thematic discussion failed due to an excess of negotiation issues and a lack of government negotiating strategy, since a broad agenda of 110-point issues was agreed upon, which included all the institutions and political, social, and economic problems of the country.

The 42,000 km² demilitarized area was known as a demilitarized zone, which was originally supposed to last six months. After a controversial extension of its validity and various events such as kidnappings, murders and reports of illegal activities in the demilitarized zone, on February 20, 2002, after almost four years of existence of the demilitarized zone and a few months after When his term ended, Pastrana informed the country that the process had failed and that the demilitarized zone was effectively cancelled, arguing that Manuel Marulanda had assaulted him in good faith. The president gave the guerrillas until midnight to leave the area.

Pastrana and Donal Rumsfeld, 2001.

Parallel to the negotiation with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), President Pastrana sealed a renewed military alliance with the Clinton government of the United States in 1999, known as Plan Colombia., which committed resources from the two governments to strengthen the Military Forces and justice in their fight against the guerrillas and drug trafficking. This military alliance also implied the subordination of the internal security strategy to the foreign policy interests of Washington and, especially, to the lobbying of the large private contractors of security services in the United States, such as Dynamics Corporation, beneficiary of the aerial fumigation contracts. illicit crops, sponsored by Representative Benjamin Gilman, who was chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee for many years.

An amendment specified the second function of the plan: to encourage foreign investment "insisting that the Colombian government complete urgent reforms aimed at fully opening its economy to investment and foreign trade".

Under Plan Colombia, for example, the National Army was linked to the fight against drugs, considering it a threat to national security. As had happened with the previous negotiation process of the government of Belisario Betancur that began in 1983, the military opposition to Andrés Pastrana's negotiation became explicit on various occasions, up to the resignation of Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda Caicedo, when he raised his disagreement with Peace Commissioner Víctor G. Ricardo regarding the lack of rules and conditions for the guerrillas in the Caguan demilitarized zone. Likewise, this opposition of the military forces was expressed in the condescension with the paramilitary groups of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), in full expansion with massacres and territorial attack and that under the command of Carlos Castaño assumed the leadership of the opposition of regional societies to negotiations with the FARC-EP and the ELN.

On December 15, 2008, the extradited paramilitary chief alias Jorge 40 told the criminal chamber of the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice that the then commanders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the Castaño brothers (Carlos and Vicente), had interfered in the 1998 elections. Castaño's orders were to force voters to vote for Horacio Serpa Uribe, but in the second round a turn was made and all voters, including Liberals, were ordered to vote by the conservative candidate Andrés Pastrana Arango. The change would have occurred because Pastrana's emissaries would have spoken with the AUC commanders to commit to ensuring that once the peace process with the FARC-EP guerrillas had advanced, the Pastrana government would advance talks with the self-defense groups.

Judgment of the Hague on San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina

Following the ruling issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on December 19, 2012, which delimited the border in the Caribbean Sea between Nicaragua and Colombia, and where the latter lost a considerable maritime area, the sparked a strong national controversy over the political and legal responsibility that would correspond to the intervening governments, in which the Government of President Juan Manuel Santos pointed out that his government had no responsibility and that it would fall on the government's reaction of Andrés Pastrana Arango in response to the lawsuit filed by Nicaragua in 2001, since they consider that said government should have withdrawn from the Pact of Bogotá as a precautionary measure and yet, despite presumed recommendations received even from its former foreign minister, it would have chosen to follow the process ahead, which ultimately ended up leading to the adverse ruling.

However, the former president defended himself against such accusations, pointing out that it was a way of avoiding the responsibility that corresponded to the Santos government regarding the ruling, to which the Government of the President of the Republic of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, initially indicated that the reserved minutes of the Foreign Relations Advisory Commission would be made public, which would demonstrate that his government would not be responsible, with which the strong discussion escalated, since former president Andrés Pastrana withdrew from the Commission Foreign Relations Advisor in protest and strongly criticized such announcement, before which the Santos government desisted from making the minutes public, however the confrontation continued, and former President Pastrana counterpointed with grievances against some Santos government policies, such as the negotiation process with the FARC-EP and against the Minister of the Interior Fernando Carrillo, whom he described as "Pablo Escobar's waiter", to which the official responded that the disqualification was a way of avoiding the discussion of the responsibility for the Hague ruling that would correspond to it; To date the debate remains active, without defining or clarifying whether there is any type of responsibility for the way in which said judicial process was attended by any government(s).).

Post-presidency

Pastrana after leaving office

He finished his presidential term and a short time later he established his residence in Spain. After residing there for two years, he returned to the country in 2004, to face the re-election attempts of his successor, Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

In mid-2005, he launched his book La Palabra Bajo Fuego, edited by Editorial Planeta Colombiana, with a foreword by former US President Bill Clinton, in which he collects his memories of the peace process with the guerrillas, the relaunch of international relations and the strengthening of the Armed Forces during his four-year term. A few weeks later, in an unexpected twist, and after several months of opposition, he accepted the post of Colombian ambassador to the United States, replacing of Luis Alberto Moreno after former President Julio César Turbay presented him as the most suitable person for said embassy.

In September 2007, Pastrana was once again critical of the Uribe government and sparked controversy by harshly questioning various policies and processes that had been carried out during that administration, such as the paramilitary demobilization process; He said that there is a secret pact with the paramilitaries and that the successes of the Álvaro Uribe administration's democratic security policy were due in large part to his government, and criticized the way in which Uribe allowed the participation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the issue of the humanitarian agreement.

In November 2013, he published the book Forgotten Memories through the Debate publishing house, which contains his insights into the Cali Cartel's financing of the campaign of his predecessor Ernesto Samper in the Presidency of the Republic and with indications that the Government of César Gaviria Trujillo had knowledge of these facts at least six months before the 1994 election.

He also launched his Presidential Library on the web, with documents, images and videos of his political and personal career, Colombia being a pioneer of this type, according to him this will contribute to the Historical Memory of the country.

Pastrana at dinner

In January 2015, he traveled to Venezuela, and together with Sebastián Piñera, tried to visit opposition politicians imprisoned on charges of sedition before the courts and awaiting trial, which was prevented by the government of Nicolás Maduro. Two months later, he accepted the offer of President Juan Manuel Santos to join the Advisory Commission for Peace. He is a member of the Club de Madrid.

Pastrana in Caracas, 2009

In the same year he was elected President of the International Democratic Center (IDC) representing Colombia and the Colombian Conservative Party. He currently holds the position and is also Vice-President of the Executive Committee of this organization, which is considered the most important international Center-right association in the world and stands out for the defense of democracy and Christian humanism through the group of various political parties around the world.

In August 2016, he announced his support for the NO in the Plebiscite to endorse the Agreements between the Santos government and the FARC-EP, supporting the positions and criticism of Álvaro Uribe Vélez against President Juan Manuel Santos, the FARC-EP and the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro. He now maintains a distant and hostile relationship with his own party, deeming the Conservative Party "absolutely corrupt." He also described as "corrupt" two of the most important conservative leaders, Efraín Cepeda and Hernán Andrade.

In March 2018, he was granted Spanish nationality for the reason that he has always favored bilateral relations with Spain.

In 2018, he was one of the great leaders of the candidacy of Marta Lucía Ramírez for the presidency, through the Great Consultation for Colombia belonging to the Strong and Honest Colombia Movement, later won the candidate of the Democratic Center whom he declared his support, and Ramírez was named vice-presidential ticket.

In 2019, his Conservative Party was criticized with strong criticism in his speech at the commemoration ceremony of his 170 years. He said that the Conservative Party had become a "languid troupe that goes to the Presidential Palace with totuma in hand, offering its principles in exchange for a few crumbs of bureaucracy," referring to the Santos period.

He is a signatory to the Madrid Charter launched in 2020 by the Spanish Vox party to unite the radical right in Spain and Latin America against "narco-communism, the left and organized crime".

Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and alleged trip on the "Lolita Express"

Mugshot of Epstein, 2006

In August 2019, a flight manifest was revealed showing that, in March 2003, Pastrana traveled to Nassau in the private jet of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier convicted of child sex trafficking. things to take friends and associates of Epstein to his private island in the US Virgin Islands, where they held orgies with minors enslaved by the international sex trafficking network that the American led; for this reason, locals referred to the plane as the 'Lolita Express'.

Pastrana assured that the trip in question had the sole objective of visiting Cuban President Fidel Castro, however, there are indications that contradict this version. On the one hand, there is no record of any flight to Havana in the shipping manifest, nor is there any evidence of public events in Cuba involving Pastrana or other meetings between Pastrana and Castro; In addition, according to the records, one of the passengers who was on the flight with Pastrana was Jean Luc Brunel, who was allegedly Epstein's main partner in his sex trafficking network.

A Miami Herald article suggested at the time that the trip may have been made in order to seek political asylum for Epstein, where Pastrana would have served as a link between Epstein and Fidel Castro. However, there appears to be no evidence whatsoever. for this theory and the only source indicating the trip to Cuba was a public statement by Pastrana himself. A video taken of Epstein's home in 2005 during a raid on his home appears to show a photograph of Epstein with Castro, which has been taken by some media outlets as evidence of the meeting. Authorities reportedly did not file the photo as evidence during the procedure, for which there is no confirmation of its precise content or its origin. No media outlet appears to have any knowledge of the whereabouts of the photo.^{[citation needed]}

Because of this episode, Pastrana has received accusations of pedophilia from multiple people, including a Colombian legislator; the legislator in question was forced to retract following legal action against him by Pastrana. At this time, no relevant authority has opened an investigation into Pastrana's relationship with Epstein. Therefore, not much is known about the nature of their relationship, including the possibility that Pastrana had knowledge of the sexual exploitation network, or even no evidence that he had participated in illegal activities during the trip-as has been claimed. accused. In June 2020, members of the Anonymous hacker collective released a document they claimed was Epstein's contact book of pedophile ring participants; among the contacts that appear is that of Andrés Pastrana. There has been no official confirmation of the veracity of this document.^{[citation needed]}

Accusations of links to drug trafficking

Former President César Gaviria claimed in 2013 that Andrés Pastrana had received funding from the Cali cartel for his 1994 presidential campaign.

Pandora's Papers

In October 2021, his name appears in the Pandora Papers as the owner of a company located in Panama, a country considered a tax haven, for which the former president presented the pertinent documentation of his companies in good order to the Colombian prosecutor's office through which it makes investments in Colombia.

Family

His father, Misael Pastrana, elected president of Colombia in 1970.

He is the second of four children of Misael Pastrana Borrero, president of Colombia between 1970 and 1974, and his wife María Cristina Arango, daughter of the liberal politician Carlos Arango Vélez, who was a dissident candidate for the Liberal Party, (the candidate party official was Alfonso López Pumarejo), to the presidency of Colombia in the Presidential Elections of 1942.

Her great-great-grandmother Clementina Portocarrero Caicedo was the great-niece of former Colombian President Domingo Caicedo y Sanz de Santamaría as well as the hero of Independence Jorge Tadeo Lozano.

His older brother Juan Carlos Pastrana is a journalist and was director of the newspaper La Prensa, also from his family. By collateral route Andrés Pastrana is brother-in-law of the sister of Senator Paloma Valencia, since Cayetana Valencia is the wife of his brother Juan Carlos.

Andrés has been married since 1981 to the journalist Nohra Puyana, daughter of the beer industrialist Eduardo Puyana. He has three children.