Álvaro Araújo Castro
| Álvaro Araújo Castro | |
|---|---|
| Senator of Colombia | |
|
In office 17 February 2005 – 7 May 2007 |
|
|
In office 20 July 2002 – 17 August 2004 |
|
| Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia | |
|
In office 20 July 1994 – 20 July 2001 |
|
| Constituency | Cesar Department |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
7 November 1967 Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia |
| Nationality | Colombian |
| Political party | Team Colombia |
| Other political affiliations |
Alternative for Social Advance Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Sandra Estevao |
| Relations |
María Consuelo Araújo Castro (sister) Consuelo Araújo Noguera (aunt) Hernando Molina Araújo (cousin) |
| Alma mater | Universidad Externado de Colombia |
| Profession | Economist |
Álvaro Araújo Castro (born 7 November 1967) is a Colombian economist and former actor and Senator of Colombia. A Liberal politician, and leader of the ALAS-Team Colombia political movement, he was arrested and jailed in 2007 for participating in parapolitics. Prior to serving in the Senate, he was also a Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia from 1994 to 2001.
After graduating as Economist from the Externado University in Bogotá, 27-year-old Araújo ran for the Chamber of Representatives, representing the Liberal Party and was elected. Two years later, along with his father, he founded a dissident political movement called Alternative for Social Advance (ALAS). After his second term in the Chamber, he ran for the Senate receiving more than half of his votes from the department of Cesar and Bogotá, where he got the highest vote for someone from the Caribbean Region. His movement supported Álvaro Uribe for the Presidency of Colombia.
The voter turnout in the Cesar raised suspicion, because of the influence of paramilitary forces in the area. In May 2005, Semana published an article revealing a possible plan by paramilitary forces to influence elections. The Department of Cesar was divided into two zones, the G-8, formed by 8 municipalities in central Cesar Department where revenues from mining industry are high, and in which Senator Mauricio Pimiento and Representative Jorge Enrique Ramírez got most of their votes, and the G-11, formed mostly by southern municipalities where Representative Miguel Duran Gelvis and Senator Araújo had a high turnout. Araújo responded to these accusations by citing years of hard work politics and his family's influence in the region. He also pointed out that results, like the ones in Tamalameque where he received more than 70% of the total votes, were easily explained because of the influence of his third runner-up, Ricardo Chajín Florián, who had been Mayor of Tamalameque.
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