2006 Colombian presidential election of Pablo Escobar and mafia boss Fabio Ochoa. In 1983, Alberto was assassinated by FARC rebels at his estate, after which Alvaro sold off the property and dedicated himself to politics. 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. 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. His
Mario Uribe Escobar to the Colombian parapolitics scandal, Uribe-Escobar was first mentioned by Jairo Castillo Peralta aka "Pitirri" who was a former member of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and was a personal bodyguard of former politician Álvaro García Romero also implicated in the scandal for mingling with paramilitaries. From his exile in Canada, Castillo-Peralta said that Uribe-Escobar had met with AUC top commanders in northern Colombia to negotiate cheaper land in the region of Caucasia and in the Department of Sucre. Uribe-Escobar responded to this saying that he did not have any land in Caucasia or Sahagún but