2003 in Colombia

← 2002 2001 2000 2003 in Colombia → 2004 2005 2006
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2003 Timeline of Colombian history

Events from the year 2003 in Colombia .

Incumbents

• President: Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002 – 2010). ^{[1] [2]}
• Vice President: Francisco Santos Calderón (2002 – 2010). ^{[3] [4]}

Events

January

• 15 January – President Uribe requests military assistance from the United States similar to that of the Iraq War. ^[5]

February

• 6 February – Social Protection Minister Juan Luis Londoño and four others die in a small plane crash near Tolima.
• 7 February – 2003 El Nogal Club bombing: A car bomb on the third floor of El Nogal Club in Bogotá filled with 200 kilograms (440 lb) of explosives is detonated, killing 36 and injuring more than 200. ^[6]
• 13 February – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1465 is unanimously adopted, condemning the El Nogal Club bombing. ^[7]
• 14 February:
  • 2003 Neiva bombing: A car bomb explodes near the Benito Salas Airport, killing 16 and injuring dozens more. ^[8]
  • Two CIA operatives are captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). ^[9]

March

• 5 March – Seven people are killed in Cúcuta when a car bomb explodes. ^[10]
• 18 March – The football club Bogotá F.C. is founded. ^[11]

April

• 6 April – Radio journalist José Emeterio Rivas is murdered in Barrancabermeja after publicly accusing the local politicians of corruption, his body is found alongside that of Paolo César Montesinos, a student. ^[12]
• 10 April – Mayor of El Roble Eudaldo Diaz's body is found beaten, tortured, and executed two months after he pleaded with President Uribe during a televised community meeting to save him from assassination. This came after he had accused Uribe's ally Salvador Arana and other politicians of paramilitary connections and corruption. ^{[13] [14]}
• 30 April – President Álvaro Uribe meets with U.S. President George W. Bush and press in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.. ^[15]

May

• 5 May – Guillermo Gaviria Correa, Governor of Antioquia, Gilberto Echeverri Mejía, Minister of Defense, and eight soldiers who were kidnapped by the FARC's 34th Front are killed during a failed Army rescue operation in Urrao.

June

• 27 June – The 14th Andean Presidential Council is held in Rionegro, Carmen de Viboral, Antioquia at Recinto de Quirama. The presidents of Bolivia (Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada), Colombia (Álvaro Uribe), Ecuador (Lucio Gutiérrez), and Venezuela (Hugo Chávez) as well as the vice president of Perú (Raúl Diez Canseco) attend. ^[16]

July

• 8 July – Opération 14 juillet
• 15 July – The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) agrees to disband. ^[17]
• 18 July – Manuel Octavio Bermúdez is arrested after the murder of Luis Carlos Gálvez. ^[18]

August

• 30 August – The FARC releases a second proof of life to the family of kidnapped French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

September

• 15 September – The National Liberation Army (ELN) kidnaps eight tourists from Ciudad Perdida. ^[19]

October

• 25 October – 2003 Colombian constitutional referendum
• 26 October – The 2003 Fusagasugá City Council elections takes place, electing 17 council seats.

November

• 12 November – Miss Colombia 2003 takes place in Cartagena de Indias.
• 15 November – 2003 Zona Rosa attacks: Grenades are thrown into two bars in the Zona Rosa neighborhood in Bogotá, killing one and injuring 73. ^[20]

December

• 28 December – A judicial assistant for the Prosecutor's Office in Chiquinquirá, Dora Inés Rodríguez, is murdered in her sleep. ^[21]
• 30 December – A 50 kilograms (110 lb) car bomb is neutralized in the Puerto Jordán district of Tame, Arauca by the 18th Brigade of the Military Forced of Colombia. ^[22]

Uncertain

• The Democratic Colombia Party is founded.

Deaths

• 3 February – Fulgencio Berdugo, football player (b. 1918).
• 6 April – José Emeterio Rivas, radio journalist (b.1957/8). ^[12]
• 25 April – Jaime Silva Gómez, football player (b. 1935).
• 18 June – Rafael Mejía Romani, musician and songwriter (b. 1920). ^[23]
• 30 July – Carlos Lemos Simmonds, politician, former vice president (1996–1998) (b. 1933).
• 21 October – Juan Harvey Caicedo, actor and radio personality (b.1937).
• 12 November – Jesús Manuel Estrada, Vallenato singer (b. 1963).

References

1. East, Roger; Thomas, Richard J. (3 June 2014). Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders. Routledge. p. 108. ISBN   978-1-317-63940-4.
2. "How President Alvaro Uribe changed Colombia". BBC News. 4 August 2010. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
3. Publications, Europa (2002). South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2003. Taylor & Francis. p. 271. ISBN   978-1-85743-138-4.
4. Kline, Harvey F. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Colombia. Scarecrow Press. p. 196. ISBN   978-0-8108-7813-6.
5. "Uribe pide a E.U un despliegue militar en Colombia "similar" al de Irak" [Uribe asks U.S. for military deployment "similar" to Iraq]. Agencia de Noticias e Información Alternaiva(ANIA), URCM (in Spanish). 21 January 2003. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
6. "At least 32 killed in Colombia club blast". CNN . 8 February 2003. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
7. "Security Council condemns 7 February bomb attack in Bogotá, says act of terrorism threatens peace, security". United Nations. 13 February 2003. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
8. "Explosion in Southern Colombia Kills 16". Fox News. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
9. McDermott, Jeremy (15 February 2003). "CIA agents killed or captured in Colombia". Telegraph. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
10. "CNN.com - At least 6 die in Colombia blast". CNN . 5 March 2003. Archived from the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
11. "BOGOTÁ FC". Dimayor. 28 June 2024. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
12. Cardona, Libardo (22 January 2009). "Stiff sentence in Colombian journalist's murder". 20 August 2024. Associated Press.
13. Ayala Osorio, Germán (18 March 2023). "¿A Eudaldo Díaz lo asesinaron los paramilitares o un 'sarraceno' del siglo XXI?" [Was Eudaldo Díaz murdered by paramilitaries or by a 21st century 'Saracen'?]. La Orejaroja (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
14. Kraul, Chris (6 February 2009). "Deaths cloud Colombian ex-governor's trial". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
15. "Remarks by President Bush and President Uribe of Colombia in Photo Opportunity". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
16. "XIV Consejo Presidencial Andino / Declaración de Quirama". Sistema de Información sobre Comercio Exterior, OAS . Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
17. Dwan, Renata; Gustavsson, Micaela (2004). "Major armed conflicts". SIPRI Yearbook 2004: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. pp. 95–131. ISBN   978-0-19-926570-1. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
18. Rodríguez-Torres, María Natalia (2019). "Manuel Octavio Bermúdez "el monstruo de los cañaduzales"". Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad Católica de Colombia. Facultad de Derecho. hdl:hdl.handle.net/10983/23196 . Retrieved 20 August 2024.
19. "Ciudad Perpida Kidnappings and Modern History". La Ciudad Perpida. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
20. Dongen, Rachel Van (17 November 2003). "Grenades Hit Two Bars in Bogota". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 20 August 2024.
21. "ASESINADA ASISTENTE JUDICIAL:" . El Tiempo (Colombia) (in Spanish). 30 December 2003. Archived from the original on 13 May 2025. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
22. Tiempo, Redacción El (30 December 2003). "DESACTIVAN CARRO BOMBA:" . El Tiempo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 May 2025. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
23. "Falleció el compositor Rafael Mejía Romani" [Songwriter Rafael Mejía Romani has died], Caracol Radio (in Spanish), 19 June 2003, retrieved 19 May 2025

External links

• Media related to 2003 in Colombia at Wikimedia Commons