Alvaro Uribe has been closely associated with paramilitarism since early in his political career, with his overt loathing of the leftist guerrillas forever linked by the outrageous murder of his father at the hands of the FARC in 1983. Uribe has never gone out of his way to deny his links to the various manifestations of the paramilitaries, however, and has continued to derive considerable political benefits from this association. It has remained at the core of his hard-line political persona. In fact, he was swept into office in 2002 on a wave of revulsion over the failed peace process unsuccessfully pursued by Conservative President Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002).

As governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997, Uribe was central in the legalization of paramilitary Convivir groups, the so-called 'Rural Vigilance Cooperatives,' that recalled the Colombia's government-backed death squads of the 1940s and 50s. This legalisation largely served to legalize the paramilitary militias that had emerged in the early 1980s. These latter units were enthusiastically supported by General Harold Bedoya, head of the Colombian Armed Forces from 1994-97. The army worked closely with the Convivirs in their anti-guerrilla deployments. Before being outlawed in 1999 due to their more obvious excesses, the Convivirs helped displace over 200,000 campesinos, mostly from the Urabá region. In particular, the organizations that Uribe nurtured, presided over one of Colombia's worst massacres.

In July 1997, two chartered flights of paramilitary gunmen flew from Urabá into the military-controlled airport at San José de Guaviare, Department of Meta, where Army soldiers helped transport their weapons and gear. After being reinforced by 180 local paramilitary brethren, the paras were waved through various military checkpoints as they made their way up the Guaiviare River to Mapiripán. Once there, they spent five days hunting specific 'subversives' that they had earlier been identified as guerrilla supporters. These individuals were taken to the local slaughterhouse and murdered. Their bodies were disemboweled (so as not to float) and dumped in the river.

From the beginning, Uribe was the preferred candidate of the AUC, the umbrella organization of paramilitary groups founded and led by Carlos Castaño, who enthusiastically took credit for the massacre at Mapiripán (among many others.) Castaño was the permanent paramilitary leader who never minced words about paramilitary goals or point of view. He believed that Uribe was the candidate who was most clearly emblematic of their 'philosophy.' Castaño claimed that two thirds of the 'guerrillas' were unarmed collaborators (and therefore legitimate military targets), a view that is almost universally held among Colombia's elite.

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