the mobile phone was ripped from my hand. i said, if you have been ordered to shoot me, shoot me. if it is your order to execute me, did not make me suffer any longer. just do it. they grabbed my arms and said, we're taking you away. i was put into a vehicle, and 15 minutes later, i was born on an airplane. 45 minutes after that, i was in costa rica. i was dumped at the airport still wearing my clothes -- my night clothes. .

>> the president met me directly at the airport. a country where no credit tie has occurred, coaster rica, it is a country that practices democracy. it is perhaps the oldest democracy other than the united states, a country with no army. i began to receive telephone calls from old presidents as i told you earlier. i wondered, is this the democracy we are trying to fight

for? this barbarity? our wheat reverting to the age of dictatorship? -- are we reverting to the age of dictatorship? i fought in my country because i was against the disappearances', for the families of the disappeared. there are people still fighting to find where it remains of their loved ones are. dictatorships repress it as has been the case. a dictatorship has been established. repression has been established in the country. i fought for the reversal of this system. the people fought for the

overthrow of this system but the delete refuses us. when pressure is exerted, instead of trying to find a legal path, a correct approach, brute force is used instead. once again, state crime resumes. i was the first to condemn these acts. i don't want you to see me as a president that wants to return to his country simply because he is president. for me, being an instrument is nothing more than being in internment to provide services. it has no significance other than that. there is an individual who is my ancestor to said what important in life is about having dignity,

self satisfaction, joy, in doing a job well. at whatever level as long as you find satisfaction in doing a job well, being president is an important opportunity to provide these services. but i do recall and the rights that i have struggled for, for my children, my grandchildren, future generations. this poet stated the problem with the world is that laws are always in active but the rich and powerful and that is why there is always so many poor people because they did not participate. we firmly condemn with all of our strength these acts.

i was conducted and forcefully exiled from my country. we condemn what has taken place in honduras. if this president remains in power cannot i cannot imagine how presidents around the world can feel imagining that armies might rise up when somebody says something or does something they are opposed to. distinguished investors, there is no law in my country allowing for the ousting of president. there was no trial to condemn a president. this was one of the reforms that we were envisioning, the possibility of an impeachment if the president is found to fail. it is the people who are the judge. the congress does not appoint a president. congress may appoint a member.

this is the right of the people. once again, nowhere does the congress of point the president. your humble servant is elected by the people to serve the people. it is a right that the people deserve and in joy. we are mandated by the people on behalf of the people to serve and to aid the people. these crimes must not go unpunished. i am a christian and that always for gave even those that have hurt me. dignity of the nations will not forgive this act of barbarism that has occurred in my country

and which has undermined the gains that we have achieved with such difficulty, with such effort, and with love. in the gettysburg address statement, the government of the people, for the people, by the people shall always prevail. this is what we say, this is what the citizens of the 21st century say. it is what the citizens of all nations around the country say and what you have said. [applause] >> the delegation has requested to remain seated.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> up next, next, alvaro uribe talks about his country's

relationship with the united states. it is a review of the recently concluded supreme court term. later, president obama and the commander of u.s. forces in iraq discusses the military withdrawal from the iraqi cities. on c-span tomorrow, the heritage foundation previous president obama's trip to russia next week and looks at the state of u.s.- russia relations live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. later, we will bring you the president appearing at a town hall meeting in annandale, va., where he talks about his health care reform plan. live coverage beginning at 1:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> how is c-span funded? >> publicly funded. >> donations. >> government? >> seize bank gets its funding

through taxes. >> federal funding? >> public funding. >> 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiative -- no government mandate, no government money. >> > >colombian president alvaro uribe spoke today at the woodrow wilson center. this is about an hour. >> good morning. please be seated. my pleasure to welcome you to the directors forum.

mr. president, we welcome you to the center and also will come columbia's minister for affairs. the minister of trade. colombia's ambassador to the united states. the minister of finance. and i am told there are several ambassadors in our group. we welcome them here. i have been informed that the former ambassador is here. we are delighted to have hurt. a former congressman is also expected to be here. we welcome all of our distinguished guests and of course the president. i want to thank this event's co-

sponsors. the council of the americas represented here today but the dialogue president and the council's vice-president. prespresident alvaro uribe inherited tremendous challenges, decades of violence that plagued his country. under his leadership over the last seven years, columbia has made remarkable strides towards peace, security, stability, and prosperity. he expanded the armed forces, oversaw the demobilization of over 30,000 paramilitary fighters, severed more than 10,000 defections and numerous setbacks at the hands of government forces, including the rescue of three united states

citizens and several other hostages nearly a year ago. 2006, the colombian people demonstrated their support by be electing the president by an impressive 62% margin. his high public approval rating remains the envy of politicians across the world. all of this is coincided with the strengthening of bilateral relationships. while columbia continues to face significant challenges, they are challenges that washington and they can overcome. under presidents bill clinton and george bush, the bilateral late shipping the united states and colombia has grown in lead

some bounds. we expect this expectation will continue. the president's tenure as president caps a distinguished career in public service. 1976, he served as the head of the real-estate office of the public works department. he went on to serve as secretary general for the labor ministry. two heralded terms as senator and governor. he holds a law degree from the university as well as a postgraduate degree from harvard and is an associate professor at oxford university. he is married, has two sons. mr. president, thank you for coming to the wilson center and we look forward to your comments. after he speaks, there will be

an opportunity for questions and answers. [applause] >> my government, ambassadors, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this is a great honor for my colleagues in for me to be here this morning in this very important think-tank. i want to express my gratitude for this invitation. every day, by a repeat before my

fellow citizens one very simple frame. i do my best to repeat, morning by morning, evening by evening, because i understand that every government has a duty to convince the fellow citizens of the necessity to have important and at the same time simple goals. the goal we are looking for in columbia is to convert columbia into a country with the highest level of confidence. confidence is leading our country. when we support confidence, --

we support confidence on three pillars. investment with social responsibility, and social cohesion. we concede that the only way for a country such as the case as columbia to advance in overcoming poverty, including a civil economy with a better income distribution is through prosperity. prosperity depends, in the case of columbia, on security and on investment. security with democratic values, investment with social responsibility. about security, i want not to make you feel fed up with these

numbers this morning. we have improved, but we need to improve much more. we accept august we have made and we of -- we accept the progress that we have made and we accept that we need to do much more. i want to explain some non tangible resources that we have got in our policy of democratic security. we have recovered two monopolies. we have recovered a state monopoly. we have dismantled an organization that was chosen in colombia to [unintelligible]

today, -- we have criminals that participate in drug trafficking and guerrillas. in some areas of the country, they are together. they churn the profits of trafficking. they fight, one to the other, in a very mafioso relationship. when they are friends and when they are enemies, they have a mafia serve relationship. they fight because they want tte

profits of trafficking. but what is important to highlight this morning is that our government has recovered for the state and for the monopoly to fight criminals. secondly, we have recovered the state monopoly to exercise justice. during many years of the country, the justice administration is total independent from the exit -- from the executive branch. in many areas of the country, general prosecutors, judges, they have been replaced by a

terrorist guerrillas, some in these organizations. they try to keep legal exercise justice, -- they try to exercise its legal justillegal justice. prior to this, colombians were afraid to propose or denounce. today, colombians have recovered confidence to denounce. colombians denounce every kind. we have many more announcements that prior to this administration.

my government is open and receptive. the minister of defense, the high command of the police, the military, and i as president, quite often we go on the beat to receive questions, claims, blames from the epoplpeople involving our policemen and human rights. we do our best to make clear every case. i consider this a very unique case in the world. i want to share this experience with you. colombians have recovered confidence.

there was a growing trend of fellow citizenswho were looking to provide themself with security by their own means. today, colombians are more likely to resort to institutions and looking for the provision of security. we have advanced in this regard. victim's prior to this policy, victims did not bring their claims because they found it was useless and they were afraid. today, we have more than 220,000 victims who have come to the

registration office and are now waiting for an operation. we have advanced a lot in the process to repair the victim s. this year alone, my government has grown to expand $100 million to begin the process to repair the victims. this is what i call monetary component of operation. i understand it is impossible to give a complete operation, but i understand that any effort to repair victims is a good step in the right direction to prevent

our people from hating, to create conditions for total reconciliation in our country. many countries in latin america face challenges in security and adopted marshall legislation to confront this problem. columbia has faced the most dangerous challenge, the most dangerous because our terrorist groups have been [unintelligible] given that they are the owners of narcotics trafficking businesses. they are autonomous, they do not

need funds from the international community. our government has confronted this challenge with ordinary legislation. with all respect to rights, civil rights, rights in our constitution. we have not imposed massive legislation to confront this challenge. we have not suppressed [unintelligible] we have not suspended freedoms. many people opposing my government choose to live

overseas because they are afraid to live in columbia. because of our administration, they have come back to colombia. they in joy all of the freedoms and they enjoy all of the protection. we have 10,000 colombians with individual protection provided by the government. the ministry of finance needs to spend $45 million to budget this individual protection. in the economy, what do we mean by social responsibility? social responsibility is

transparency and the relationship between the government and investors. transparency in taxes, contracts, in negotiations, conciliation some of legal disputes -- transparency. my government discusses in public audiences. we have advanced a lot in this regard. social responsibility requires a great effort from the government to make investors, to respond positively to requirements from the community. for instance, in regions --

[unintelligible] we have seen confrontations, political confrontations between investors and the community. we have not disregard the community's claims and we have not created obstacles for investors. what we have done is to call both parties into advancing that dialogue for creating conditions foto move for with their activities and that the same time be receptive to