No Lost Causes

by Álvaro Uribe Vélez

One of the most inspiring and successful global leaders of the early 21st century explains how bold, imaginative leadership can solve even the most intractable problems—and why there is no such thing as a lost cause.   It’s one of the great, unexpected turnaround stories in modern Just a decade ago, Colombia was regarded as a “failed state,” besieged by megalomaniacal drug kingpins, ruthless terrorist groups, and abominable poverty. But since 2002, it has been dramatically transformed into a far more peaceful, stable modern democracy with a promising future. Now, the man who led the transformation, former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Velez, offers the untold story of how, at enormous personal risk, he refused to accept Colombia’s perilous status quo. Extremely captivating, No Lost Causes reveals how President Uribe severely weakened the neo-terrorist group, the FARC, which held Colombia captive and caused the brutal murder of his father. It relates the gripping account of how President Uribe staged the daring (and bloodless) jungle rescue of Ingrid Betancourt in 2008, and eventually restored the rule of law across the country. It also explores practical lessons of hands-on management—relevant to both political and business leaders—and provides a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at newsmaking U.S. foreign affairs and never before discussed details and dealings with various world leaders. Unlike any other presidential memoir, No Lost Causes is not only a compelling story of leadership, but an epic, heart-racing account of how bravery and hope gave a failing nation a brighter future.

Genres: Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2012

About the author

Álvaro Uribe Vélez fue Presidente de Colombia entre 2002 y 2010. Durante su presidencia, la violencia se redujo a los niveles más bajos de los últimos tiempos. El país logró importantes victorias militares contra las FARC, y desmanteló a los grupos paramilitares. Durante la presidencia de Uribe, Colombia alcanzó también sus mayores niveles de inversión y de exportaciones, así como la mayor cobertura de salud y educación en la historia del país. Al final de su mandato, su índice de popularidad estaba por encima del 80 por ciento, otro récord en la historia reciente de Colombia.

Antes de ser presidente, Uribe fue senador, gobernador del departamento de Antioquia y alcalde de Medellín, entre otros cargos. Se graduó en Derecho y Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad de Antioquia, estudió Negociación de Conflictos en la Universidad de Harvard donde además realió un posgrado en Administración y Gerencia. Fue Senior Associate Member del Saint Antony’s College de la universidad de Oxofrd, y después de dejar la presidencia, Uribe se ha desempeñado como Académico Distiguido en la Universidad de Georgetown y como Vicepresidente de la Comisión de las Naciones Unidas que investigó el incidente de la flotilla e Gasa, ocurrido en mayo de 2010. Actualmente es Fellow en el Bipartisan Policy Center.

Reviews

[Gustavo Herrera]

Messianic delusions by an egomaniacal statesman. He is clearly smart and ambitious, but he has a knack of glossing over the dirty details of his political accomplishments, while reinforcing the idea that he is just a machiavellian character who believes in "The end justifies the means". He also avoids speaking about his extremely intolerant views against leftist politicians, indigenous populations and LGBTI people, his close relationship with the Medellin Cartel, the clear support he has received by far right mass murdering groups, the multiple politicians who worked with him that are now being indicted and/or are incarcerated. He sees himself as some kind of country-saving superhero, at one point he even compares himself to goddamned Bruce Wayne/Batman. It made me think a lot of other megalomaniacal leaders who saw their crimes against humanity as favors for their country. I kept thinking about how if Pinochet, Fujimori or Trujillo are now seen as the corrupt, mass murdering politicians they always were in the eyes of the public opinion, how long is it going to be until Uribe is also recognized as such.

[Danilo Flechaz Muñoz]

Solamente tiene dos estrellas porque al menos se dignó a contratar un escritor fantasma. Es una de las personalidades con mayores delirios de mesías que se puede encontrar en toda América Latina, el libro está plagado de anécdotas que lo hacen ver como lo mejor que le pasó al país desde la conformación de la República. No podía ser de otra manera, el famoso 'trabajar, trabajar y trabajar', es un constante 'mentir, mentir y mentir'.

[Pablo Buenahora]

Se nota que es político, pero no deja de sentirse real.

Muchos mensajes aplicables a nuestra situación actual que valen la pena rescatar, más aún entendiendo el contexto. En una situación con mucha más incertidumbre y peligro, hay que admirar a los que no desfallecieron en su lucha por Colombia 🇨🇴🫡

Buena y necesaria dosis de memoria para nunca olvidar las atrocidades que cometieron los grupos criminales en Colombia, liderados por las guerrillas.

[Zachrobhan]

FANTASTIC BOOK!Alvaro Uribe is a true statesman for his role in transforming Colombia from a failed state to a regional power. When he took over Colombia FARC and other terrorists controlled much of Colombia and scared away investment. By the time Uribe left office the number of terrorist groups were cut in half and the nation's GDP doubled. I think it is very likely that Uribe will go down as one of the greatest leaders that South America has ever had.

The book itself was a very compelling read. It read like a Tom Clancy novel. It was filled with lots of accounts of special operations, assassination attempts, and rescues. I was on the edge of my seat as I read the book and stayed up late several nights until I finished it.

[Juan Pablo]

¡Todo colombiano debería leer este libro!

[Nathan Casebolt]

In the center-right America of my upbringing, we fretted about the evils of too much government. After the Bible and the Second Amendment, the holiest hadith was Ronald Reagan’s quip that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.” I haven’t shed this suspicion of an intrusive state. If anything, given the decades of shocks our democracy has received from a grasping imperial presidency, my Autocracy Detector is usually redlining. The fact is, though, that the evils of too little government are no better. We always live by the good graces of people with guns. When the state is too feeble to hold them, those who do may not be good or gracious at all.

This was the case when Álvaro Uribe Vélez won the presidency of Colombia in 2002. Debating whether Colombia was a failed state is academic for a people caught in the crossfire between faux-Marxist FARC drug-runners and their right-wing paramilitary rivals. Colombia’s cities were islands in a sea of tropical violence. Domestic air travel was excellent because no one wanted to disappear from a highway into the jungle to spend sick and starving years as a hostage held for ransom. Poverty ate the nation’s vitals as investment capital fled the country and the lords of cocaine divided what was left. As an extreme outlier in global crime statistics, Colombia was easy to write off as a lost cause—hence the title, “No Lost Causes,” of former President Uribe’s victory lap of a memoir.

Uribe, despite astronomical approval ratings by the time he left office in 2010, remains controversial. Consider the English-language epitaphs I culled from a 2025 Colombian subreddit:

• “A necessary evil at a specific moment.”
• “Colombia's biggest criminal posing as an honest, humble peasant.”
• “He understood that security is the #1 function of the State. Just for that reason, he was the best president. Corrupt, clientelist, narcissistic, same as all the others, but at least he excelled at one thing.”
• “He was a very good president and a presumed criminal like no other.”
• “He's a genocida protected by his political and business friends.”
• “The best president this country has ever had, whether you like it or not.”

I don’t consider myself qualified to judge accurately either Uribe’s presidency or his self-assessment. I wouldn’t presume to tell a colombiano or colombiana how he or she should feel about Uribe’s eight years of governance. Without question, he transformed Colombia from a narcoterrorist playground into a functional society. Without question, he weathered scandals such as the “false positives” disaster in which military personnel murdered civilians and posed them as guerillas. Without question, his two terms did not eliminate drug trafficking and violence; but it’s doubtful anyone could have, and Colombia is likely better for his presidency than otherwise. Wiser heads than mine will have to make the final call.

What I find compelling in Uribe’s memoir is the theory of leadership he offers. On his accession to office, he inherited a nation that had lost faith in itself. His inauguration day in the capital city of Bogotá was rocked by a FARC attack designed to disrupt his administration on Day One. Within nine months, he organized an attempt to rescue a set of high-profile hostages and managed only to retrieve their executed remains. Yet the three principles by which he managed this crisis illustrate the strategy by which he earned the trust of Colombians and enlisted them in a whole-of-society reconquista of their homeland: “We would tell the truth—every single detail, that same day, in a live televised address to the nation. We would accept any and all criticism as valid, and learn from it. We would not yield in our fight against the terrorists, and I would personally take all responsibility for the failed operation.”

Transparency, personalism, and loyalty drove Uribe’s leadership style. Along with military campaigns to take back cities, states, and regions, he and his team criss-crossed the country in regular listening sessions that brought the face of an active and responsive state to people that had rarely or never seen federal interest. Through direct contact with everyday Colombians, Uribe built a two-way rapport rare for top-level leaders: “I always found the greatest solace by seeking out, and speaking with, the Colombian people. Showing my face, assuming full responsibility for our actions, searching for the facts and then disclosing them in public had a profound therapeutic effect for me. Transparency was like a light, warm light; in our darkest moments, I ran to it as quickly [sic] I possibly could.”

Loyalty was crucial in times of crisis such as the killing of FARC communications kingpin Raúl Reyes within Ecuador’s borders. As Ecuador and Venezuela mobilized their armies to Colombia’s borders, Uribe came under pressure to claim that this was a rogue operation and pick one of his military heads as a sacrificial lamb. Instead, he took public and personal responsibility for the mission, refusing to bend to the “cowardice of tyrants” and earning the trust of both the citizenry and of his generals. He accepted blame when headwinds were strong and shifted praise when skies were sunny: “When the news was bad, I went on television and announced it to the nation myself. When the news was good, I generally asked my ministers, generals, and other collaborators to speak instead.”

Readers will likely be most fascinated by the fight against FARC, especially operations that read like a "Mission: Impossible" script, unsurprising since planners sometimes watched movies such as “Ocean’s Eleven” for inspiration. But Uribe also “put equal emphasis on social programs, which for us, are inseparable from security” in terms of driving down the incentives that poverty gives to criminality. Along with uncompromising security initiatives, he strove to turn Colombia into a destination for investment capital rather than “expropriating industries and bullying investors in an attempt to create ‘socialism.’ In the long run, [such Latin American] governments did indeed achieve greater equality—by making everyone poorer (except, of course, for their own friends and cronies).”

Again, I’m not equipped to judge Uribe as a good man or, in the words of that subredditor, a necessary evil at a specific moment. What I can say is that the theory of leadership he affirms is timeless and true. “The continuation of democratic security,” he writes, “depends on its credibility, which in turn is based on its efficiency and transparency.” Credibility is the foundation of liberty, transparency its currency. Every attack on trust, whether through false claims of corruption or silent acts of the same, is an assault on freedom. Uribe identifies Abraham Lincoln as one of his heroes; and just as Lincoln found the American Civil War a test of whether a nation conceived in liberty can long endure, Uribe found that same test in the violent ones of Colombia who shattered trust in the democratic state. We can debate whether his reforging of that trust was without sin. What seems beyond debate is that he clawed back enough trust to secure democracy in Colombia for one more generation. So given the choice between, say, a Hugo Chavez and an Álvaro Uribe, I know which one I would entrust with the cause of liberty.

[Bobby]

Quick read with not a ton of substance. Reads like Musharraf's bio--"I was here for a reason" and "I was saved from certain death on numerous occasions because I have a noble purpose" and all that jazz.

The book does give you a great look into Uribe's psyche and how personal the internal conflict was/is to him. I also liked the more detailed information on some of the more important decisions during his presidency (Jacque, extradition stuff, cross-border ops, etc.). Uribe comes off as a man who understands what ails Colombia and as someone who pushed Colombian security forces to orchestrate strategies to achieve political--not solely military--objectives/goals. He sprinkles in some blatant lies (one example: claims to have wanted to disband DAS from the start) and he leaves out a bit (he talks about Bogota's COIN efforts/approach, but never talks about some of the more brutal COIN tactics that he personally pushed for).

Overall, in the Colombian political context, you can count me as an Uribista.

[Daniel Pereira]

Autobiografía de Álvaro Uribe.

Excelente

[Alejandro Cano Pérez]

Este libro pudo haber sido un buen epílogo para su vida política. Pero parece ser que fue el prólogo de un camino muy espinoso que, a la fecha, lo está llevando directamente al olvido.

[Luis Fernando Salazar]

Excelente libro, pero a la versión digital le faltan las fotografías que la versión física tiene.

[Santiago Pelaez]

Sin tomar posiciones políticas, me parece un excelente libro de la historia reciente de Colombia. Debería ser leído y debatido para entender cómo los gobiernos de Alvaro Uribe partieron la historia de Colombia. Leyendo rápidamente las calificaciones se encuentran los extremos de 5 y de 1 estrella que representan los sentimientos que generaron los hechos ocurridos durante los gobiernos de AUV. Por un lado los golpes militares a terroristas nunca antes vistos en el país, el progreso en términos económicos y de seguridad y por otro las acusaciones de corrupción, conspiraciones crimínales y violaciones a derechos humanos que han sido llevadas ante la justicia y nunca se ha hallado a AUV culpable.

[Ligia Bonetti]

El carácter, la determinación, y las ganas de hacer el bien siempre logran sobresalir aún en la adversidad. Los gobernantes no siempre son recordados por los sacrificios, esfuerzos e interminables problemas que los acogen. Sin embargo, es claramente evidente que Alvaro Uribe lucho hasta sus últimos días en la presidencia de Colombia por devolver a Colombia su libertad ante la FARC. Un hombre lleno de coraje, valentia y mas que nada un sentido de responsabilidad impecable. Con gran fuerza enfrentó de la mejor forma que pudo manteniendo la democracia, el derecho al dialogo y la apertura que requiere los gobernantes para llevar La Paz a sus respectivos países sin alterar los países vecinos. Un gran libro y definitivamente un gran politico.

[Juan Rivera]

Un mensage muy humano positivo de que hay esperanza cuando todo parace perdido. Es muy alentador como el presidente ante todo cuido la moral y sus tres pilares, pero sobre todo la confianza que cultivo con sus colaboradores y el pueblo.

Una lectura de ayuda para los diferentes ambitos de la vida, pero sobre todo para aquellos politicos que estan en posicion de cambiar rumbos pero en lugar de optan por la politiqueria sin sentido.

[Jorge]

Un libro increíble por uno de los hombres más influyentes de Colombia en los últimos tiempos. El tipo habla sobre su vida, de cómo empezó la política y sus luchas como gobernante de Colombia. Al parecer es un tipo bien parado, centrado y con mucha inteligencia. Habla sus realidades, sus privilegios y sus propios defectos. Muchos lo ven como un tipo duro y canalla, otros le agradecen sus trabajos. Hay que conocer más la historia para así juzgarla de forma adecuada. Buen libro!

[Lorenzo Escalante]

Well written, easy to read, but how much of it is truth? Guess that depends on which side you were on.

[Aura María]

Todo aquel que no conoce la historia está condenado a repetirla.
Conoce un antes y un después de Colombia cuando su dirigente fue Álvaro Uribe. En este libro se narran grandes historias como la operación jaque en la que logran liberar 15 secuestrados entre los cuales se encontraba Ingrid Betancur, y la forma en que hizo frente a los grupos armados en Colombia 🪷🍃🪽

Recomendado

[Breakingviews]

By Raul Gallegos

Latin America needs more leaders like Alvaro Uribe. “No Lost Causes,” the former Colombian president’s account of his administration, may at times be self-serving. But it shows how he helped turn a war-torn Colombia from a near-failed state to a top investment destination. Uribe's security gains remain frail, but his successes dwarf those of his leftist peers in Latin America.

Uribe's story is as remarkable as it is unlikely. When he took office in 2002, a weak government was quickly losing a war against right-wing militias and one-time Marxist rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The insurgents were financed by extortion, kidnappings and a flourishing drug trade. At its worst, the drug business accounted for more than 6 percent of GDP and Colombians paid as much as $350 million in ransom to criminals annually.

The economy was in shambles. GDP grew a mere 1.9 percent in 2002 and foreign direct investment inflows, at a four-year average of $2.3 billion a year, were nearly half those of neighboring Venezuela. The country was widely considered one of the most dangerous places to live, visit or do business.

But by halfway through Uribe's eight-year tenure, the militias were decimated and FARC was a shadow of its former self. Kidnappings had dropped by 80 percent and homicides by half. By the time Uribe left in 2010, annual GDP growth was averaging 4.5 percent. And foreign investment had risen four-fold to $8 billion a year, mostly due to a thriving oil sector. The market capitalization of Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol, which sold 20 percent of its shares to the public under Uribe, now rivals that of BP.

Uribe walks readers through the turnaround. As president he deployed the military to secure the country’s main thoroughfares for the first time in years. This allowed Colombians to travel and do business within their own country. His administration rewarded citizens for tips leading to the capture of key insurgents and made the elimination of top FARC leaders a military priority. Crucially, his successes helped him convince Colombia’s wealthy to endure higher taxes to help fund military spending. He later offered tax exemptions to foster job creation.

Uribe's personal travails make the book read like a spy novel. A 30-year old Uribe lost his father to FARC guerrillas. As he rose in politics he personally endured countless threats and survived scores of kidnapping and assassination attempts. When he was a senator in the early 1990s, leftist guerrillas determined to stop his push to reform social security placed a bomb in a hotel room next to his. He barely survived. Years later, as a governor, Uribe even exchanged machine gun fire with guerrillas as he and his aides suffered an ambush.

But the steely persona that earned Uribe consistent 70 percent approval ratings masks a less flattering side. In his drive to change Colombia he tacitly encouraged supporters to push a constitutional reform that could grant him a third term as president. Thankfully for Colombia’s democracy, this never materialized. And his reputed links to paramilitary groups during his time as governor remain under investigation. Uribe barely touches on those issues in his book.

Yet his achievements still outshine his misses. Poverty fell by more than half to 22 percent under his tenure, most of it through job creation. Just next door, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of oil revenue making the poor dependent on state handouts. Guerrilla attacks remain an issue, but Colombia as a country is safer and richer. That is a cause worth fighting for.

[Ray]

This is a memoir by the greatest statesman the Americas have produced in the last generation. The things Colombia faced under his presidency and the way things have turned around since then are scary and inspiring.

In 2002, Colombia was well on its way to failed statehood; today, it's a promising country with some residual problems. Uribe's blend of participatory democracy with the reassertion of the state's monopoly on violence against the narcoterrorists makes for immensely interesting reading, particularly in light of America's own, far less successful, efforts at the same. His irritation with certain apologists for leftist terrorism and the double standards of human rights activists come through pretty clearly.

Uribe is a self-admitted salesman and relentless politician, with the charming ability to poke fun at his own ridiculousness: he once gave a campaign speech from a phone booth while out of the country, shouting Spanish enthusiastically into a pay phone in Boston. I think the translator deliberately went for the 'exotic.' This gives certain passages an overly dramatic and unreal air. The tale is great and doesn't need such embellishments.

[Carlos Valbuena]

Soy venezolano, pero viví durante los años 90 en Colombia siendo un niño y siento una afinidad por Colombia mucho mayor de la que tenemos los venezolanos al nacer, dicho de forma simplista, quiero que a Colombia le salga todo bien, excepto los partidos contra nuestra Vinotinto.

Creo que este libro tiene que ser interesante para cualquier colombiano medianamente interesado en la política, siendo Uribe un personaje que claramente cambió la historia de nuestros hermanos vecinos (lo de hermanos es más que un cliché, es una realidad). Para los venezolanos que adversamos al gobierno queda difícil no estar de acuerdo con el presidente Uribe y su posición ante el presidente que infelizmente nos ganamos. Quedo con ganas de saber más acerca de las computadoras de Reyes y decepcionado al no leer explicación sobre el por que Colombia no fue más allá en sus acusaciones, siendo los hallazgos de las computadoras tan graves.

Fácil y agradable lectura, emotividad y una descripción muy creíble de Uribe y su pasión por su país.

[Seth]

Columbia was a lost cause, and now it isn't, and you've got to attribute that to Uribe and his staff and their boundless energy and optimism. To have guerrillas and terrorists operating out in the open and both of your neighboring countries harboring and supporting them while they kidnap presidential candidates and pregnant women and murder almost at will . . . it reminded me a lot of Book of Mormon stories about struggles with the Gadianton Robbers, but in modern times. In those conditions, its a miracle that Uribe survived, let alone that he and others had so much success.

On a side note, I was surprised how many women hold positions of power in Columbia, in the government, military, and even in the FARC. I wonder how that happened in a country that was so messed up in other ways.

[Javier]

I really enjoyed this book. I feel a connection to Colombia, having grown up in Ecuador, stayed in Bogota for three weeks, and having a brother who lived in Colombia for two years. Alvaro Uribe must be one of the best presidents Latin America has seen. The problems in Colombia due kidnappings, murders, bombings, etc by the narcoguerrillas and paramilitary groups were disheartening. It was so fun to read how the Colombian government started to turn things around, rescue hostages, and little by little experience victory after victory against the narcoterrorists. I really hope that someday Colombia may be a safe and prosperous country.

[Alexander Ortega]

I read this book before going to Colombia for a holiday trip, aiming to understanding a little more of the country.
The way Uribe details the challenges he had to go through his terms as President and all the difficult decisions make of this book a real worth-reading work.
By the way, once I was in Colombia, I could finally confirm all the admiration the Colombian people have for all the efforts he made to abolish the guerrillas and narco groups, and how life has changed there since the difficult 90´s.

[Quinn]

Most people will read this book and love Uribe and think Chavez and Corea are idiots. I get the feeling Uribe is the Reagan of Columbia. It’s pretty cool how strong he was as a leader with such an unruly country on his hands. I was especially impressed by his assumption of responsibility when things went wrong and his quick reaction to national tragedy. It seemed that almost minutes after something wrong happened he was on a plane to investigate, examine or mourn the case.

[Edith]

It is leaders like President Uribe that reinstates hope that it is possible to make the world better one person and one village at a time. His humility is none I have ever seen in a modern leader.

After reading this book, I wanted to go to Columbia and still plan on going. The stereotypical fear of being kidnapped or killed are no longer there.

[Melina O.]

Each chapter is short but it packs a punch.

His life reads like an action film at times. But I guess thats how the presidency must be like in Colombia. I definitely see why my family was so pro-Uribe and still are.

I recommend the book for those who are interested in international politics with no bias. No point in reading a book and scoffing at every sentence.

[Luis]

Excellent book!! This is by far the best leader that Colombia has had. The book is not only a recount of the events that happened during his presidency, but also his ideas about leadership.

Great book!!

[Heather7]

Nice clear writing. I liked the short chapters. It seemed very edited to give a positive spin on everything he did, yet the facts are believable.

[Leonel]

Inspiring....

[Diego Parada Herrera]

Excelentes lecciones de vida y de liderazgo de alguien que logró cambios importantes en su país a costa de grandes dificultades y riesgos