1998 in Colombia

Incumbents

• President:
• * Ernesto Samper.
• * Andrés Pastrana Arango.
• Vice President:
• * Carlos Lemos Simmonds.
• * Gustavo Bell.

Events

January

• 11–12 January – Hundreds of non-inmates, mostly visitors, are inside San Isidro prison in Popayan, Cauca during a prison protest over living conditions, including overcrowding. Many are relatives and loved ones of inmates voluntarily staying as a part of the protest, but others have been taken hostage. On the 11th, 18 of those taken hostage are released.

February

• 4 February – Amnesty International announces the closure of its Bogotá office after recent threats.
• 25 February – Víctor Carranza, known as the “emerald czar” is arrested.
• 27 February – The director of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights of Antioquia Jesús María Valle Jaramillo is shot and killed in his office in Medellín.

March

• 8 March – The 1998 parliamentary election are held. The Liberal Party wins a majority in the Chamber, 84 of the 161 seats, and a plurality in the Senate, 48 of the 102 seats.

April

• 28 April – Men claiming to be members of the Peasant Self-Defense Group of Córdoba and Urabá kidnap 6 previously displaced men in Bello, Antioquia, killing at least 4.

May

• 16 May – Barrancabermeja massacre.
• 19 May – The Twentieth Brigade of the Colombian army is suspended, pending reorganization. This was after the government publicly connected them to the 1995 murder of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado.
• 31 May – The 1998 presidential election is held; Horacio Serpa of the Liberal Party wins the plurality over the Great Alliance for Change's Andrés Pastrana Arango, but, since no one candidate earns a majority, it goes to a second round.

June

• 21 June – The second round of the 1998 presidential election is held; Andrés Pastrana Arango of the Great Alliance for Change wins with a 50.34% majority over the Liberal Party's Horacio Serpa.
• 26 June – The Colombia national football team plays England during the group stage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in Lens, France. England beats Colombia 2 to 0, which knocks Colombia out of the running.

July

• 10 July – Caracol Televisión and RCN Televisión are both launched as television networks.

August

• 7 August – Andrés Pastrana Arango is inaugurated as the 30th president of Colombia.

September

• 15 September – Liberal Party congressman Jorge Humberto González Noreña is assassinated.

October

• 18 October – Machuca Massacre.

November

• 3–5 November – Siege of Mitú.

December

• December – Air Force pilots drop cluster bombs on Santo Domingo, Norte de Santander, killing 17, including 5 children, and wounding 30.
• 8 December – Villanueva Massacre.
• 13 December – Santo Domingo massacre.

Births

• January 17 – Anthony Zambrano, sprinter.

Deaths

• 14 February – Manuel Pérez, National Liberation Army leader.
• 27 February – Jesús María Valle Jaramillo, human rights advocate.
• 15 September – Jorge Humberto González Noreña, politician and then congressmen.
• 28 September – Julio de la Ossa, vallenato accordionist