Marta Lucía Ramírez

Marta Lucía Ramírez
Marta Lucía Ramírez in 2008
Senator of Colombia
In office 20 July 2006 – 9 June 2009
Colombian Minister of National Defense
In office 7 August 2002 – 9 November 2003
President	Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded by	Gustavo Adolfo Bell Lemus
Succeeded by	Jorge Alberto Uribe Echavarría
Colombia Ambassador to France
In office February 2002 – July 2002
President	Andrés Pastrana Arango
Preceded by	Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar
Succeeded by	Jaime Castro Castro
6th Colombian Minister of Foreign Trade
In office 7 August 1998 – January 2002
President	Andrés Pastrana Arango
Preceded by	Carlos Ronderos Torres
Succeeded by	Ángela María Orozco Gómez
Personal details
Born	April 7, 1954 (1954-04-07) (age 57) Zipaquirá, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Social National Unity
Alma mater	Pontifical Xavierian University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	http://martaluciaramirez.com

Marta Lucía Ramírez (born July 4, 1954) is a Colombian lawyer, diplomat, and politician. She served as Minister of National Defence, and 6th Minister of Foreign Trade of Colombia, the first woman to ever hold either post. Ramírez was also Ambassador of Colombia to France in 2002 and Senator of Colombia from 2006 to 2009.

Early years

Ramírez studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and later did post graduate studies on Commerce law, Higher Management, Financial legislation. She obtained a Fellow from Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, specializing on topics related to foreign commerce.

Political career

Between 1990 and 1991 Ramírez was appointed as Director of the Colombian Institute for Foreign Commerce before this entity being transformed into the Ministry of Foreign Commerce with Juan Manuel Santos as minister and she as her vice minister from 1991 until 1994 during the presidency of César Gaviria.

Minister of Foreign Commerce

She returned to Colombia and was appointed by President Andrés Pastrana as Minister of Foreign Trade from 1998 until 2002.

Ambassador of Colombia in France

In 2002 Ramírez was then appointed as ambassador of Colombia in France for a few months. With the election of Álvaro Uribe as President of Colombia, Ramírez went back to Colombia.

Minister of Defense

President Uribe decided to appoint Ramírez as Minister of Defense becoming the second woman in Latin America to ever hold this title, after Michelle Bachelet who later became President of Chile. She served in this position from 2002 until 2003.

Senator of Colombia

After the ministry of defense Ramírez became a national and international adviser for the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2006 Ramírez ran for congress representing the Social National Unity Party (U) in the legislative elections of 2006. She was elected senator with 64,966 votes.^[1]

Due to internal differences within the party the collectivity elected Carlos García Orjuela as head of the political party. Ramírez and other members of the party like senators Gina Parody and Armando Benedetti, and chamber representative Nicolás Uribe organized a dissidence.

References

1. ^ (Spanish) Revista Semana: Marta Lucía Ramírez

External links

• (Spanish) Marta Lucía Ramírez official website, Marta Lucía Ramírez official Blog

Persondata
Name	Rodriguez, Marta Lucia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 7, 1954
Place of birth	Zipaquirá, Colombia
Date of death
Place of death