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Marta Lucia RamirezMinister of Defense of Colombia
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 Colombia |
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Biography of Martha Lucia Ramirez
Marta Lucia Ramirez is a Colombian lawyer, writer, and politician. She served as the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism of Colombia from 1998 to 2002 during the presidency of Conservative Party member Andres Pastrana. She also served as the Colombian Ambassador to France in 2002. In the same year, she was appointed as the Minister of Defense of Colombia, becoming the first and only woman to hold this position. In 2006, she was elected as a senator from the National Unity Party, but later left the Senate. In 2009, she joined the Colombian Conservative Party.
She was a presidential candidate for the Colombian Conservative Party in the 2014 elections and received the third-highest number of votes in the first round. In the second round, she supported the opposition candidate and was defeated. In September 2017, she announced her candidacy for president again, this time running as an independent candidate due to corruption scandals involving some leaders of her party and the lack of guarantees for her candidacy. She ran with the support of the Citizens’ Movement "For a Just and Strong Colombia - Martha Lucia" and participated in the right-center consultation, which was won by Ivan Duque, who became the vice-presidential formula, as he finished in second place with over 1.5 million votes.
Marta Lucia Ramirez and former president Andres Pastrana Arango became strong critics of President Juan Manuel Santos, particularly in relation to the management of the economy, relations with Venezuela, and the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). She took a NO position in the referendum on the Havana Agreements, aligning herself with former president Alvaro Uribe Velez. After winning the consultation within the Great Alliance for Colombia, she became the vice-president of the Democratic Center in the 2018 presidential elections.
Early Career
Marta Lucia Ramirez became the first woman in Colombian history to lead the Ministry of Defense in August 2002. However, her path to the podium was less thorny than her interactions with Colombian generals. Having previously served as the Minister of Foreign Trade, she was considered one of the most prepared government officials in Colombia at the time of her appointment. Ramirez's constant disagreements with the commander of the armed forces, Jorge Enrique Mora, led to her resignation after just over a year in office. The headstrong woman often made decisions without consulting the general, which sparked a major scandal in military circles when she sought assistance from Spain in the form of several outdated models of aircraft. Military officials argued that their maintenance would be more expensive than purchasing new machines. Ramirez then approached President Uribe to request a change in the army leadership, but he refused to quarrel with the generals. Other plans proposed by Martha Lucia also faced criticism.
Senator of Colombia
Martha Lucia Ramirez was elected as the Chairperson of the Committee on International Affairs and Defense in the Colombian Senate. As a senator, she proposed laws to enhance Colombia's competitiveness, promote science, technology, and innovation, and advocate for bilingual education. She also engaged in political debates within the executive branch. Due to her criticism of clientelism and corruption within her party, she organized a dissenting group with Gina Parodi and Nicolas Uribe. Later, Ramirez opposed Alvaro Uribe's third election as Colombian president and decided to leave the party and the Congress. In 2010, she ran as a candidate for the presidency of Colombia within the conservative party, to which she still belongs.
Vice-President of Colombia
On June 17, 2018, Martha Lucia Ramirez was elected as the first woman Vice-President of Colombia, alongside former senator Ivan Duque Marquez. She assumed office on August 7, 2018.
