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