| María Emma Mejía Vélez | |
|---|---|
| Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2011 |
|
| Preceded by | Néstor Kirchner |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office July 1996 – 25 March 1998 |
|
| President | Ernesto Samper Pizano |
| Preceded by | Rodrigo Pardo García-Peña |
| Succeeded by | Camilo Reyes Rodríguez |
| Colombia Ambassador to Spain | |
| In office 1993–1995 |
|
| President | César Gaviria Trujillo |
| Preceded by | Ernesto Samper Pizano |
| Succeeded by | Humberto de la Calle Lombana |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 September 1953 Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia |
| Nationality | Colombian |
| Political party | Alternative Democratic Pole |
| Other political affiliations |
Colombian Liberal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Lucas Caballero Reyes (1980-1995) |
| Children | Pedro Lucas Caballero Mejía |
| Residence | Bogotá, DC, Colombia |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Bolivarian University University of Valle |
| Profession | Journalist |
María Emma Mejía Vélez (born 27 September 1953) is a Colombian journalist and politician who has served as Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Education, and Ambassador to Spain. She currently works as Executive President of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, a charity founded by the Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira and collaborates as a journalist in the El Radar a Colombian investigative television news program that airs in Caracol TV.
Vélez succeeded Néstor Kirchner of Argentina following his death to become the 2nd Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations.
Contents |
María Emma Mejía Vélez was born to Luis Mejía Arango and Sofía Vélez Pérez on 27 September 1953 in Medellín, Antioquia.[1]
After graduating from the Gimnasio Los Pinares high school in Medellín, on November 1971, she worked for a short time as a fashion model.[2] She went on to study Social communication at the Pontifical Bolivarian University, from where she did not graduate, to go on sabbatical to London where she held various jobs including working for the Colombian Consulate and the BBC.[1] While at London she also studied cinematography and television which lead her to direct two films by the age of 23.[1]
On her return to Colombia Fernando Gómez Agudelo, a pioneer of the Colombian television industry, named her assistant to the writer and director Bernardo Romero Pereiro.
María Emma entered politics thanks to her work as a film director, when President Belisario Betancur named her Director of the Cinematographic Fomenting Company (FOCINE) making this her first public post. Her work as Director of FOCINE was seen as successful for achieving greater State support for the Film Industry of Colombia, but at the same time her success was criticized for only benefiting a few group of film producers.
After her work in FOCINE she became attracted to the ideas of Luis Carlos Galán, and it was his assassination which drove her to become more politically active, this time working with the presidential electoral campaign of César Gaviria Trujillo as Secretary General of the campaign. After the election, Gaviria Trujillo named her as head of the Presidential Security Advisory Council on Medellín.
As head of this advisory council she was faced with a barrage of existing and growing problems that included the violent rule of Pablo Escobar that had transformed Medellín into a battle field of car bombs explosions, drug trade, and shanty towns.