Marta Lucía Ramírez
| Marta Lucía Ramírez Blanco | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Marta Lucía Ramírez in 2014 | |
| Senator of Colombia | |
| In office 20 July 2006 – 9 June 2009 | |
| 20th Minister of National Defence of Colombia | |
| 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 | 4 July 1954 Zipaquirá, Colombia |
| Nationality | Colombian |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Álvaro Rincón |
| Children | María Alejandra Rincón Ramírez |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Xavierian University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Marta Lucía Ramírez (born 4 July 1954) Marta Lucía Ramírez de Rincón is a Colombian lawyer who has worked both: in the private and the public sector in her country. In her private career, she was the CEO of private sector companies (Mazdacredito and Invercolsa ) and private associations as ANIF (Financial Institutions Association); FEDELEASING (a leasing companies association) and The Coalition for Colombian Manufacturers Development. She was also a Board member of different private companies and Banks as Banco de Bogota; Alfa Insurance Company, Siemens Andina, and recently, she served as the Chair of the Board of Corpbanca (Chilean – Colombian Bank), and the Chair of the Board of Group Gerdau (a Brazilian Steel company) and the chair of Tejido Humano a private (NGO) who work for disabled soldiers and demobilized guerrilla members and civilian people affected by the Colombian conflict.
Early years
Ramírez studied law at the Pontifical Xavierian University 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.
Public and political career
In 1973 whilestudying law she worked part time for the Superintendence of Colombian Banks where she had a rapid and ascendant career. Between 1990 and 1991, President Cesar Gaviria appointed Ramirez as Director of the Colombian Institute for Foreign Commerce. In this position she pushed for the president to create a Colombian Ministry of Foreign Trade that would be more suited to Colombian economic openness. She was responsible for designing the new Ministry and passing the bill in Colombian Congress. Because Ramirez was not a politician and lacked political support, in 1991 Juan Manuel Santos was appointed as Minister of Foreign Trade and Ramirez as Vice Minister from 1991until 1993 when she resigned to initiate her private consulting firm until 1996, when she was invited as a Fellow to the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
Minister of Foreign Trade
In 1997 Ramirez returned to Colombia as Noemi Sanin’s campaign manager who ran for office in 1998. When Sanin lost the race, the new president Andres Pastrana appointed Ramirez as Minister of Foreign Trade from 1998 until 2002. During this period she was rated as the best minister of Pastrana’s cabinet in several polls. Her most important achievements were the design and implementation of a 10 year Strategic Plan for exports, competitiveness and enterpreneurship policy for Colombia. At the end of Pastrana’s administration, Ramirez was appointed as Colombian ambassador to France. Only four months later, Alvaro Uribe was elected President and appointed Ramirez to become his Defense Minister.
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
Marta Lucia Ramirez was the 20th Minister of National Defense the second woman in Latin America to hold this title after Michelle Bachelet who later became President of Chile. Ramirez served as Defense Minister from 2002until 2003. Her most significant contributions to Alvaro Uribe’s government were the design and implementation of a 10 year Democratic Security Policy and her focus on civilian control over the military in order to maintain efficiency and legitimacy of the military forces in the war against the Colombian guerrillas, paramilitaries and narcotrafickers. During her term in the Defense Ministry, she designed and implemented the massive demobilization program for guerrilla members, which focuses on young guerrillas to combat the farc’s recruitment of child soldiers’ . Under the leadership of President Uribe, she also implemented the security of Colombian roads through a program called “Live Colombia travel through it”, and designed a program focused on transparency and efficiency in the military procurement. She also initiates a group of civilian advisors to implement a reform in the Colombian Police, in order to complement the military fight against terrorism in urban locations.After the ministry of Defense, Ramirez became a private consultant in trade and security. She then became advisor for the World Trade Organization where she was appointed Chairwoman for the panel of experts at the Airbus-Boeing Trade panel. She resigned to run for the Colombian Senate in2006 where she was elected with a high majority of opinion votes in the U Party, a new political party organized under Uribe’s government.
Senator of Colombia: July2006 – July 2009
Elected as President of the International Affairs and Defense Commission in the Colombian Senate. As a senator she authored Law 1253/08 law for Colombian competitiveness; 1286/09 law for Science Technology and Innovation; 1190/09 law in favor of displaced people and different bills for public Universities, women protection, bilingual education and also presented political control debates to the executive branch. Due to her critics because of clientelism and corruption within the party, she organized dissidence with Gina Parody and Nicolas Uribe. Latter Ramirez was against a third election of Alvaro Uribe as a Colombian president so she decided to resign from the party and the Congress. In 2010 sheparticipate as a candidate for the Colombian presidency within the conservative party where she still belongs.