Dilian Francisca Toro

Dilian Francisca Toro Torres (born 6 January 1959) is a Colombian physician and politician, she served as Senator of Colombia from 2002 to 2013. She is currently being investigated by the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia on charges of money laundering, and remains under preventive detention since 25 July 2012 at the Police Centre for Higher Studies (Cespo) in Bogotá.^[1]

Personal life

Dilian Francisca was born on 6 January 1959, in Guacarí, Colombia. When she was 15 years old, she co-founded Casa de la Cultura of Guacarí, a non-profit cultural organization working with at-risk groups. She studied Medicine at the Free University of Colombia, at Cali, where she graduated as Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery; she latter attended Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, where she specialized in Rheumatology.

Upon returning to Colombia, she was elected councilwoman for the Municipality of Guacarí, and in 1992 she became Mayor of Guacarí post which she occupied until 1994.

In 1996, she married former Senator Julio César Caicedo Zamorano in a religious ceremony officiated in the San Juan Bautista de Guacarí church,^[2] that same year she was named Secretary of Health for the Department of Valle del Cauca. Toro inherited the political support once held by the former liberal party leader in Valle del Cauca Carlos Abadía who was jailed as part of the 8000 process scandal, in which members of the Cali Cartel financed the political campaigns of numerous politicians including the presidential campaign of Ernesto Samper who resulted elected.

Senator of Colombia

Toro was first elected to Congress as a Liberal Party candidate in the 2002 Legislative Elections receiving a total of 71,721 votes.^[3]

Because of her support for President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and his bid for re-election, Toro was sanctioned by the Liberal Party in 2004, which prompted to join a splinter group of Congresspersons from different parties who joined to form the Social National Unity Party and backed President Uribe.

In 2006 Toro was re-elected senator, and elected by her peers as President of the Senate of Colombia.

Presidential band incident

During the inauguration ceremony of President Uribe for his second term, as president of the Congress of Colombia, she became the first woman to ever administer the oath of office to the President of Colombia.^[4] There was a controversy however, Toro made a mistake and placed the presidential band backwards, with the Colombian flag colors inverted. When Toro was interviewed about this, she explained that "it was to bring good fortune to the new government... ...because you are supposed to wear your panties inverted for good luck".^[5]

References

1. ↑ "Dilian Francisca Toro renunció al Senado". Semana (in Spanish) (Bogotá). 18 February 2013. ISSN 0124-5473. OCLC 7475329. Retrieved 19 June 2013. 
2. ↑ García, Francia Elena (1996-11-16). "Sociales De Cali". El Tiempo (in http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-593124). Retrieved 2009-05-24.  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
3. ↑ Delgado, Óscar (2003). Elecciones 2002: Presidenciales y Parlamentarias (in Spanish). Universidad del Rosario Facultad de Jurisprudencia. Bogotá: Our Lady of the Rosary University. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-00-124700-0. Retrieved 2009-05-24. 
4. ↑ Ocampo López, Javier (2006). "La Cultura Colombiana De La Transición Entre Los Siglos XX y XXI". Historia ilustrada de Colombia (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Bogotá: Plaza y Janes Editores. p. 202. ISBN 958-14-0370-1. OCLC 234235629. Retrieved 2009-05-24. 
5. ↑ Samper Pizano, Daniel (2006-08-16). "The Panty-otism era". El Tiempo. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-24.