Marta Lucía Ramírez

Marta Lucía Ramírez
Ramírez in 2022
12th Vice President of Colombia
In office
7 August 2018  7 August 2022
PresidentIván Duque
Preceded byÓscar Naranjo
Succeeded byFrancia Márquez
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
19 May 2021  7 August 2022
PresidentIván Duque
Preceded byClaudia Blum
Succeeded byÁlvaro Leyva
Senator of Colombia
In office
20 July 2006  18 February 2009
Minister of National Defence
In office
7 August 2002  9 November 2003
PresidentÁlvaro Uribe
Preceded byGustavo Bell Lemus
Succeeded byJorge Alberto Uribe
Ambassador of Colombia to France
In office
1 February 2002  25 July 2002
PresidentAndrés Pastrana
Preceded byJuan Camilo Restrepo
Succeeded byMiguel Gómez Martínez
Minister of Foreign Trade
In office
7 August 1998  1 February 2002
PresidentAndrés Pastrana
Preceded byCarlos Ronderos Torres
Succeeded byÁngela María Orozco
Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade
In office
14 November 1991  12 February 1993
PresidentCésar Gaviria
MinisterJuan Manuel Santos
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJuan José Echavarría
Personal details
Born
Marta Lucía Ramírez Blanco

(1954-07-04) 4 July 1954
Zipaquirá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Political partyDemocratic Center (2018–present)
Other political
affiliations
Union Party for the People (2006–2009)
Conservative (2009–2018)
Spouse
(m. 1984)
ChildrenMaría Alejandra Rincón Ramírez
Alma mater
ProfessionLawyer
WebsiteWebsite

Marta Lucía Ramírez Blanco (born 4 July 1954) is a Colombian lawyer and politician who served as 12th Vice President of Colombia from 2018 to 2022. She also served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia. In 2018, Ramírez became the first woman elected to serve as Vice President of Colombia, running on a ticket with Iván Duque. In 2021, after the resignation of her predecessor Claudia Blum, she was pronounced chancellor by the president Iván Duque.

Elected Senator of Colombia in 2006, Ramírez introduced legislative initiatives to permit women to attain the rank of General in the Military Forces of Colombia, and to mandate English teaching in schools. Ramírez was Colombia's first female Minister of National Defence, serving from 2002 to 2003 in the administration of President Álvaro Uribe, and the second woman in Latin America to hold this title. She has also served as the 6th Minister of Foreign Trade of Colombia, from 1998 to 2002.

In 2009 she resigned from the Senate to run as a candidate for the 2010 Conservative Party's presidential nomination, finishing third to the eventual Conservative nominee Noemí Sanín. In 2014, she once again ran for the Conservative nomination, this time winning the nomination, but ultimately finishing third in the first round of the 2014 presidential election. Ramirez is also a member of Washington, D.C.–based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.