Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez
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Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez Castañeda (born October 16, 1963 in Girardot, Cundinamarca) is a Colombian politician and lawyer. She graduated as lawyer from the Universidad del Rosario and specialized in Administrative Law from the same university. Gutiérrez is a Senator of Colombia in representation of the Partido Cambio Radical (Radical Change Party) and President of the Senate of Colombia. As president of the senate, she is also the President of the Congress of Colombia.

Political career

Gutiérrez-Castañeda was elected in 1988 as mayor of the Municipality of Agua de Dios, Cundinamarca representing the political movement "Colombia Siempre" (Colombia Always), a movement created within the Colombian Liberal Party. After finalizing her term in 1990 Gutiérrez-Castañeda was appointed Regional Director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, ICBF) in 1991. She later returned to the political arena when she supported Leonor Serrano de Camargo for the Governorship of Cundinamarca in 1994. When Serrano was elected she appointed Gutiérrez-Castañeda as Secretary of Environment in January 1995, and a year later as Secretary General of the governor. In 1997 she quit her job to postulate her name for the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia for the legislative elections of 1998.

President of the Chamber of Representatives

After the corruption scandal that resulted in the renunciation of the President of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, Armando Pomárico, Gutiérrez-Castañeda was elected by the liberal majorities as president. She became the first woman to ever serve as legislative chamber in the history of Colombia. Her presidency ended on July 20, 2000. In 2002 Gutiérrez-Castañeda was reelected for another term representing the Colombia Always movement supporting once again Leonor Serrano who ran for a seat in the Senate.

Senator of Colombia

In 2004 she and her movement Colombia Always retired from the Colombian Liberal Party and joined the lines of the Radical Change party. For the legislative elections of 2006 Gutiérrez-Castañeda was elected as Senator of Colombia in representation of Radical Change. Radical Change had made a pact with Uribism Coalition (those supporters of President Alvaro Uribe) to preside the senate. After an election in Congress against senators Rubén Darío Quintero, Arturo Char and Miguel Pinedo, Gutiérrez-Castañeda was elected as President of the Senate of Colombia for the period that began on July 20, 2007. She became the third woman to ever serve as President of both the Senate and the Colombian congress.

References

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External links

• (Spanish) terra.com.co: Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez profile