Clara López Obregón

Clara Eugenia López Obregón (born April 12, 1950) is a Colombian politician who was the Minister for Employment. She also served as Acting Mayor of Bogotá from 2011 to 2012. A Harvard-trained economist,[1] she was the Alternative Democratic Pole's nominee for President of Colombia in the 2014 election.[2][3]

Clara Eugenia López Obregón
Lopez in 2011
Minister of Labour of Colombia
In office 25 April 2016 – 5 May 2017
Appointed by	Juan Manuel Santos Calderón
Preceded by	Luis Eduardo Garzón
Acting Mayor of Bogotá
In office 8 June 2011 – 1 January 2012
Appointed by	Juan Manuel Santos Calderón
Preceded by	Samuel Moreno Rojas
Succeeded by	Gustavo Petro Urrego
6th Auditor General of Colombia
In office 1 April 2003 – 1 April 2005
Nominated by	Supreme Court of Justice
Appointed by	Council of State
Preceded by	César Augusto López Botero
Succeeded by	Piedad Amparo Zúñiga Quintero
Personal details
Born	12 April 1950 Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Alternative Democratic Pole (2005—present)
Other political affiliations	New Liberalism (1984–1987) Patriotic Union (1987–2005)
Spouse(s)	Edmond Jacques Courtois Miller ​ ​ (m. 1980⁠–⁠1983)​ Carlos Arturo Romero Jiménez ​ ​ (m. 1985)​
Alma mater	Harvard University (BEcon, 1972) University of Los Andes (LLB, 1996) University of Salamanca (LLD, 2002)
Profession	Economist, lawyer

López is also a University of Los Andes-trained lawyer with a doctorate from the University of Salamanca, and served as the 6th Auditor General of Colombia from 2003 to 2005.

Personal life

López was born on 12 April 1950 in Bogotá, Colombia to Álvaro López Holguín (grandson of Alfonso López Pumarejo) and Cecilia Obregón Rocha.[4] (cousin of painter Alejandro Obregón Roses) [5] She attended Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogotá,[5] but was later sent to live in McLean, Virginia in the United States, where she attended the Madeira School, a prestigious preparatory boarding school for girls.[5] After graduating high school in 1968, she attended Harvard University where she became an active participant in the student movement opposed to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. She graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in June 1972.[5]

She was married on 13 September 1980 in Tenjo, Cundinamarca to Edmond Jacques Courtois Miller,[6] a wealthy Canadian banker whom she met while in Harvard, but they later divorced after Courtois was charged and pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in New York in 1983, having peddled confidential takeover information while a Vice President at Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions department from 1974 to 1977.[7] She later remarried to Carlos Romero Jiménez, whom she met while they both served in the Bogotá City Council. She has no children.

References

1. "Clara Lopez | Profile". Colombia News | Colombia Reports. 1 April 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
2. "FACTBOX-Candidates in Colombia's presidential election". Reuters. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
3. "Clara Eugenia López Obregón, Colombia, Ministra de Trabajo (2016-) y candidata presidencial (2014)". www.cidob.org. 2014.
4. Restrepo Sáenz, José María; Rivas, Raimundo; Restrepo Posada, José, eds. (1995). Genealogías de Santa Fe de Bogotá (in Spanish) (4 ed.). Bogotá: Editorial Presencia. p. 390. OCLC 28546996. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
5. Vengoechea, Alejandra de. "Clara López: La mujer rebelde". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Bogotá. ISSN 0121-9987. OCLC 28894254. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
6. "Bogotá Social". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Bogotá (24.143): 10E. 12 September 1980. ISSN 0121-9987. OCLC 28894254.
7. "Courtois faces U.S. conspiracy charges". The Gazette. Montreal: 30. 5 February 1981. ISSN 0384-1294. OCLC 456824368. Retrieved 22 May 2014.

External links

• Biography by CIDOB