María Isabel Mejía Marulanda

María Isabel Mejía Marulanda (born 16 March 1945) is a retired[1] Colombian politician and economist. She served in Congress first as Representative for her home department of Risaralda from 1986 to 2002, and then as Senator from 2002 to 2006, and again in 2008 to 2010 in.[2] A longtime Liberal party politician, she left the party in 2005 to form the Social Party of National Unity, a national political party formed by members of both mainstream parties in support of then President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

María Isabel Mejía Marulanda
Senator of Colombia
In office 27 August 2008 – 20 July 2010
Preceded by	Carlos Armando García Orjuela
In office 25 November 2004 – 20 July 2006
Preceded by	Ernesto Zuluaga Ramírez
In office 20 July 2002 – 28 August 2004
Succeeded by	Ernesto Zuluaga Ramírez
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 20 July 1986 – 20 July 2002
Constituency	Risaralda Department
11th Governor of Risaralda
In office 1 January 1976 – 1 January 1977
President	Alfonso López Michelsen
Preceded by	Alberto Mesa Abadía
Succeeded by	Carlos Arturo Ángel Arango
Mayor of Pereira
In office 1 January 1975 – 1 January 1976
President	Alfonso López Michelsen
Preceded by	Octavio Mejía Marulanda
Succeeded by	César Gaviria Trujillo
Personal details
Born	16 March 1945 Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Party of the U (2005-present)
Other political affiliations	Liberal (1977-2005)
Relations	Victoriana Mejía Marulanda (sister)
Alma mater	Michigan State University (BA, MA)
Profession	Economist

Political career

She first entered politics in 1975, when she was first appointed Mayor of Pereira during the administration of President Alfonso López Michelsen and the following year was appointed Governor of Risaralda. She first ran for office in 1977 as a Liberal party candidate for a seat in the Municipal Council of Pereira, which she won, and years later successfully ran for a seat in the Departmental Assembly of Risaralda.

Senate career

After serving 16 years in the Chamber of Representatives, Mejía ran for Senator of Colombia in the 2002 legislative elections as a Liberal candidate heading the Electoral List 648 that also included Ernesto Zuluaga Ramírez, Atilano Alonso Giraldo Arboleda, Miguel Ángel Pérez Gamboa, and José Albeiro Gallego Agudelo. In the national general election she received 55,087 votes, most of them from the Coffee-Growers Axis region, that represented 0.535% of the total national votes earning her a seat in the Senate.[3]

In 2004, following a national debate about amending the constitution to allow for a second presidential term, a motion widely popular among Colombians and sought by the sitting President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Mejía voted in favour of the re-election amendment and went against the official position of her party which opposed the re-elections of Uribe that demanded that all its members vote against it. For her vote, Mejía and other eight Liberal Senators including: Luis Guillermo Vélez Trujillo, José Renán Trujillo García, Víctor Renán Barco López, Jorge Aurelio Iragorri Hormaza, Piedad del Socorro Zuccardi de García, Dilian Francisca Toro Torres, Manuel Antonio Díaz Jimeno, and Flor Modesta Gnecco Arregocés, were suspended by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Liberal Party for a period of ten months each;[4][5] She was replaced in Congress on 28 August 2004 by Ernesto Zuluaga Ramírez, second-in-row of her electoral list.[6]

Personal life

Born 16 March 1945 in Pereira, Risaralda, Mariza, as she is known to those close to her, is the daughter of Bernardo Mejía Jaramillo and Dora Marulanda Gutiérrez. She completed her secondary education in Pereira and later attended Michigan State University where she graduated with a Bachelor in Economics, and later received a Master's Degree in Art History.[7]

See also

• María Victoria Calle Correa

References

1. Solano Peña, Aldemar. "María Isabel no va más" [María Isabel goes no more]. La Tarde (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
2. "María Isabel Mejía Marulanda: Curriculum" (in Spanish). Congreso Visible. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
3. "Resultados Electorales Legislativos 2002" [2002 Legislative Electoral Results] (in Spanish). Colombian Civil Registry. Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
4. "Suspendidos Nueve Senadores Liberales" [Nine Liberal Senators Suspended]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
5. "Nueve senadores liberales fueron suspendidos por votar reelección" [Nine Liberal senators were suspended for voting in favour of reelection]. Caracol Radio (in Spanish). 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
6. "Ernesto Zuluaga Ramírez: General" (in Spanish). Congreso Visible. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
7. "Ellas También Tienen Su Lugar en el Tarjetón" [They Also Have Their Place in the Ballot]. El Tiempo. 1991-10-23.