Nohra Puyana Bickenbach

Nohra Puyana Bickenbach (born 29 May 1955)[1] is the wife of the 30th President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, and served as First Lady of Colombia from 1998 to 2002.

The Most Excellent

Nohra Puyana Bickenbach
Nohra Puyana in 1993 by Mauricio Mendoza for Cromos.
First Lady of Colombia
In role
7 August 1998 (1998-08-07) – 7 August 2002 (2002-08-07)
PresidentAndrés Pastrana Arango
Preceded byJacquin Strouss Lucena
Succeeded byLina María Moreno Mejía
Personal details
Born (1955-05-29) 29 May 1955
Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
NationalityColombian
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Andrés Pastrana Arango (1981–present)
Children
  • Santiago Pastrana Puyana
  • Laura Pastrana Puyana
  • Valentina Pastrana Puyana
Alma materÉcole française des attachés de presse (BJ)
ProfessionJournalist
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Puyana and the second or maternal family name is Bickenbach.

Personal life

Nohra was born in Medellín, Antioquia[2] on 29 May 1955 to Eduardo Puyana Rodríguez and Alicia Bickenbach Plata.[3] Nohra, the eldest of four children has two brothers, Eduardo and David, and one sister Laura.[2] At a young age the family moved to Bogotá, and she attended the New Granada School where she finished her primary education and then attended the Marymount School where she finished her secondary education, and afterwards travel to France where she studied journalism at the École Française des Attachés de Presse in Paris.[4] After college, Puyana worked for the French magazine Elle, for Christian Dior, and for the UNESCO Press Corps.[4]

In 1978 back in Colombia, she met Andrés Pastrana Arango, a lawyer and then Director of Guión magazine, and the son of former President of Colombia Misael Pastrana Borrero and his wife and former First Lady María Cristina Arango Vega;[5][6] they were introduced at a corrida de toros in Cartagena de Indias by Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, a mutual friend of the Puyanas and the Pastranas.[5][6] They met again later that year at a new year's party and they started dating shortly after.[5] They were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony on 20 March 1981 at the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Cartagena.[7] Together they have three children: Santiago (born 18 December 1982),[7] Laura (born 11 May 1985),[7] and Valentina (born 25 April 1996).[8]

Living through Colombian armed conflict, Puyana had to endure the tragedy that beset her family during the wave of kidnappings in Colombia during the late 1980s, the whole of the 1990s, and early 2000s. Her husband, the then Bogotá Mayoral candidate Andrés Pastrana Arango, was kidnapped on 18 January 1988 in Antioquia by the Medellín Cartel in an effort to put pressure on the Government into preventing the extradition of Pablo Escobar and other drug lords to the United States; he was finally released a week later. On 9 April 1991, her father, Eduardo Puyana Rodríguez of 62 years of age, was kidnapped when he was driving his car in Bogotá;[9] his body was found on 2 April 1993 buried on a farm in the outskirts of the town of Victoria, Caldas, he had been killed for over a year, shot in the head by his captors.[9] On 27 December 2002, her maternal uncle the businessman, Helmut Bickenbach Plata of 69, and his wife the former Miss Colombia, Doris Inés Gil Santamaría of 63, were kidnapped from their home in Nocaima by the FARC and held captive for ransom;[10] they were killed at point-blank range by the guerrillas on 23 June 2003 during a confrontation with Colombian Army.[11]

See also

References
  1. "Dos Esposas de Primera" [Two First Wives]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Bogotá. 6 April 1994. ISSN 0121-9987. OCLC 28894254. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  2. "Entre diseño, historia y economía, el perfil de las primeras damas". La República (in Spanish). Bogotá. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  3. García Vásquez, Julio Cesar. "1.3 Andrés Pastrana Arango, Familiares y Parentela" [1.3 Andrés Pastrana Arango, Relatives and Kin]. Genealogía Colombiana [Colombian Genealogy] (Family tree) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Interconexion Colombia. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  4. "Juego de Damas" [Ladies' Game]. Semana (in Spanish). Bogotá. 16 May 1994. ISSN 0124-5473. OCLC 7475329. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  5. Aguirre Acosta, Diamilia Rocio (23 May 1998). "Nohra, La Devota de Andrés" [Nohra, The Devout of Andrés]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Bogotá. ISSN 0121-9987. OCLC 28894254. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  6. "200 Años de Amores" [200 Years of Love]. Cromos (in Spanish). Bogotá. 19 July 2010. ISSN 0011-1708. OCLC 7682578. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  7. Testimonio De Una Trayectoria [Testimony of a Trayectory] (in Spanish). Bogotá: Pastrana Arango, Andrés; Presidential Campaign of. 1994. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  8. "Nueva Fuerza Familiar" [New Family Force]. Semana (in Spanish). Bogotá. 3 June 1996. ISSN 0124-5473. OCLC 7475329. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  9. "Captores Mataron A E Puyana" [Captors Killed E Puyana]. El Tiempo. Bogotá. 3 April 1993. ISSN 0121-9987. OCLC 28894254. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  10. "Colombia Indignada Por La Muerte de Rehenes" [Colombia Indignant for the Death of Hostages]. El Nuevo Herald (in Spanish). Miami: The Miami Herald: 1B. 23 June 2003. OCLC 4226997.
  11. "FARC Asesinaron Á Helmut Bickenbach Y La Señora Doris Gil de Bickenbach" [FARC Assassinates Helmut Bickenbach And Mrs Doris Gil de Bickenbach] (in Spanish). Bogotá: Colombia, Press Office of the President (SNE). 24 June 2003. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
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