Rodrigo Rivera Salazar

Last updated

Rodrigo Rivera Salazar (born 20 April 1963) [1] is a Colombian politician. A lawyer, diplomat, professor and journalist, Rivera served in the Congress first as a Member of the Chamber of Representatives for two terms from 1990 to 1998, [2] and then as Senator of Colombia for two terms from 1998 to 2006, [2] when he retired from Congress to run, ultimately unsuccessfully, for the 2006 Liberal presidential nomination. In 2010, Rivera was appointed Minister of National Defence of Colombia by President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón and served until his resignation the following year.

Contents

Fresh out of College, he was elected Councilman to the Pereira City Council at the age of 20 and served on it until 1989, [2] during this time he also worked as Professor of Constitutional Law at his alma mater, the Free University of Pereira, and wrote as a columnist for the nationally syndicated newspaper of El Espectador , and the local newspaper La Tarde. [3] In 1997 he was recognized by the Junior Chamber International as an Outstanding Young Persons of the World for his work as President of the Chamber of Representatives during the impeachment trial against President Ernesto Samper Pizano. [4] In 2003 he was elected President of the Colombia Liberal Party Directorate. In 2007, in his first break from politics, he attended the Washington College of Law as a Humphrey Fellow, specializing in Economic Development and Human Rights. [5]

On 31 August 2011, President Santos announced the resignation of Minister Rivera and offered him the post of Ambassador of Colombia to Belgium that is concurrently accredited to Luxembourg and the European Union. [6] He has occupied that position since then

Minister of Defence

Upon his return to Colombia in 2009, Rivera supported the controversial proposal for a referendum to decide on a third presidential term for President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and openly supported Uribe's Democratic Security Policies. [7] When it was announced that Uribe would not run for re-election because of the ruling passed down by Constitutional Court of Colombia, Rivera threw his support behind Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, Uribe's Minister of Defence and presidential nominee for the Party of the U, becoming the Political Manager of Santos' campaign. [8]

When Santos won the 2010 Colombian presidential election, he named Rivera Minister of National Defence on 28 July 2010, [9] pending his inauguration into office, and when this took place on 7 August 2010, Rivera was sworn in as the new Minister of National Defence.

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<i>El Tiempo</i> (Colombia) Colombian newspaper

El Tiempo is a nationally distributed broadsheet daily newspaper in Colombia launched on January 30, 1911. As of 2019, El Tiempo had the highest circulation in Colombia with an average daily weekday of 1,137,483 readers, rising to 1,921,571 readers for the Sunday edition.

<i>El Espectador</i> Colombian newspaper

El Espectador is a newspaper with national circulation within Colombia, founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez on 22 March 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It changed from a daily to a weekly edition in 2001, following a financial crisis, and became a daily again on 11 May 2008, a comeback which had been long rumoured, in tabloid format. From 1997 to 2011 its main shareholder was Julio Mario Santo Domingo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Party for the People</span> Colombian political party

The Union Party for the People, or Party of the U, is a liberal political party in Colombia. The Party is led by former president Juan Manuel Santos. It was formerly Colombia's largest political party, in a coalition with the Liberal Party and Radical Change, until it lost 7 seats in the 2018 parliamentary elections and presidential elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Manuel Santos</span> President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germán Vargas Lleras</span> Colombian politician

Germán Vargas Lleras is a Colombian politician who recently served as Vice President of Colombia under President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. A member of the Radical Change political party, he served four consecutive terms in the Senate, having been elected in 1994. German Vargas also served in the Cabinet as the Minister of Interior and then as the Minister of Housing, City and Territory. He was elected Vice President of Colombia in 2014, running alongside Juan Manuel Santos who was seeking re-election for a second term as President. On 15 March 2017, Vargas Lleras resigned as Vice President in order to be eligible to run for President in the 2018 presidential elections. He finished in fourth place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Colombian presidential election</span> General election held in Colombia

Presidential elections were held in Colombia in 2010. They took place under a two-round system, with an initial vote held on 30 May and a second poll held three weeks later on 20 June. A referendum proposal that would have allowed incumbent President Álvaro Uribe the opportunity to run for a third term was rejected by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in a 7–2 ruling on 26 February 2010. Because no candidate received a majority of the votes cast in the 30 May poll, the candidates with the two highest vote totals competed in a runoff election on 20 June: Juan Manuel Santos of the liberal-conservative Social Party of National Unity which unites supporters of former President Uribe, and Antanas Mockus from the Green Party. Santos won the election with 69% of the votes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatriz Elena Uribe Botero</span> Colombian economist and politician

Beatriz Elena Uribe Botero is a Colombian economist and politician currently serving as the 1st President of the National Mining Agency Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar</span> Colombian politician

Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar was the 10th Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia, serving in the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. A veteran politician, he also served as the 63rd Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia, the 17th Minister of Mines and Energy of Colombia, the 20th Ambassador of Colombia to France, and as Senator of Colombia. A lifelong member of the Conservative Party, he tried to run for the Conservative presidential nomination in 1998, losing in the primaries, and 2002, where he won the primaries but withdrew before the election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrés Felipe Arias Leiva</span> Colombian economist and politician

Andrés Felipe Arias Leiva is a Colombian economist, sentenced to 17 years and 4 months of prison for a corruption scandal during his time as Minister of Agriculture. He served as the 8th Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia from 2005 to 2009, and was a candidate for the Conservative Party nomination in the 2010 Colombian presidential election, ultimately losing to Noemí Sanín Posada.

Carlos Eduardo Medellín Becerra is a Colombian lawyer and diplomat and has served as Minister of Justice of Colombia and as Ambassador of Colombia to the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Carlos Pinzón</span> Colombian diplomat, politician and economist

Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno is a Colombian diplomat, politician and economist. He is the current Ambassador of Colombia to the United States and former Minister of Defence. Pinzon comes from a military family, his father was a Colonel in the Colombian Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Pearl González</span>

Frank Joseph Pearl González is a Colombian economist. He served as the 1st Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development serving in the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, and as the 1st High Presidential Advisor for the Social and Economic Reintegration of People and Groups Up in Arms during the administration of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez between 2006 and 2010 during which time he was also entrusted the office of High Commissioner for Peace ad interim in replacement of Luis Carlos Restrepo Ramírez, until his resignation from both posts in 2010.

Francisco José Lloreda Mera is a Colombian lawyer, politician, writer, editor and newspaper director. He is serving as High Presidential Advisor for Coexistence and Citizen Security in the Administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. He previously served the government as Ambassador of Colombia to the Netherlands and as Minister of National Education of Colombia.

Miguel Esteban Peñaloza Barrientos is a Colombian electrical engineer, who briefly served in 2012 as the 11th Minister of Transport of Colombia. He has also served as High Presidential Adviser for the Regions and Citizen Participation in the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón between 2010 and 2012, and as High Presidential Adviser for Competitiveness and the Regions since 2008. during the administration of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Carrillo Flórez</span>

Fernando Carrillo Flórez is a Pontifical Xavierian University educated lawyer and economist, with postgraduate studies from Harvard University. He served as Colombia's 11th Minister of the Interior from 2012 to 2013, and 55th Minister of Justice from 1991 to 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Colombian presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Colombia on 25 May 2014. Since no candidate received 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off between the two candidates with the most votes took place three weeks later on 15 June 2014. According to the official figures released by the National Registry office, as of 22 May 2014 32,975,158 Colombians were registered and entitled to vote in the 2014 presidential election, including 545,976 Colombians resident abroad. Incumbent president Juan Manuel Santos was allowed to run for a second consecutive term. In the first round, Santos and Óscar Iván Zuluaga of the Democratic Center were the two highest-polling candidates and were the contestants in the 15 June run-off. In the second round, Santos was re-elected president, gaining 51% of the vote compared with 45% for Zuluaga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Óscar Iván Zuluaga</span> Colombian politician and economist (born 1959)

Óscar Iván Zuluaga Escobar is a Colombian politician and economist who was the Democratic Center's nominee for President of Colombia in the 2014 election. He won the most votes in the first round of the election and but went on to lose to the incumbent Juan Manuel Santos Calderon in the second round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurelio Iragorri Valencia</span>

Aurelio Iragorri Valencia is the 12th Minister of the Interior of Colombia, serving in the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. Iragorri, who had served as Deputy Minister of the Interior from 2010 to 2012, also served as Santos' Chief of Staff, and as High Presidential Advisor for Political Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfonso Prada</span> Colombian politician

Hernando Alfonso Prada Gil is a Colombian lawyer, university professor and politician. He has served as Colombia's minister of the interior since August 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Juan Manuel Santos</span> Colombian presidency from 2010 to 2018

The Presidency of Juan Manuel Santos began on August 7, 2010 and ended on August 7, 2018, its predecessor was the government of Álvaro Uribe and its successor is the Iván Duque.

References

  1. "¿Quienes son los ministros designados para los despachos de Defensa y de Interior y de Justicia?" [Who are the ministers nominated for the ministries of Defence and of Interior and Justice]. Caracol Radio (in Spanish). 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  2. 1 2 3 Congreso Visible. "Rodrigo Rivera Salazar" (in Spanish). University of the Andes . Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  3. "Rodrigo Rivera S". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 1991-01-16. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  4. "Rodrigo Rivera". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 1997-11-29. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  5. "Introducing the AU/WCL 2007-2008 Humphrey Fellows". Washington College of Law . Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  6. "Presidente Santos elogió la gestión del saliente Ministro de Defensa" [President Santos praised the exiting Minister of Defence] (in Spanish). Bogotá: Office of the President of Colombia (SIG). 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  7. "Rodrigo Rivera cerró puerta del Partido Liberal" [Rodrigo Rivera closed the door on the Liberal Party]. El Espectador (in Spanish). 2009-02-26. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  8. "Rodrigo Rivera, gerente político de la campaña de Juan Manuel Santos, votó en Pereira" [Rodrigo Rivera, Political Manager of Juan Manuel Santos's Campaign, Voted in Pereira]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  9. "Dos presidenciables al nuevo gabinete" [Two presidential hopefuls to the new cabinet]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
Rodrigo Rivera Salazar
Rodrigo Rivera Salazar.jpg
Colombian Ambassador to Belgium
In office
1 December 2011 31 January 2018