Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez Castañeda (born 16 October 1963) is a Colombian lawyer and politician. She served as

Senator of Colombia The Senate of the Republic of Colombia ( es, Senado de la República de Colombia) is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the House of Representatives. The Senate has 108 members elected for concurrent (non-r ...

and Member of the

Chamber of Representatives of Colombia The Chamber of Representatives (Spanish: ''Cámara de Representantes'') is the lower house of the Congress of Colombia. It has 172 members elected to four-year terms. Electoral system According to the Colombian Constitution, the Chamber of Rep ...

, having served in both chambers as President.

Career

Gutiérrez Castañeda, a lawyer from the

Our Lady of the Rosary University Universidad del Rosario (officially in es, Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario) is a Colombian university founded on Roman Catholic principles, in 1653 by Fray Cristobal de Torres. Located in Bogotá, due to its important place in Co ...

, was first elected in 1988 as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of the

Municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Agua de Dios Agua de Dios (, literally in en, Water of God) is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and ...

, Cundinamarca, representing the political movement

Colombia Always The Colombia Always (''Colombia Siempre'') is a National conservatism, national conservative party in Colombia. At the legislative elections in Colombia, elections held on 10 March 2002, the party won, as one of the many small parties, parliament ...

, a movement created within the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. After finalizing her term in 1990 Gutiérrez Castañeda was appointed Regional Director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) in 1991. She later returned to the political arena when she supported Leonor Serrano 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.

Representative

In 1997, she resigned from Serrano's administration to postulate herself for the

for the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

of 1998. After a long deliberation process following the corruption scandal that resulted in the resignation of the President of the Chamber of Representatives, Armando Pomárico, Gutiérrez Castañeda was elected by the liberal majority coalition to finish Pomárico's term as President of the Chamber of the Representatives of Colombia, and became on March 30, 2000 the first woman to ever serve as President of the Chamber in the history of Colombia. Although her short presidency ended on July 20, 2000, she terminated the programs her predecessor was accused of, like foreign trips, gasoline allowances for the transportation of congress members, and the payroll discrepancies that so infuriated the public. In 2002 Gutiérrez Castañeda was re-elected representing the Colombia Always movement supporting once again Leonor Serrano who ran for a seat in the Senate. In 2004 Colombia Always left the Liberal coalition and joined the ranks of the

Radical Change Radical Change ( es, Cambio Radical; stylized with a backwards "R") is a conservative liberal political party in Colombia. After the elections on 12 March 2006, the party became one of the most important in the new Congress, receiving 20 seat ...

. As a Representative, she was a member of the First Constitutional Commission, the Special Commission on Territorial Division, the Commission on Peace, and the Special Commission on Modernization.

Senator

For the

of 2006 Gutiérrez Castañeda was elected as

in representation of Radical Change. Radical Change had made a pact with the coalition of supporters of President

Álvaro Uribe Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...

, giving the party the chance to preside the Senate. After an election in Congress against senators Rubén Darío Quintero, Arturo Char, and Miguel Pinedo, Gutiérrez Castañeda was elected President of the Senate of Colombia for the period that began on July 20, 2007.

Controversies

On April 18, 2008, the

Supreme Court of Colombia The Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ( es, Corte Suprema de Justicia de Colombia) in Bogotá is the highest judicial body in civil and penal matters and issues of criminal and civil procedure in Colombia. The Supreme Court of Colombia is th ...

ordered a preliminary investigation against Senator Gutiérrez while she was President of Congress for her apparent relation to armed right rebel groups in the

Colombian parapolitics scandal The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...

that shook the country, and led to the incarceration of various congressmen. The investigations connected Gutierrez with alias "El Pájaro", paramilitary of Cundinamarca, from where she is from Gutiérrez has denied the allegations and any relation with the rebels, citing her investigation as a plot against her. On 17 October 2011 the

Office of the Inspector General of Colombia The Office of the Inspector General of Colombia ( es, Procuraduría General de Colombia) is a Colombian independent, public institution overseeing the public conduct of those in authority or in charge of exercising a public office, and of overse ...

officially dropped the case against Congresswoman Gutiérrez.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez, Nancy Patricia 1963 births Living people Colombian women lawyers Del Rosario University alumni Members of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia Presidents of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia Presidents of the Senate of Colombia Colombia Always politicians Radical Change politicians Colombian Liberal Party politicians Colombian Ministers of the Interior and Justice Women government ministers of Colombia Female interior ministers 20th-century Colombian women politicians 20th-century Colombian politicians 21st-century Colombian women politicians 21st-century Colombian politicians 20th-century Colombian lawyers