Zulema del Carmen Jattin Corrales (born 31 July 1969) is a politician, and former

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 Chamber Representative for the

Department of Córdoba Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Career

She was elected Councilwoman for

Santa Cruz de Lorica Santa Cruz de Lorica is a town and municipality located in the Córdoba Department, northern Colombia. Lorica was named a '' Pueblo Patrimonio'' (heritage town) of Colombia in 2010. It is the only municipality near the Caribbean coast Tung C ...

from 1990 to 1992, and went on to become the heiress to her father's political career, in 1998 when she was elected to 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 ...

for 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 ...

. Her father

Francisco José Jattin Safar Francisco José Jattin Safar (died May 15, 2009) was a Colombian politician and diplomat. He was Senator of Colombia from 1994 to 1996, when he lost his seat in Congress for his connection to the proceso 8000 8,000 Process (from the es, Proce ...

, had been a Chamber Representative from 1990 to 1996 when he lost his investiture for being linked in the

Proceso 8000 8,000 Process (from the es, Proceso 8.000) is the unofficial name of the legal investigation for the events surrounding accusations about the Colombian Liberal Party candidate Ernesto Samper's 1994 campaign for President of Colombia being parti ...

. In 2004 she was elected President of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia beating her closest rival William Vélez Mesa, Representative for Antioquia. On 20 July she succeeded Alonso Acosta Osio in the Chamber, at the same time when across Congress, her ex-husband

Luis Humberto Gómez Gallo Luis Humberto Gómez Gallo (26 June 1962 − 25 December 2013) was a Colombian industrial engineer specialized in business administration and constitutional law. A Colombian Conservative Party, Conservative politician, he served as President of t ...

, was taking office as

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...

. In 2006, she successfully ran for

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Parapolitics scandal

In 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 ...

ran preliminary investigations into Jattin for links to

Salvatore Mancuso Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, also known as "el Mono Mancuso", "Santander Lozada" or "Triple Cero" (i.e. "Triple Zero", or, "000"), among other names (born August 17, 1964 in Montería, Córdoba) is a Colombian paramilitary leader, once second in ...

and

Rodrigo Tovar Pupo Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, (aka Jorge 40 his nom de guerre; born 19 November 1960) was born in Valledupar, Colombia. He was the leader of the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. He demobilized with his two thousand men strong grou ...

alias "Jorge 40", both paramilitary chiefs and drug traffickers extradited to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

but could not find conclusive evidence to charge her for anything. On 11 May 2009, the Supreme Court issued a warrant for her arrest for links with

paramilitarism A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

. During her arrest, her father, Francisco José Jattin, suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

and died four days later in a hospital. As the Supreme Court investigates all charged members of congress, Jattin renounced her seat in Congress on 13 May 2009, thus transferring the process from the Supreme Court to the

Office of the Attorney General of Colombia The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia ( es, Fiscalía General de la Nación; literally "General Prosecutorial Office of the Nation") is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative au ...

, however, the Supreme Court later ruled that all cases pertaining to congresspersons and linked by parapolitics would be prosecuted by the Supreme Court whether they had renounced their seat or not. She was replaced in Congress by Jairo Mantilla Colmenares. Due to the death of her father, she was allowed to attend to his funeral in Lorica with a permit from the INPEC, the defence was granted

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

for Jattin as she was the primary caretaker of her infant child, but she was freed seven months later after the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

had run out because the prosecution had not formally charged her after detaining her within the set time by the law. In September 2010, she was called in for questioning by the Court for calumny and slander for statements made to the press when she was arrested; she accused the Court and its members of kidnapping, and persecution among other things, she later recanted her statement, but the court choose to continue with their charge.

Electoral history

Personal life

Zulema del Carmen Jattin Corrales was born on 31 July 1969 in Lorica, Cordobá to

and Ema Corrales. She married on 22 June 2002 to

but divorced in 2003; together they had one daughter Zulema María.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jattin Corrales, Zulema 1969 births Living people People from Córdoba Department Colombian people of Lebanese descent Complutense University of Madrid alumni Members of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia Presidents of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia Members of the Senate of Colombia Kidnapped Colombian people Colombian parapolitics scandal Colombian Liberal Party politicians Jattin family