Carlos Alberto Baena

As a result of this media attack to Baena´s party, it became publicly known that Dora Landázuri, one of the MIRA party´s candidates to the 2014 Colombian parliamentary elections, is a physically disabled African-Colombian woman, which left no ground for accusations against Baena or his party on the basis of discrimination towards physically disabled people.

In 2011, while serving as Senator, he was acknowledged by the Bogotá City Council as one of the most representative leaders who have been part of the Council of Bogotá. In 2012 he was declared Honorary Citizen of Quibdó by Mayor Zulia Mena García for his work in Congress towards protecting the rights of Afro-Colombians.

In 2010, Baena ran for a seat in the Senate of Colombia as the third-in-line of the closed-electoral list of the MIRA party, headed by Senator Alexandra Moreno Piraquive. The party received 324,109 votes in the parliamentary elections, which gave them three seats in the Senate, Baena taking one of these.

Baena was acknowledged several times as the best Bogotá City Councillor by the political watchdog group Bogotá Cómo Vamos. He received this acknowledgment for the first time during the first semester of 2005 and later on, four times consecutively from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, his Bogotá City Council colleagues chose him as one of the three best Councillors of Bogotá. In the first semester of 2008 and in 2009, Baena and his party colleague, Councillor Humberto Quijano, were acknowledged as the best political coalition in the Bogotá City Council.

In 2000, Baena co-founded the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (MIRA); that same year he was elected as Party Chair serving until 2003. In 2001, Baena was elected to the Bogotá City Council of Bogotá for the first time, as member of the MIRA party. He was consecutively re-elected twice as Councillor in 2004, and in 2008. During his time in office, Baena was acknowledged five times as the best City Councillor by the political watchdog group Bogotá Cómo Vamos.

Carlos Alberto Baena López (born 12 November 1967) is a Colombian lawyer and politician, who served as Senator of Colombia from 2010 to 2014. Baena is a co-founder of the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (MIRA) and has served two terms as Party Chairman. Before ascending to Congress, Baena served as Councillor of the Bogotá City Council from 2001 to 2009.

Carlos Alberto was born on 12 November 1967 in Armenia, Quindío, to Alberto Baena and Gladys López. He is married to Lydia Raquel Hernández Corredor with whom he has four daughters. He attended Universidad Externado de Colombia where he graduated in Law and completed a specialization in Tax Management. He later attended University of the Andes where he obtained a Master of Public Administration, and completed further programs in Negotiation and High Government Studies.