Claudia Blum

In November 2019, she became the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 2006, Blum left the Senate at the request of President Álvaro Uribe to head the Delegation of Colombia to the United Nations in New York City. She was sworn in as Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations on August 28, 2006 by President Uribe and presented her Letter of Credence to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on September 11, 2006.

Her Senate career reached its apex in 2005 when she became the first female President of the Senate of the Republic of Colombia, by now she was a member of the Radical Change, a centre-right party which had supported President Uribe.

She was first elected Senator of Colombia for the New Democratic Force after the ratification of the Colombian Constitution of 1991.

Blum worked in Cali as a journalist for the newspaper El Pueblo, she directed various cultural magazines and worked as a psychologist for the INEM Jorge Isaacs school. She was director of the art foundation Proartes, between 1984 and 1989, from where she revived and organized the International Art Festival of Cali and promoted public investment for the foundation.

She began her political career as a councilor for the Municipality of Cali and in her two terms, the first one from 1984 to 1986 and the second one from 1990 to 1991, she developed her record for working for public spaces, culture, and the environment.

She grew up in a Conservative leaning household but she briefly flirted with the Left as she became interested in politics and was influenced by the Liberal politician Luis Carlos Galán., although she returned to the right for the rest of her political career, and has been particularly loyal to very conservative former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez. In 1982 her father, Harold Blum Mejía, was killed by the rebel forces FARC-EP which prompted most of her family to leave the country, she however chose to stay and continue her political aspirations.

She became Vice President of the Fifth Commission of Congress in 1982, where she worked on creating the Ministry of the Environment and reorganized the work of State entities on the issue, as well as laws on energy, agriculture, and public services. She was also Vice President of the Commission of Legal Ethics, member of the Senate Commission for Peace, and starting in 1994, was a member of the First Commission, body which she presided over from mid-1999 to mid-2000.

Claudia Blum Capurro (born 9 August 1948) is a Colombian psychologist and politician who served as foreign minister. A veteran Senator, she became the first woman to serve as President of the Senate of Colombia. She also served as the 26th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations.

Claudia was born in Cali, Colombia on 9 August 1948 to Harold Blum Mejía and Liliam Capurro Borrero. She first went to school in Cali to the prestigious bilingual school Colegio Colombo Británico until her family moved to Boston, United States, where she finished her high school education. She returned to Colombia to study Psychology at the University of Valle and moved on to obtain her Masters in Political Studies from the Pontifical Xavierian University. She has also carried out advanced studies in negotiation and conflict resolution at the Harvard Law School.