Arelis Uriana

Arelis María Uriana Guariyú (born 24 February 1976) is a Wayuu Colombian politician and indigenous leader. She was the first indigenous woman to run for President of Colombia as a pre-candidate for the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition in 2022, representing the (MAIS).

Career Uriana was born on 24 February 1976 in Resguardo Indígena de Mayabangloma, Fonseca, La Guajira, Colombia in a Wayuu family. In that community, she had to do farm work from a young age and received part of her primary education there, where nuns taught classes under the trees. She attended high school in Fonseca, but failed her first year because she had to walk more than an hour to get there and couldn't make it to class on time.

Uriana became the first indigenous woman member of the MAIS candidacy for the 2018 parliamentary election, in which she obtained 16,495 votes.

Personal life She married a Wayuu man at the age of 19 with whom she had six children.