Claudia Blum

Claudia Blum de Barberi (née 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.

Background 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. 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. the biggest pharmaceutical company of Colombia and one of the 50 biggest business groups of the country. Together they have two children Mauricio and Andrea Barberi Blum.

Career 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 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, which in turn led to the reelection of Álvaro Uribe Vélez; the national strategy law for the fight against human trafficking. She also organized political debates on the state of education in the country, on actions to improve the attention given to victims of forced displacement due to violence, and on assessments to strengthen the electoral system in Colombia.

President of the Senate 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.

As President of the Senate, she led initiatives aimed at increasing public information on legislative work and citizen participation in the process of evaluating laws. She pushed forward the launching of a Congressional television station, as well as initiatives for the better use of technology in the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, projects for the modernization of the Congressional Library, and actions towards guaranteeing the safety and security of the Legislative branch. and presented her Letter of Credence to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 11 September 2006.

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

Works Blum has also published books on Colombian Government and her career as a legislator.