Claudia López: Colombia, Lgbtq+ Rights, And Political Landscape

López in 2014 went back to Colombia, and ran for the country’s Senate as a member of the center-left Green Partnership celebration after she recouped from bust cancer. López won after a 10-week project that set you back $80,000.

Senate Run and Political Hall of Fame

“In a week I am going to go back to Colombia and I’m returning with a very, really punctual job,” she claimed in a speech she provided after the Success Institute inducted her right into its LGBTQ+ Political Hall of Popularity at the JW Marriott. “Democracy worldwide generally needs psychological reconnection.”

FARC Peace Process and Diversity

“The peace process with the FARC, which was to demobilize the FARC, period, definitely tried to have and had a sex emphasis, of course a diversity emphasis, a focus on human rights for all sufferers, and certainly (the) numerous LGBT targets who had actually been victims of FARC employment, misuse, stigmatization, etc,” López informed the Blade. “So, in some feeling, or in many detects, having that sex and variety viewpoint was a means of recognizing the victims of our neighborhood.”

López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she married her wife, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, much less than a month after she wed her better half, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. Lozano was with López at the Triumph Institute meeting.

López took workplace on Jan. 1, 2020, much less than a month after she married her other half, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. When she was elected to the Us senate.), (López was not out Lozano was with López at the Triumph Institute meeting.

Mayoral Term and Political Climate

Previous Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, a previous legislator that was as soon as a participant of the M-19 guerrilla activity that disbanded in the 1990s, succeeded Duque as president on Aug. 7, 2022. Colombia and Venezuela brought back polite connections much less than a month later on.

“I understand exactly how you feel,” claimed López in her speech. “I have actually been there when we lost the peace referendum in 2016. I’ve been there when 3 prospects that stood for independent, brand-new options in Colombia, and plans were killed by mafia groups in 1990. I’ve existed when a mafia cartel was able to fund and choose a president for all of us. I have actually existed when paramilitary teams had the ability to elect one more president and support in Colombia.”

López claimed celebrations, prospects, and their political unions in Colombia and worldwide requirement to “pay attention, reconnect, and arrange with people” at the grassroots. López additionally informed the Blade there is a “worldwide situation of freedom.”

When he left office, López in 2018 was her celebration’s prospect to prosper then-President Juan Manuel Santos. López in 2019 came to be the first woman and first lesbian chosen mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian resources and the country’s largest city.

Previous Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Saturday did not particularly review the growing speculation over whether she will run for president of Colombia in 2026 when she talked at the LGBTQ+ Success Institute’s yearly International LGBTQ Leaders Meeting in D.C. and with the Washington Blade.

López declared her candidateship four days prior to a gunman shot Sen. Miguel Uribe, a participant of the resistance Democratic Facility event that is viewed as a probable presidential candidate, in the head throughout a rally in Bogotá’s Fontibón community.

Challenges to Democracy

“So, I return to Colombia rested, grateful after a year of representation, with proposals in mind, however established to commit time to what I think about one of the most essential benefit democracy currently, which is to reconnect from the grassroots,” added López.

“I recognize how unknown and tough and difficult and painful autonomous times are, yet we can not (back) democracy just when we win,” she included. “It’s specifically when things are challenging, when we suffer defeats that hurt, that we need to connect to our democratic and humanistic values and principles.”

López in her speech stated Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a former guv of La Guajíra Department in north Colombia, endangered to assassinate her due to the fact that she wrote about his connections to criminal gangs. A Bogotá court in 2017 founded guilty Gómez of ordering participants of a paramilitary team to kill former Barrancas Mayor Yandra Brito, her spouse, and bodyguard and punished him to 55 years in prison.

When he left office, López in 2018 was her celebration’s candidate to succeed then-President Juan Manuel Santos. López in 2019 became the very first female and first lesbian elected mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian resources and the country’s biggest city.

Grassroots Reconnection and Future Plans

López in 2014 went back to Colombia, and ran for the country’s Senate as a participant of the center-left Eco-friendly Alliance event after she recouped from breast cancer cells. López won after a 10-week project that set you back $80,000.

“It is not concerning making anything invisible, or perhaps downplaying anything, but rather about being a lot more strategic in understanding that we do not desire our flags and triggers to be exposed in such a way that winds up being a boomerang for our own area,” López added. “So, I state that is why it is a frustration, due to the fact that I think it is a lesson. At the very least for me, it made me assume and it makes me believe, and I have claimed it freely since then, that we have to be much more cautious and a lot more, most of all, tactical, in just how we increase our flags so that they truly do not just have symbolic, but real advancements and so that in no instance do they become a boomerang versus ourselves.”

López took workplace on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she wed her better half, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. López’s mayorship ended on Dec. 31, 2023.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on July 28 stated President Nicolás Maduro the victor of the nation’s disputed governmental election. Tamara Adrián, the country’s very first transgender congresswoman who ran in the governmental main earlier this year, are among those who knocked ballot irregularities.

“I was the only woman, the only LGBTQ member of my caucus,” she said in her speech. “Naturally I had the honor, however additionally the obligation to represent them particularly well, [and] naturally all the people that trust me and all the citizens of Colombia.”

“We had lots of hope, prepared to visit provide a brand-new social and ecological agreement for Bogotá society for the 21st century,” she stated. “However a couple of (months) after being vowed right into office, the pandemic of COVID-19 came.”

Pandemic’s Impact and Social Programs

Santos and the Revolutionary Army of Colombia Commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño on Sept 26, 2016, signed an LGBTQ-inclusive tranquility contract. Colombian citizens a few days later on narrowly rejected it a vote that occurred versus the backdrop of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from conservative and spiritual teams.

Peace Accord and LGBTQ+ Inclusion

If she wins, López would be Colombia’s first female head of state. López would certainly also come to be the third honestly lesbian female elected head of federal government– Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was Iceland’s prime minister from 2009-2013 and Ana Brnabić was Serbia’s prime minister from 2017-2024.

López in a speech she offered last December after the LGBTQ+ Triumph Institute honored her at its annual International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in D.C. kept in mind Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a former guv of La Guajíra, a department in northern Colombia, intimidated to execute her due to the fact that she discussed his ties to criminal gangs.

“It is not regarding making anything unnoticeable, or also downplaying anything, but rather regarding being much a lot more strategic in recognizing that we do not want our flags and creates to be subjected in a means that finishes up being a boomerang for our very own community,” López included.” I understand exactly how you feel,” said López in her speech.

López during the meeting applauded the current elections of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Uruguayan Vice President Beatriz Argimón, and other females in Latin America. She additionally expressed compassion with LGBTQ Americans who are concerned regarding the incoming Trump-Vance management.

López, 55, was a trainee objection activity leader, journalist, and political researcher prior to she went into politics. López went back to Colombia in 2013 after she gained her PhD in government at Columbia College.

López noted her management in response to the pandemic offered scholarships to youngsters, supported services, and boosted financing of the city’s social solutions. López also claimed her management executed Latin America’s very first city-based care system for female care providers, and develop 3 more LGBTQ community centers in bad and working-class areas.