The Government of Colombia has announced this Friday the incorporation of four more women to its negotiating team at the Peace Dialogue Table with the National Liberation Army (ELN), thus completing the female quota with eight negotiators.
Half of the members of the Government delegation in the negotiations will now be women after the decision of the Petro Executive and after the criticism of the Minister of Culture, Patricia Ariza, who asked to “remove testosterone from the political discussion” of the dialogues that they have in Venezuela, reported ‘El Colombiano’.
“In order to expand the participation of women in the Peace Dialogue Table with the ELN, the National Government has decided to incorporate four more women into its negotiating team,” the Executive reported in a statement.
The women who will integrate the tables are the journalists Mabel Lara and Maria Jimena Duzan, the lawyer Nigeria Renteria and the pastor Adelaida Jimenez.
Mabel Lara is a political scientist, internationalist and journalist by profession. In her career of more than two decades, she has received various awards such as the India Catalina Award or the Simon Bolivar Award. She has also been awarded as a leader ‘First
Generation’ by the United Nations and the Government of Sweden.
Maria Jimena Duzan is a journalist and writer, author of several books on the Colombian conflict. She founded the graduate program in journalism at the Universidad de Los Andes and for more than 30 years she has worked with the most important media in the country and several renowned international media. She is also a columnist for the Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’ and for Cambio Magazine.
Nigeria Renteria is a lawyer from the Universidad La Gran Colombia and a defender of indigenous rights and ethnic minorities. She was part of the government delegation in the peace talks in Havana and was a candidate for governor of Choco for the ASI party.
Adelaida Jimenez is a Presbyterian pastor, with a degree in theology and education with an emphasis on community promotion. She is also a member of the World Council of Churches.
“With these appointments, which coincide with the international celebration of the Day against Gender Violence, half of the members of the National Government delegation in the negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) will now be women,” said the Colombian Executive.