Angelino Garzón

Angelino Garzón
10th Vice President of Colombia
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 August 2010
President	Juan Manuel Santos Calderón
Preceded by	Francisco Santos Calderón
Colombia Ambassador to United Nations in Geneva
In office 29 January 2009 – 9 June 2010
President	Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded by	Clemencia Forero Ucrós
Succeeded by	Alicia Victoria Arango Olmos
69th Governor of Valle del Cauca
In office 1 January 2004 – 1 January 2008
Preceded by	Germán Villegas Villegas
Succeeded by	Juan Carlos Abadía Campo
Colombian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection
In office 18 July 2000 – 7 August 2002
President	Andrés Pastrana Arango
Preceded by	Gina Magnolia Riaño Barón
Succeeded by	Juan Luis Londoño de la Cuesta
Personal details
Born	29 October 1946 (1946-10-29) (age 65) Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Social Party of National Unity
Other political affiliations	Patriotic Union (
Spouse(s)	Monserrat Muñoz
Children	Jenny Garzón Caicedo Angela Garzón Caicedo
Alma mater	Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (BA)
Profession	Jurist
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Angelino Garzón (29 October, 1946) is the 10th and current Vice President of Colombia, serving under President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. He was the 69th Governor of Valle del Cauca from 2004 to 2008, and served as the second Minister of Labour and Social Protection under the administration of President Andrés Pastrana Arango. He was Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations in Geneva from 29 January 2009 until his resignation on March 2010, in preparation for his election to the Vice Presidency.

Career

He has been a union leader for many labor union and in many positions among these General Secretary of the Central Union of Workers (Spanish: Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, CUT) between 1981 and 1990. He later ran for congressman and was elected to become part of the Constituent Assembly of Colombia that created the Colombian Constitution of 1991. He also served as Vice President of the Patriotic Union Party.

During the government of President Andrés Pastrana Garzon was appointed Ministry of Labour and Social Protection from 2000 until 2002. He was one of the ministers of Pastrana's administration with a popular positive image. After serving as minister he was proposed running for president but he declined. Garzon then participated as member of the facilitating Commission for the Humanitarian Accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group (FARC).

He then renounced to the commission to postulate his name for Governor of Valle del Cauca Department. He was elected in 2003 with 60.69% of the votes and winning over Carlos Holmes Trujillo and Carlos José Holguín, this last candidate son of former senator Carlos Holguín Sardi.

During his administration as Governor of Valle del Cauca in 2006, he was criticized for a conflict that surged between a CISA S.A. Constructing Consortium in charge of widening and repairing the highway Cali–Candelaria but which was never started and CISA S.A. sued the Valle del Cauca Department. Garzon and his cabinet called for a hunger strike to press for the courts for an outcome favorable for the department.

In June 2007 Garzon accompanied President Álvaro Uribe Vélez as part of the presidential delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C. pursuing the approval by the United States Congress of the Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement between Colombia and the United States. Senador Jorge Enrique Robledo of the Alternative Democratic Pole party and one of the most critics of the trade agreement criticized Garzon and mentioned that Garzon had never been part of the Alternative Democratic Pole party nor he had been affiliated to the parties that formed the alliance Independent Democratic Pole or Democratic Alternative.^[1]

References

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