Carlos Apolinar Lemos Simmonds (October 23, 1933 – July 30, 2003) was the sixth

Vice President of Colombia The vice president of Colombia (Vice president of the Republic) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government, after the president of Colombia, and ranks first in the Colombian presiden ...

Political career

After graduating Lemos worked as a Municipal Judge in the town of Piendamó, Cauca. He later transferred to

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

where he was elected councilman in the early 1970s for three consecutive terms. He then ran for the

Chamber of Representatives of Colombia The Chamber of Representatives (Spanish: ''Cámara de Representantes'') is the lower house of the Congress of Colombia. It has 172 members elected to four-year terms. Electoral system According to the Colombian Constitution, the Chamber of ...

. During the government of President Julio César Turbay Lemos was appointed as Secretary General of the Presidency of Colombia. In the same administration he was promoted to minister of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

, after that he was shifted to different

ministries Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

, Ministry of Government,

Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Colombia) Ministry for the Information and Communications Technologies (, abbreviated MinTIC), is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia responsible for overseeing the information and communication technologies, telecommunications a ...

. Lemos served later as Ambassador of Colombia to the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...

(OAS), drafter of the

Colombian Constitution of 1991 The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 (), is the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. It was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114 on Sunday, July 7, 1991, and is also known as the Constitution of Human Rights. It re ...

, Ambassador of Colombia to

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, Ambassador of Colombia to

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senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

and

president of Colombia The president of Colombia (President of the Republic) is the head of state and head of government of Colombia. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mil ...

temporarily. As a member of the Colombian Foreign Affairs Commission he contributed towards resolving the dispute over San Andrés y Providencia Islands in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

between Colombia and

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for territorial waters. He also negotiated the peace process with the

M-19 M19, M.19, or M-19 most commonly refers to: * May 19th Communist Organization (M19), an American far-left female-led terrorist group active during the 1970s–1980s * 19th of April Movement (M-19), a former Colombian guerrilla movement and political ...

guerrilla.

Personal life

Carlos Apolinar was born on 23 October 1933 in

Popayán Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in the Pubenza Valley in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. The municipality has a population of 318,059, an a ...

, Cauca to Antonio José Lemos Guzmán and María Antonia Simmonds Pardo. He married María Victoria Perez y Soto Bohorquez, with whom he had four children: María Eugenia, Carlos José, María Victoria, and Adriana. He later divorced Perez y Soto, and in 1987 married Marta Piedad Blanco Guauke on October 13, 1987, in the state of Virginia (U.S.), which was registered at the Consulate of Colombia in Washington, D.C., and in turn at the First Notary of Colombia; later in the light of the Civil Marriage Law in Colombia (Decree 2668 of 1988) and after the Holy See granted him the annulment of the Catholic marriage with María Victoria Pérez y Soto, (since August 2, 1993) they remarried civilly, on October 19, 1994, which was registered in Notary 27 of Bogotá, under public deed No. 11910.. Lemos died on 30 July 2003 in Bogotá, D.C. after a fight with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

. In accordance with his last will and testament, he was mourned and buried privately, and did not receive a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements o ...

as he would have been entitled.

References

External links

Colombia.com Carlos Lemos Simmonds biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemos Simmonds, Carlos 1933 births 2003 deaths People from Popayán University of Cauca alumni 20th-century Colombian lawyers Colombian Liberal Party politicians Members of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia Ministers of foreign affairs of Colombia Ministers of government of Colombia Ministers of communications of Colombia Permanent representatives of Colombia to the Organization of American States Members of the Constituent Assembly of Colombia Ambassadors of Colombia to Austria Ambassadors of Colombia to the United Kingdom Vice presidents of Colombia Acting presidents of Colombia Colombian male journalists Deaths from lung cancer in Colombia 20th-century Colombian journalists