Carlos Alberto Baena
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Carlos Alberto Baena López (born 12 November 1967) is a Colombian lawyer and politician, who serves, since 2020, as Vice Minister for Participation and Equality of Rights of the Ministry of the Interior of Colombia. He served as
Senator of Colombia The Senate of the Republic of Colombia () is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, Chamber of Representatives. The Senate has 108 members elected for concurrent (non ...
from 2010 to 2014. Baena is a co-founder of the
Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation The Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (, "MIRA") is a political party in Colombia, founded in 2000 by 51,095 Colombians led by lawyer and former senator Carlos Alberto Baena and Alexandra Moreno Piraquive. The party also has functions ...
(MIRA) and has served two terms as
Party Chairman In politics, a party chair (often party chairperson/-man/-woman or party president) is the presiding officer of a political party. The nature and importance of the position differs from country to country, and also between political parties. Th ...
. Before ascending to Congress, Baena served as
Councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...
of the
Bogotá City Council The Bogotá City Council is the highest Political and second highest Administrative Authority of Bogotá, Colombia. It is the only city council in the country which has 45 Councillors, since the limit for all other city councils is 21 Councillor ...
from 2001 to 2009. Baena also serves as the General Preacher in the
Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International The Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International (, CGMJCI) is a Christianity, Christian, Charismatic Christianity, neo-charismatic, Restorationism, restorationist church network. It was created in 1972 by the evangelical preacher Luis Ed ...
.


Political career

In 2000, Baena co-founded the
Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation The Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (, "MIRA") is a political party in Colombia, founded in 2000 by 51,095 Colombians led by lawyer and former senator Carlos Alberto Baena and Alexandra Moreno Piraquive. The party also has functions ...
(MIRA); that same year he was elected as
Party Chair In politics, a party chair (often party chairperson/-man/-woman or party president) is the presiding officer of a political party. The nature and importance of the position differs from country to country, and also between political parties. Th ...
serving until 2003. In 2001, Baena was elected to the Bogotá City Council of Bogotá for the first time, as member of the MIRA party. He was consecutively re-elected twice as Councillor in 2004, and in 2008. During his time in office, Baena was acknowledged five times as the best City Councillor by the political watchdog group ''Bogotá Cómo Vamos''. In 2010, Baena ran for a seat in the
Senate of Colombia The Senate of the Republic of Colombia () is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the Chamber of Representatives. The Senate has 108 members elected for concurrent (non- rotating) four-year terms. Electoral ...
as the third-in-line of the
closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...
-
electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...
of the MIRA party, headed by Senator
Alexandra Moreno Piraquive Alexandra Moreno Piraquive (born 23 August 1969) is a Colombian lawyer and politician, who served as Senator of Colombia from 2002 to 2014. Moreno is a co-founder of the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (MIRA), a conservative soci ...
. The party received 324,109 votes in the
parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...
, which gave them three seats in the Senate, Baena taking one of these.


Political positions

Baena proposed and promoted a bill, that ultimately became law, that penalizes every form of discrimination, included discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He is supportive of the decriminalization of
psychoactive drugs A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system acti ...
consumption, and the creation of
supervised injection sites Supervised injection sites (SIS) or drug consumption rooms (DCRs) are a health and social response to drug-related problems. They are fixed or mobile spaces where people who use drugs are provided with sterile drug use equipment and can use illic ...
and
harm reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. H ...
policies, in order to offer medical assistance to substance dependent-individuals.


Recognition

Baena was acknowledged several times as the best Bogotá City Councillor by the political watchdog group ''Bogotá Cómo Vamos''. He received this acknowledgment for the first time during the first semester of 2005 and later on, four times consecutively from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, his Bogotá City Council colleagues chose him as one of the three best Councillors of Bogotá. In the first semester of 2008 and in 2009, Baena and his party colleague, Councillor Humberto Quijano, were acknowledged as the best political coalition in the Bogotá City Council. In 2011, while serving as Senator, he was acknowledged by the Bogotá City Council as one of the most representative leaders who have been part of the Council of Bogotá. In 2012 he was declared Honorary Citizen of
Quibdó Quibdó () is the capital city of Chocó Department, in the Pacific/Chocó natural region, Pacific Region of Colombia, and is located on the Atrato River. The municipality of Quibdó has an area of and a population of 129,237, predominantly A ...
by Mayor Zulia Mena García for his work in Congress towards protecting the rights of
Afro-Colombians Afro-Colombians (), also known as Black Colombians (), are Colombians of total or predominantly Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Colombia has one of the largest  Afro-descendant populations in South America, with government estimates being ...
. On June 26, 2022, he was awarded the Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento Medal of Merit, for his contributions to human rights, democracy and civic participation.


Personal life

Carlos Alberto was born on 12 November 1967 in
Armenia, Quindío Armenia () is the capital of Quindío_Department , Quindío Department in the South America, South American country of Colombia. Armenia is a medium-sized city and part of the "Colombian coffee growing axis, coffee axis" along with Pereira, Col ...
, to Alberto Baena and Gladys López. He is married to Lydia Raquel Hernández Corredor with whom he has four daughters. He attended
Universidad Externado de Colombia The Universidad Externado de Colombia (Externado University of Colombia) is a private university in Bogotá, Colombia. It has produced graduates including lawyers, academics, judges, financiers, journalists, as well as senior government officials a ...
where he graduated in Law and completed a specialization in Tax Management. He later attended University of the Andes where he obtained a
Master of Public Administration A Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a specialized professional graduate degree in public administration that prepares students for leadership roles, similar or equivalent to a Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the ...
, and completed further programs in Negotiation and High Government Studies.


Controversy

Carlos Alberto Baena, promoter of the Law 1482 of 2011 by which punitive measures are set against racism and discrimination appeared on a video in which
Maria Luisa Piraquive Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...
, cofounder of the
Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International The Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International (, CGMJCI) is a Christianity, Christian, Charismatic Christianity, neo-charismatic, Restorationism, restorationist church network. It was created in 1972 by the evangelical preacher Luis Ed ...
, was seen stating that people with physical disabilities cannot preach from the pulpit of the church because of "what the people may say" and "aesthetic reasons", reasons that, according to her, may cause a negative impact on the faith of newcomers to the church. However, it was found that the controversial video was the pivotal point of a powerful smear campaign, in which there was participation of other political parties and, directly or indirectly, participation of the
Office of the Attorney General of Colombia The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia (; literally "General Prosecutorial Office of the Nation") is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative autonomy designed to prosecute offend ...
. Such smear campaign directly impacted the MIRA party, and it became apparent that the objective was Baena´s party, since the video was filmed more than 8 years before it was released by media during the 2014 incidents, precisely two months prior the
2014 Colombian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Colombia on 9 March 2014 to elect members to both chambers of Congress. The nationwide constituency for the 102-member Senate was contested, as well as the 166 seats of the House of Representatives, plus the ...
. In addition, in the complete video Maria Luisa states that anyone can preach in the church if God tells them to do so. As a result of this media attack to Baena´s party, it became publicly known that Dora Landázuri, one of the MIRA party´s candidates to the 2014 Colombian parliamentary elections, is a physically disabled African-Colombian woman, which left no ground for accusations against Baena or his party on the basis of discrimination towards physically disabled people.


Selected works

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References


External links


Official site of Carlos Alberto Baena
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baena, Carlos Alberto 1967 births 20th-century Colombian lawyers Colombian Pentecostals Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation politicians Living people Members of the Senate of Colombia Ministerialists People from Armenia, Colombia Universidad Externado de Colombia alumni