Carolina Barco

Carolina Barco Isakson
Ambassador Barco speaking before a TradeRoots forum on the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Colombia Ambassador to the United States
In office
26 August 2006 – 1 October 2010
President Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded by Andrés Pastrana Arango
Succeeded by Gabriel Silva Luján
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
7 August 2002 – 7 August 2006
President Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Preceded by Guillermo Fernández de Soto
Succeeded by María Consuelo Araújo
Personal details
Born María Carolina Barco Isakson
1951
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality Colombian-American
Alma mater Wellesley College
Harvard University
Profession Diplomat

María Carolina Barco Isakson (born 1951)[1] is a Colombian-American diplomat, who has served as Ambassador of Colombia to the United States from 2006 to 2010, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia from 2002 to 2007.

Early years

Barco was born in Boston, Massachusetts, while her father, Virgilio Barco Vargas, was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1973 Barco received her BA in Sociology and Economics from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. During her time at Wellesley she spent a year studying abroad at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. In 1975 she received a master's degree in city planning from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 1984 she received an MBA at the Instituto de Empresas in Madrid, Spain. From 1990 to 1991 she was a visiting scholar at her father's alma mater, MIT.

Career

Carolina Barco (right) with Condoleezza Rice

Barco was appointed Foreign Minister of Colombia by President Álvaro Uribe in August 2002 and remained in that post until July 2006, when she was appointed Ambassador to the United States, replacing former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana Arango in Washington, D.C..

Family

Carolina Barco Isakson is the daughter of Virgilio Barco Vargas, a former Mayor, Senator, Ambassador, President of Colombia and Director to the World Bank Board, and Carolina Isakson Proctor, the American-born former First Lady of Colombia. Carolina's brother, Virgilio Barco Isakson, founded one of Colombia's largest gay civil rights NGO's in Colombia called Colombia Diversa.

Carolina Barco was married to Mauricio Botero Caicedo, with whom she had three daughters.

References

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