Carolina Barco
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. She has served as the Colombian ambassador to Spain since October 2018.
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 (age 69–70) Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Nationality | Colombian-American |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College Harvard University |
| Profession | Diplomat |
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
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.