The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed Vilma Velásquez Uribe as consul in Haiti.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs proceeded to the installation ceremony of Vilma Rocío Velásquez Uribe as Consul in Haiti, an appointment which aims to strengthen the ties between Colombia and the Caribbean, restoring in particular a diplomatic representation absent in Haiti for almost 20 years.

The reopening of the consulate in Port-au-Prince had already been announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Álvaro Leyva during the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) after having held a meeting with his Haitian counterpart from Foreign Affairs, Jean Victor Geneus.

One of Velásquez's responsibilities will be to monitor the status of Colombians incarcerated in Haiti, with the aim of protecting and defending their rights, including with respect to due process guarantees, in accordance with international instruments.

Learn more about Vilma Rocío Velásquez Uribe :

Vilma Rocío Velásquez Uribe, originally from Bogota, holds a master's degree in applied fine arts from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. In addition to her mother tongue, Spanish, she is fluent in English, Swedish and Creole.

Throughout her career, she has been involved with human rights organizations, including the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees and the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners, after the failure of the first peace process in 1985.

Likewise, she has collaborated with different cooperatives of indigenous communities and women's groups in projects related to handicrafts. In 1991, she left her native country and settled in Sweden, where she joined the organization "Peace Brigades International" becoming a legal representative and responsible for the training of volunteers sent to Colombia, Mexico and Sri Lanka.

SL/ HaitiLibre