Alfonso López Caballero

Alfonso López Caballero (born 17 August 1944) is a Colombian economist and diplomat, the son and grandson of former Presidents of Colombia, Alfonso López Michelsen and Alfonso López Pumarejo respectively, and former congressman, government minister, ambassador to France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and presidential candidate.

Alfonso López Caballero
Colombia Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office 7 November 2002 – 7 December 2006
President	Álvaro Uribe
Preceded by	Víctor Guillermo Ricardo
Succeeded by	Carlos Medellin Becerra
Minister of the Interior and Justice
In office 9 January 1998 – 7 August 1998
President	Ernesto Samper
Preceded by	Carlos Holmes Trujillo
Succeeded by	Néstor Humberto Martínez
Colombia Ambassador to Canada
In office 1994–1998
President	Ernesto Samper
Succeeded by	Fabio Avella Martínez
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
In office 25 November 1991 – 4 March 1993
President	César Gaviria
Preceded by	María del Rosario Sintes
Succeeded by	José Antonio Ocampo
Colombia Ambassador to France
In office September 1990 – November 1991
President	César Gaviria
Preceded by	Fernando Rey Uribe
Succeeded by	Álvaro Gómez Hurtado
Senator of Colombia
In office 7 August 1990 – September 1990
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
In office 7 August 1986 – 7 August 1990
Constituency	Cundinamarca
Personal details
Born	Alfonso López Cabellero (1944-08-17) 17 August 1944 Bogotá, Colombia
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Josefina Andrew (1969-present)
Relations	Alfonso López Pumarejo (grandfather) María Michelsen Lombana (grandmother)
Parent(s)	Alfonso López Michelsen (father) Cecilia Caballero Blanco (mother)
Alma mater	Georgetown University (B.Sc.) INSEAD (MBA) Columbia University (MA)
Profession	Economist

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is López and the second or maternal family name is Caballero.

Background

Alfonso López Caballero was born in Bogotá, D.C., Colombia, to Alfonso López Michelsen and Cecilia Caballero Blanco on August 17, 1944, during the second presidency of his grandfather Alfonso López Pumarejo. He married on February 22, 1969, in Caracas, Venezuela, to Josefina Milagros Andreu Roca.

Educated first in the traditional Gimnasio Moderno of Bogotá, he finally concluded his secondary education in the United States after following his family into exile in 1952, when during the government of Mariano Ospina Pérez La Violencia against liberals targeted his family and burned down his grandfather's house. Afterwards he attended Georgetown University, his father's alma mater, where he received his Bachelor of Science in International Relations with an specialization in Economics, from then he moved to France where he attended the European Institute for Business Administration, INSEAD and received a Master of Business Administration. He moved back to the United States where he entered Columbia University received his Master's in Economics, re-enlisted as a PhD candidate in Economics but did not finish.

Career

He started his professional career in the economic sector, first as Assistant Manager of CitiBank in Colombia, and then as a consultant for Arthur Young & Co.

López Caballero was ambassador to France, from where he returned to serve president Gaviria as his minister for agriculture. He served as ambassador to Canada and then returned to Colombia to serve as minister of interior.

López Caballero's effectiveness and his lack of interest for the spotlight is what led president Pastrana to appoint him as one of the government's negotiators during the peace process with the FARC communist guerrillas. During the peace negotiations he earned the respect and the trust of the top members of the guerrilla group, mainly due to his clarity, his understanding of the country and its politics, and more importantly, to the sincerity and openness with which López Caballero faced the multiple discussions [1]. Earning this recognition from the FARC was seen as quite remarkable by some commentators given that López Caballero was clearly a representative of the political, social and economic elite of the country [2].

Going against his father's ideas once again, López Caballero supported Álvaro Uribe from the beginning of his presidential campaign while López Michelsen supported Horacio Serpa. López Caballero was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom by president Uribe where he was instrumental in strengthening commercial links and in gaining support for an offensive against the guerrillas, paramilitaries and organized crime [3].