Viceministries

The Vice Minister of Political Relations of the Ministry of the Interior, Daniel Palacios, will be in charge of coordinating the legislative agenda and citizen security issues and replaces Francisco José Chaux, who was in charge of the Vice Ministry from April 13 to 12 November 2019.

The new Vice Minister is a political scientist with an emphasis in International Relations from Florida International University. He has a certification from George Washington University and the Universidad del Rosario in Senior Management and Public Policy. He also has a certificate in Conflict Resolution and Negotiation from the Harvard University School of Law. And he also has a Master’s degree in Government with an emphasis on Defense and Homeland Security from Harvard University.

He was a private advisor of President Álvaro Uribe, worked as the chief of staff of the Colombia Joven Presidential Program and was a liaison in the Congress of the Republic of the Ministry of the Interior and Justice.

Palacios was an adviser for Political and National Security Affairs to the Commander of the Colombian Military Forces and the National Army. He was also a councilor of Bogotá during the period 2016-2019 and president of the Bogotá Council for the Centro Democrático party.

With an extensive political experience as well as an extensive academic career that earned him the recognition of a solid leadership in the country, he assumed as Vice Minister of Participation and Equality of Law, the former Quindian congressman and former president of the Independent Movement of Absolute Renewal (MIRA), Carlos Alberto Baena López.

He is a lawyer from the Externado de Colombia University, specializing in Tax Management from this same institution; MBA in public management from the Universidad de Los Andes, where he also completed High Studies both in Negotiation and in High Government. It also has a Master in Urban Management from the Piloto University.

In the political sphere, he was co-founder in 2000 of the MIRA Political Movement, of which he was its president and, on whose behalf, he was elected councilor of Bogotá and senator of the Republic. For his performance in the District Council of the Colombian capital between 2001 and 2009, he was rated five times as the «Best Councilman in Bogotá», in the evaluation carried out by the How We Go Council program.

On his way through the Congress of the Republic in the period 2010-2014, he proposed and promoted a law to penalize in Colombia all forms of discrimination, including that exercised for having a different sexual option. He has also been an advocate for the rights of Afro-Colombian communities, women, and youth.

For his active role as a parliamentarian, he was distinguished among the ten best congressmen in the country by the firm Cifras y Conceptos.

His political activity has also alternated with social research, which has led him to be a press columnist and author of books and essays such as: The Balanced Score Card, as a strategic planning tool; Environmental Toxicology: effects of environmental pollutants on human health. As Vice Minister of Labor Relations and Inspection of the Ministry of Labor, he strengthened and energized relations between the government, employers and workers.

With this extensive professional, political and academic career, Carlos Alberto Baena takes on the challenge of leading the Vice-Ministry for Participation and Equality of Law.