Humberto De la Calle

Humberto de la Calle Lombana (born 14 July 1946 in Manzanares, Caldas) is a Colombian lawyer and politician. He served as Vice President of Colombia from 1994 to 1997. He has also served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Spain, and additionally held the role of Interior Minister under President Andres Pastrana. Most recently De La Calle was the Head Negotiator representing the Government in the successful peace talks with the FARC in Havana, Cuba.

De la Calle received his law degree from the University of Caldas and later studied International Law in the Inter-American Judicial Committee in 1979.

De la Calle became a professor while practicing his law profession under private law firms. He started teaching in 1978 and became Dean in the universities of Caldas and Manizales until 1980. He also taught in prestigious universities from Bogotá, such as Andes University and Our Lady of the Rosary University.

For almost a decade De la Calle served in the Judicial Branch; he was appointed National Register of the Civil State in the late 1980s during the administration of President Belisario Betancur. In 1986 De la Calle also served as a magistrate on the Supreme Court.

In 1990 he was appointed to the Ministry of Government during the government of President César Gaviria until 1992. In 1993 followers of President Gaviria from the Liberal Party suggest De la Calle as a possible presidential candidate. De la Calle quits his job as minister to pursue the presidency, but in the party primaries is defeated by Ernesto Samper and Carlos Lemos Simmonds. Samper then invites De la Calle to be his vice president.

In the May primary election of and the June general election of 1994 Samper and De la Calle were elected. De la Calle was then appointed as Ambassador to Spain while still serving as vice president.

In 1996 with the outbreak of the 8000 Process scandal in which the Samper presidential campaign received millions of dollars from the Cali Cartel, De la Calle's relationship with the government deteriorated to the point that De la Calle asked for the resignation of President Samper. In 1997 De la Calle finally resigned to his post as vice president.

De la Calle then allied with Andrés Pastrana, a conservative and political foe of President Samper. In the 1998 elections Pastrana was elected president and appointed De la Calle Ambassador to the United Kingdom, office in which he served from 1998 to 2000. He was then appointed as Minister of the Interior, office in which he served between the years 2000 and 2001.

From 2001 to 2003 De la Calle served as Colombia's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). Since then De la Calle has been working in his own law firm with his associates Ignacio Londoño Rivera, José Miguel de la Calle Restrepo and Mario Posada García-Peña. The firm offers services on legal advice and legal representation in different law areas for Colombian nationals and international clients. He is also a regular columnist in the Bogotá daily El Espectador.[1]

Books

• La Acción Cambiaria. Editorial Dike. (The Exchange Stock)
• La inoperancia del negocio jurídico. Editorial Temis. (The Inopperativeness of the Judicial Business)
• Anatomía del Cambio -de los sesenta al siglo 21-. Editorial Planeta. (Anatomy of Change)
• En defensa de la Descentralización. (Defending Decentralization)
• Código Electoral Comentado. Editorial Legis. (Commented Electoral Code)
• Intervenciones en la Asamblea Constituyente de 1991 como Ministerio de Gobierno. (Interventions as Minister of Government in the Constituent Assembly of Colombia)
• Carta Democrática Interamericana –Documentos e Interpretaciones- OEA. (Editor y autor del capítulo sobre Colombia). (Inter-American Democratic Charter-Document and Interpretations- OAS. (editor and author of the chapter on Colombia))

Magazine articles

• La inexistencia (en el campo jurídico). Revista de Derecho Comercial. (The Unexistance (in the judicial field)
• Contrato de Seguros y Desvalorización Monetaria. Derecho Colombiano. (Insurance contracts and Monetary devaluation. Second Semester of 1981)
• Buena fe y buena fe exenta de culpa en materia cambiaria. Derecho Colombiano. Segundo Semestre de 1983. (Good Faith and Good Faith Exempt from Culpability in Exchange Matters)
• Títulos Valores. Revista de la Cámara de Comercio de Manizales. (Securities. Manizales Chamber of Commerce Magazine)
• La Constitución y el manejo del Orden Público. Revista de la Universidad de los Andes. (The Constitution and the Handling of Public Order)
• The Nature of Public, Private and Mixed Financing. In Financing Democracies in Latin America. The Carter Center. March 2003.
• Transparency and accountability in Colombia. In Public Sector Transparency and Accountability. OECD. OEA. 2002.
• Los Partidos Políticos en América Latina. En Dinero y Contienda Política-electoral. IFE. Méjico. 2001. (The Political Parties in Latin America. Money and Electoral-Political Contendents)
• Financiación de los Partidos Políticos y las Campañas Electorales en Colombia. En La financiación de la política en Iberoamérica. IIDH. CAPEL. (Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns Financing in Colombia. On the Financing of Politics in Latin America)