Lina Moreno de Uribe

Lina María Moreno Mejía
First Lady of Colombia
In office 7 August 2002 (2002-08-07) – 7 August 2010 (2010-08-07)
Preceded by	Nohra Puyana Bickenbach
Succeeded by	María Clemencia Rodríguez Múnera
Personal details
Born	(1955-12-04) 4 December 1955 Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
Political party	Democratic Center
Spouse	Álvaro Uribe Vélez (1979-present)
Children	Tomás Uribe Moreno Jerónimo Alberto Uribe Moreno
Alma mater	Pontifical Bolivarian University (B.Phil)

Lina María Moreno Mejía (born 13 November 1955) is the wife of the 31st President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and served as First Lady of Colombia from 2002 to 2010.

Personal life

Lina María was born on 13 November 1955 in Medellín, Antioquia, to Darío Moreno Restrepo (b. 9 October 1920) and Marina Mejía Mejía (1 August 1929 — 21 June 1997), the youngest and only daughter, she has one older brother named Carlos Enrique (b. 13 December 1953)

She met Álvaro Uribe Vélez, a 26 year Law graduate from the University of Antioquia, at the age of 23 in March 1979 by chance when she was walking with a friend in Medellín. After a very short romance, the two became engaged, and on 1 December 1979 they got married. She had dropped out of the Pontifical Bolivarian University to raise her children where she was studying literature and linguistics, but returned in 1986 and eventually graduated from it with a Bachelor of Philosophy.

Moreno and Uribe have two children: Tomás (b. 19 April 1981) a Chemical Engineer from the University of the Andes who is married (26 July 2008) to Isabel Sofía Cabrales Baquero (b. 17 July 1979), a Political Scientist from the Pontifical Xavierian University, former model and First Runner-Up at the Miss Colombia 2002 and who is expecting their first child; and Jerónimo Alberto (b. 16 July 1983) an Economist from the University of the Andes who is married (21 April 2012) to Shadia Farah Abuchaibe, a communications graduate from the Pontifical Xavierian University.

First Lady of Colombia

From left to right: First Lady Moreno and President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, together with the President of the United States George W Bush and First Lady of the United States Laura Bush during a visit to Prairie Chapel Ranch in 2005.

Despite the long political career of her husband, she chose to remain distant from the political sphere and campaigns, often drawing attention only for "her sobriety, her detachment from power and her directness". Months prior to her husband taking office, Moreno said in an interview that she would prefer not like to use the style of First Lady, referring to it as "petulant and pink", pointing out that the title has been overused in that "there are many: that of the nation, of the department, of the municipality...", and stating that she would have liked to be addressed solely as "Lina María Moreno, wife of Álvaro Uribe", but establishing that that did not meant she was the sounding board of Uribe.

On 11 April 2002, following the election of her husband in the 2002 presidential election, Clara Lía Mora and Clara Elena Moreno Mora, Moreno's aunt and first-cousin respectively, were kidnapped from their home in the Caldas, Antioquia at gunpoint. They were later rescued in a joint effort between the National Police and the 4th Brigade of the National Army, but during the operation the assailants shot Mrs Mora on the chest seriously injuring her; both mother and daughter were treated and successfully recovered, but it put pressure on authorities to take higher security precautions in the following months before and after the inauguration.

In 2005, in an interview for El Tiempo, she told Yamid Amat that she for the decriminalization of abortion, but still against opposed to its legalization, a move that although not radical, contradicted the official position of the State and of the President.