Changes in the Foreign Ministry: Elizabeth Taylor Jay replaces Laura Gil in the vice ministry of multilateral affairs

Elizabeth Taylor Jay will replace Laura Gil as head of the vice ministry for multilateral affairs

Photo: Chancellery

The Colombian Foreign Ministry reported on Tuesday afternoon that Laura Gil, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be succeeded. Through a press release, the entity assured that Gil, who served as vice minister of multilateral affairs, will be replaced by Elizabeth Taylor Jay.

Taylor, who will assume the position within the ministry, has worked as a collaborator in the proceedings between Colombia and Nicaragua before the Hague Court. A native of Providencia Island, Taylor has also served as the country’s former ambassador to Kenya.

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Although the Foreign Ministry did not explain the reason why it will succeed Gil, it said that the official, who until this Monday asked the UN to decriminalize the coca leaf, “would carry out a strategic mission of Colombia abroad,” the entity indicated. .

However, it is important to remember that during the last few weeks there were rumors within the government about Gil’s imminent dismissal. Given this, civil society organizations issued letters to Gustavo Petro and Álvaro Leyva to request that Gil remain in his position.

One of the letters to which he had access The viewer indicates that since Gil came “to the Government, the official has maintained an open door policy for civil society and for all those who defend human rights in the country, which is essential to guide the development of public policies in a democratic manner. and that it has renewed the relationship with the citizenry”

The statement also explains that Gil, in order to fulfill the “mission” of which he is speaking, requested a permit “in the past days.”

Álvaro Leyva had asked Gil to resign several weeks ago. The agreement was to wait for Vienna’s approval and, meanwhile, Laura would discuss it with her family. It was also agreed, according to the outgoing deputy minister, that in her new position she would continue to be in charge of the gender agenda and feminist foreign policy. However, the decision to appoint Elizabeth Taylor Jay as deputy minister and, contrary to what was agreed, to hire an adviser for gender issues, took Laura Gil by surprise. “I found out about the decision from the press release,” Gil told The viewer.

New faces in the ministry

With the appointment of Taylor as the new vice minister for multilateral affairs, the Foreign Ministry stated that there will also be new officials within the entity. Taylor, who was part of the Ministry of Environment in the subdivision of Marine, Coastal and Aquatic Resources Affairs, will be accompanied by “an adviser for gender issues,” according to the entity.

This person, explains the Foreign Ministry, “is a specialist in feminist studies […] that will promote and work in the defense and guarantee of the rights […] of women, young people, girls and LGBTIQ+ people”.

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For the Foreign Ministry, this new appointment is part of “Sustainable Development Goal 5”, which seeks greater gender equality in the world. In addition, the entity maintained that this new position is in line with the “implementation of a feminist foreign policy” from the Petro Government.

The departure of Laura Gil, a spread secret

A few days ago, Marcelo Ernesto Ferreyra, an Argentine who signed one of the letters in support of Gil, assured that with his departure “we would lose an ally.” In addition, Wilson Castañeda, director of Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian organization that works for LGBT rights, stated that “such a rapid change in the leadership of diplomatic initiatives is not prudent.”

The general perception among the more than one hundred signatories is that they want to “silence or reduce the participation of Laura Gil”, for reasons that are not sufficiently clear. They feel that in the event of a transfer to the Colombian embassy in Vienna it would bring with it these implications.

The letters that arrived a few days ago were the product of weeks of rumors about possible tensions between Laura Gil and Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva. The journalist D’Arcy Quinn was one of the first voices to give this version. Then, the empty chair published that Gil was offered the Colombian embassy in Vienna.

These letters were added to the requests of the Women and Peace National Summit, from where groups of women and victims of the conflict requested that Gil Savastano continue in his position so that his feminist foreign policy project “does not remain unfinished.”

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