Carlos Andrés Amaya Rodriguez, is the elected governor of Boyaca. He is also a former congressman and student leader from his town. Amaya was born in 1984 in Socha (Colombia), he was raised nearby the River Peace. After graduating with the best ICFES in the province of Valderrama, he studied electrical engineering at the Pedagogical and Technological University in Sogamoso (“Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica “ UPTC) and then got a master’s degree in environmental engineering at the same institution.
Throughout his college career, Amaya was very active as a student leader. In 2006 he reached the top board of the UPTC and two years later, he was elected president of the National Federation of Student Representatives of Higher Education (“Federación Nacional de Representantes Estudiantiles de Educación Superior” FENARES), which was the most organized group among students by then.
As president of FENARES, Amaya took a seat in the National Council of Higher Education (“Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior” CESU) that discusses higher education issues with the Ministry of Education.
In 2010 he was sent to the House of Representatives, he was representing the Green Party, along with the liberal former governor Jorge Eduardo Londoño, who became his political godfather. Amaya took 15,000 votes, becoming the youngest congressman in the country, he was 25 years old.
Amaya was very active during the farmer’s agricultural strikes of 2013, which had one of its epicenters in Boyaca. It was during that exercise against the Santos government that he was attacked by the ESMAD.
In 2014 he decided not to participate as governmental candidate, ceding his seat to fellow former student leader Sandra Ortiz. However, his godfather Londoño ended up burning himself out politically speaking in his attempt to keep the seat in the Senate and decided to go back to the governorship.
Meanwhile, he was awarded by the Government and went to work at the Ministry of Education, as manager of the literacy program. Today he keeps on rising, going further specially regarding the end of the armed conflict.