Susana Villaran Mayor of Lima -Peru

Susana Villarán

Susana María del Carmen Villarán de la Puente is a centre-left politician in Peru, a former presidential candidate, and in municipal elections in 2010 became the first woman to be elected Mayor of Lima.

Born in Lima on 16 August 1949, she is vice-president of the Social Force Decentralisation Party (Partido Descentralista Fuerza Social, FS) and formerly worked as a journalist and a secondary school teacher.

Political life

She was a member of Lima's Metropolitan Municipality from 1983 to 1985, and co-founded with former mayor Alfonso Barrantes Lingán the Vaso de leche (glass of milk) program promoting child nutrition.

In 2000 Villarán was elected national co-ordinator of the Party for Social Democracy (Partido por la Democracia Social - Compromiso Perú, PDS). She became Minister for Women and Social Development during Valentín Paniagua's transitory government in 2001, and in 2002 she assumed the role of Police Ombudsman (Defensora de la Policía).

From 2002 to 2005, she served as a member of the Organization of American States's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), serving as rapporteur on child rights and later on women's rights, as Second Vicepresident of the Commission in 2004, and First Vicepresident in 2005. She took part in IACHR human rights and conflict missions in Colombia and Guatemala.

In the Peruvian general election of 2006 Villarán was presidential candidate for Concertación Descentralista, an alliance of the PDS and the Peruvian Humanist Movement. She was one of three female candidates along Lourdes Flores and Martha Chávez, and came seventh with 0.62%.

In 2008, she was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.