Martha Maya

Martha Maya is Senior Associate and Director of the Latin America Programme at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). She is based in Bogotá, Colombia.

During the past seventeen years, Ms Maya has worked extensively in government as well as non-governmental roles. Among other things, she was a key member of the government delegation in the peace process between the government of Colombia and the FARC. With the Minister of the Interior, she served as the official liaison of the Colombian government in Havana on the issue of political participation. She later served as Chief of Staff to the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace.

In her roles in the security sector, she actively contributed to the development of a new human rights and humanitarian law policy for the armed forces and for Colombian foreign policy. In her civil society roles, she worked with different national and international organisations including the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), and the International Organization for Migration. Early in her career, she also worked as a journalist, primarily with the award-winning La Silla Vacia.

In her current role at IFIT, Martha directs major projects on negotiation, transition and peacebuilding in Colombia, Venezuela and México. She also oversees IFIT’s new, region-wide initiative covering Latin America and the Caribbean.

Martha holds LL.M and MSc (Economics) degrees from the University of Bologna and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in public law, public management and public policy from the Universidad de Los Andes.

Working languages: Spanish, English, and French