Verónica Alcocer

Verónica del Socorro Alcocer García (born 26 May 1976) is the First Lady of Colombia since 2022. Previously, she served as First Lady of Bogotá from 2012 to 2015. She is the third wife of a Mayor of Bogotá to become First Lady since Nohra Puyana de Pastrana in 1998.

Verónica Alcocer was born in Sincelejo. She met Gustavo Petro in 2000 at the age of 20, and the two married in December of that year. That same year, they moved to Bogotá, D.C., where Petro already had an established political career. The couple had two children between 2002 and 2005. She had previously become a mother in 1996 to her eldest son, Nicolás. She has actively supported her husband in his political career, campaigning alongside him during his 2011 mayoral campaign in Bogotá. Alcocer became the First Lady of Bogotá after her husband's victory in the 2011 regional elections. As First Lady, she assumed the role of social gestor of the city.

Alcocer became First Lady in 2022 after her husband was inaugurated as president. Her role as First Lady diverged from the mold established by her predecessors, as she had, for the first time, her own agenda, separate from that of the president. Diplomacy and strategic negotiation became their greatest allies in promoting social causes such as the eradication of sexual violence against children, child malnutrition, and access to healthcare for low-income people.