Miriam Margoth Martínez

Miriam Margoth Martínez Díaz (born March 2, 1966, Pasto) is a Colombian urban planner, human rights defender and civil engineer with a master's degree in administration from the Charles III University of Madrid. Currently she is candidate for mayor of Pasto.

Early life and education
She comes from a working-class family in Pasto, been the second daughter of Adiela Miriam Díaz and José Ignacio Martínez, who had seven children. Her primary education was completed at the public school in the Miraflores neighborhood and she completed her high school at the Ciudad de Pasto CCP School. She studied at the University of Nariño.

Career
As a manager at the Unidad Administrativa Especial de Servicios Públicos (UAESP, English: Special Administrative Unit for Public Services) in Bogotá, she reduced the public clean fees, including in the work model of the district recyclers. This facts, with Gustavo Petro as district mayor in that period, generates the change of the old operator for a new one which in the Miriam case originated at least 33 complains by the beforehand landfill Group who Tried to stop the tender with the help of the lawyer Néstor Humberto Martínez

While she was manager of the UAESP of Bogotá, Martínez achieved that the Doña Juana the Bogotá sanitary landfill significantly reduced its stench,     as well as disease reductions among the inhabitants of the area, through a model based on clay. On the other hand, it reduced the sanitation fees for the city of Bogotá by half, without increasing the district deficit, by recovering 63 billion pesos for the District in the liquidation of the operation contract for the Doña Juana sanitary landfill with the operator that had 14 years there. However, she was sanctioned in a ruling by the Procurator General's Office to ten years of inability to hold public office, a complaint filed by the same company that had previously managed the landfill, Proactiva-Group. The ruling was described by some as arbitrary, including Miriam Margot, who said that it was a retaliation from Proactiva Group through Humberto Martinez. The investigative entity closed the process in the investigations stage for not finding enough evidence for its prosperity, while unfairly Miriam had already paid more than half of the penalty.