Adriana Marcela Mercado Cruz, Director-Office of International Affairs.
She earned a Law degree from Universidad Externado de Colombia. She majored in Criminal Law at Universidad del Rosario. She has a master ‘s degree in legal sciences with emphasis on criminal law from Universidad Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona (Spain).
The Director of the International Affairs Office has wide public and private experience in the area of criminal law, extradition and teaching at universities with local and international standards.
Her professional work began in 2007, as an intern of legal affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. Then, she worked as lawyer in charge of drafting concepts and as external advisor for private companies, designing agreements to achieve opportunity principles, preparing cassation lawsuits and handling processes under Law 906 of 2004 (Accusatory Criminal System), Law 600 of 2000 and non- appealable before the Supreme Court of Justice.
In 2017, she joined the Attorney General ‘s Office as fiscal delegada ante jueces penales de circuito especializados. In 2020, she was advisor to the Office of the Attorney General. The same year, she held the position of fiscal delegada ante el Tribunal Superior de Distrito Judicial. Between 2020 and early 2024, she held the position of fiscal auxiliar ante la Corte Suprema de Justicia.
She has been co-author of publications such as Lecciones de Derecho Penal, parte general y parte especial, third edition of Universidad Externado de Colombia. Since 2016, she has been professor at the Department of Criminal Law of Universidad Externado de Colombia and has been directing the criminal law line known as “Fines y funciones de la pena” that belongs to the Transitional Justice Investigation Group. Moreover, she is professor of general criminal law in the third year of law school, criminal law in the second year, and of preliminary hearings for the master ‘s degree in criminal procedural law.