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Virginia Vallejo
Virginia Vallejo García (born 26 August 1949) is a Colombian author, journalist, television and radio director, anchorwoman, model, columnist, socialite, and political asylee in the United States of America.
She is one of the most relevant media personalities of her native country, known for her interviews of presidents, politicians, international celebrities, musicians, authors and scientists. She has been international editor of television newscasts and also anchorwoman, when she won twice the prize as the best anchorperson of Colombia. Her programs for TV Impacto, her own company, obtained the highest ratings compared to her competition. She was image and model of Di Lido pantyhose, with commercials made in Venice, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Bogotá and Cartagena de Indias. She has been invited by foreign governments, like Israel and Taiwan, to cover historical events. Virginia was the only Colombian journalist in charge of the radio transmission of the “Wedding of the century” between Charles and Diana, in London, on July 29, 1981, and the first journalist to interview Pablo Escobar in 1983, when he was just an aspiring politician. She also presented other type of programs, like musical shows with the most famous singers and orchestras of her time. Due to her voice, education, beauty and elegance, Vallejo has become an icon of the Colombian media, and thanks to her unique story, a contemporary legend. She is now a bestseller author, translated to many languages.
On 18 July 2006, the DEA took her out of Colombia in a special flight to save her life and cooperate with the Department of Justice in high-profile cases, after she had signaled several Colombian presidents and politicians as beneficiaries or accomplices of the leading cocaine cartels.
In 2007, she published her first book, Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, which led the Colombian Supreme Court to reopen the cases of the Palace of Justice siege in 1985, and the assassination of the presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in 1989. The book was translated to fifteen languages and made into a movie in 2018, with the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz in the role of the journalist.
Since 2006, Virginia Vallejo lives in Miami, Florida. In 2009, she became a columnist of a Venezuelan opposition newspaper, and, in 2019, television journalist for the international channel Actualidad RT. On May 1, 2025, she launched her new book, El alucinante País Dorado, the first of a trilogy of novels inspired in the recent history of Colombia and her personal life.
Virginia Vallejo was born on 26 August 1949 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, near her family's ranch. Her parents were Juan Vallejo Jaramillo, an entrepreneur, and Mary García Rivera. Her paternal grandmother, Sofía Jaramillo Arango, was a descendant of Alonso Jaramillo de Andrade Céspedes y Guzmán, a nobleman from Extremadura, Spain. Several members of her family were ministers, writers and ambassadors, such as her paternal grandfather Eduardo Vallejo Varela, minister of finance (1930); her granduncle Alejandro Vallejo Varela, writer and close friend of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán; and his granduncle Jaime Jaramillo Arango, minister of education (1934), ambassador to several countries in Europe, and co-founder of the Anglo Colombian School.
In 1950, the young family returned to Bogotá, where her siblings, Felipe (1951), Antonio (1955–2012), and Sofía (1957) were born. She attended the Anglo Colombian School.
In 1967 and 1968, she worked as an English teacher in the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogotá and, in 1969, in the presidency of Banco del Comercio. In 1972, while she was working as director of public relations of Cervecería Andina, she received an invitation to join an upcoming television program directed by Carlos Lemos Simmonds and Aníbal Fernández de Soto.
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Virginia Vallejo
Virginia Vallejo García (born 26 August 1949) is a Colombian author, journalist, television and radio director, anchorwoman, model, columnist, socialite, and political asylee in the United States of America.
She is one of the most relevant media personalities of her native country, known for her interviews of presidents, politicians, international celebrities, musicians, authors and scientists. She has been international editor of television newscasts and also anchorwoman, when she won twice the prize as the best anchorperson of Colombia. Her programs for TV Impacto, her own company, obtained the highest ratings compared to her competition. She was image and model of Di Lido pantyhose, with commercials made in Venice, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Bogotá and Cartagena de Indias. She has been invited by foreign governments, like Israel and Taiwan, to cover historical events. Virginia was the only Colombian journalist in charge of the radio transmission of the “Wedding of the century” between Charles and Diana, in London, on July 29, 1981, and the first journalist to interview Pablo Escobar in 1983, when he was just an aspiring politician. She also presented other type of programs, like musical shows with the most famous singers and orchestras of her time. Due to her voice, education, beauty and elegance, Vallejo has become an icon of the Colombian media, and thanks to her unique story, a contemporary legend. She is now a bestseller author, translated to many languages.
On 18 July 2006, the DEA took her out of Colombia in a special flight to save her life and cooperate with the Department of Justice in high-profile cases, after she had signaled several Colombian presidents and politicians as beneficiaries or accomplices of the leading cocaine cartels.
In 2007, she published her first book, Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, which led the Colombian Supreme Court to reopen the cases of the Palace of Justice siege in 1985, and the assassination of the presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in 1989. The book was translated to fifteen languages and made into a movie in 2018, with the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz in the role of the journalist.
Since 2006, Virginia Vallejo lives in Miami, Florida. In 2009, she became a columnist of a Venezuelan opposition newspaper, and, in 2019, television journalist for the international channel Actualidad RT. On May 1, 2025, she launched her new book, El alucinante País Dorado, the first of a trilogy of novels inspired in the recent history of Colombia and her personal life.
Virginia Vallejo was born on 26 August 1949 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, near her family's ranch. Her parents were Juan Vallejo Jaramillo, an entrepreneur, and Mary García Rivera. Her paternal grandmother, Sofía Jaramillo Arango, was a descendant of Alonso Jaramillo de Andrade Céspedes y Guzmán, a nobleman from Extremadura, Spain. Several members of her family were ministers, writers and ambassadors, such as her paternal grandfather Eduardo Vallejo Varela, minister of finance (1930); her granduncle Alejandro Vallejo Varela, writer and close friend of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán; and his granduncle Jaime Jaramillo Arango, minister of education (1934), ambassador to several countries in Europe, and co-founder of the Anglo Colombian School.
In 1950, the young family returned to Bogotá, where her siblings, Felipe (1951), Antonio (1955–2012), and Sofía (1957) were born. She attended the Anglo Colombian School.
In 1967 and 1968, she worked as an English teacher in the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogotá and, in 1969, in the presidency of Banco del Comercio. In 1972, while she was working as director of public relations of Cervecería Andina, she received an invitation to join an upcoming television program directed by Carlos Lemos Simmonds and Aníbal Fernández de Soto.