Bertha Puga de Lleras


Bertha Puga Martínez de Lleras was the first lady of Colombia from 1945 to 1946 and again from 1958 until 1962, as the wife of President Alberto Lleras Camargo. She was the second person to serve in this role during two nonconsecutive terms after María Michelsen de López, and the first naturalized citizen to become first lady.
Puga de Lleras met Alberto in late 1929 in Bogotá while her father Arturo Puga Osorio was Chilean ambassador to Colombia. She married Alberto Lleras Camargo in 1931. The Lleras family lived a private life before Alberto's first election as president in 1945 and his reelection in 1958.

Personal life

She moved to Colombia with her family when her father was named Ambassador of Chile to Colombia, and it was then that she met her future husband Alberto Lleras Camargo, whom she married on 10 August 1931. Alberto and Bertha had four children: Consuelo, Alberto, Ximena, and Marcela. Bertha died on 9 August 2007 at the age of 98.