| Honorific Prefix: | His Excellency |
| Carlos Lemos Simmonds | |
| Order: | 6th |
| Office: | Vice President of Colombia |
| Term Start: | September 19, 1996 |
| Term End: | August 7, 1998 |
| President: | Ernesto Samper |
| Predecessor: | Humberto de la Calle |
| Successor: | Gustavo Bell |
| Ambassador From2: | Colombian |
| Country2: | United Kingdom |
| President2: | Ernesto Samper |
| Term Start2: | 15 November 1995 |
| Term End2: | 15 October 1998 |
| Predecessor2: | Noemí Sanín |
| Successor2: | Humberto de la Calle |
| Ambassador From3: | Colombia |
| Country3: | Austria |
| Term Start3: | 1995 |
| Term End3: | 1996 |
| Predecessor3: | Alfonso Gómez Méndez |
| President3: | Ernesto Samper |
| Office4: | Minister of Government of Colombia |
| Term Start4: | 1989 |
| Term End4: | 1990 |
| Predecessor4: | Orlando Vásquez Velásquez |
| Successor4: | Horacio Serpa |
| President4: | Virgilio Barco Vargas |
| Order5: | 33rd |
| Office5: | Minister of Communications of Colombia |
| Predecessor5: | Pedro Martín Leyes |
| Successor5: | Enrique Daníes Rincones |
| President5: | Virgilio Barco Vargas |
| Office6: | Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia |
| Term Start6: | March 12, 1981 |
| Term End6: | August 7, 1982 |
| Predecessor6: | Diego Uribe Vargas |
| Successor6: | Rodrigo Hernán Lloreda Caicedo |
| President6: | Julio César Turbay Ayala |
| Office7: | Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia |
| Constituency7: | Cauca Department |
| Birth Name: | Carlos Apolinar Lemos Simmonds |
| Birth Date: | 23 October 1933 |
| Birth Place: | Popayán, Cauca, Colombia |
| Death Place: | Bogotá, D.C., Colombia |
| Party: | Liberal |
| Alma Mater: | University of Cauca |
| Profession: | Lawyer |
Carlos Apolinar Lemos Simmonds (October 23, 1933 – July 30, 2003) was the sixth Vice President of Colombia.[1]
After graduating Lemos worked as a Municipal Judge in the town of Piendamó, Cauca. He later transferred to Bogotá where he was elected councilman in the early 1970s for three consecutive terms. He then ran for the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia. During the government of President Julio César Turbay Lemos was appointed as Secretary General of the Presidency of Colombia. In the same administration he was promoted to minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after that he was shifted to different ministries, Ministry of Government, Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Colombia).
Lemos served later as Ambassador of Colombia to the Organization of American States (OAS), drafter of the Colombian Constitution of 1991, Ambassador of Colombia to Austria, Ambassador of Colombia to Great Britain, senator, vice president and president of Colombia temporarily.
As a member of the Colombian Foreign Affairs Commission he contributed towards resolving the dispute over San Andrés y Providencia Islands in the Caribbean Sea between Colombia and Nicaragua for territorial waters. He also negotiated the peace process with the M-19 guerrilla.
Carlos Apolinar was born on 23 October 1933 in Popayán, Cauca to Antonio José Lemos Guzmán and María Antonia Simmonds Pardo. He married María Victoria Perez y Soto Bohorquez, with whom he had four children: María Eugenia, Carlos José, María Victoria, and Adriana. He later divorced Perez y Soto, and in 1987 married Marta Piedad Blanco Guauke on October 13, 1987, in the state of Virginia (U.S.), which was registered at the Consulate of Colombia in Washington, D.C., and in turn at the First Notary of Colombia; later in the light of the Civil Marriage Law in Colombia (Decree 2668 of 1988) and after the Holy See granted him the annulment of the Catholic marriage with María Victoria Pérez y Soto, (since August 2, 1993) they remarried civilly, on October 19, 1994, which was registered in Notary 27 of Bogotá, under public deed No. 11910..
Lemos died on 30 July 2003 in Bogotá, D.C. after a fight with lung cancer. In accordance with his last will and testament, he was mourned and buried privately, and did not receive a state funeral as he would have been entitled.