Bruce Mac Master resigned as head of Colombia’s main industry lobby after Semana reported that the presidency had told ministers not to meet him or anyone from ANDI while he led the association. The Rio Times said no written order had been published, but Mac Master said “multiple pressures” had weakened the association’s ability to act freely and perform its functions autonomously.
The government’s gatekeeping
Mac Master said he, the ANDI board and its executive committee had tried to keep dialogue open with President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government. “All those attempts were fruitless,” he said, according to Semana. “We tried and did not succeed.” He added that he hoped his departure would help “recover the joint work between the national government and the business community.”
ANDI’s board reconfirmed Mac Master as president through the end of 2027 in early September. On 21 September, Semana reported that the instruction barring meetings with him had gone to all ministers. The Rio Times found no published written order; accounts of the veto relied on press reports, chiefly Semana.
The dispute reached a powerful business association. ANDI represents large companies in discussions with the government over taxes, the budget and regulation, and was described as having been founded 82 years ago. Mac Master took the helm in 2013. Whether the association could reach ministers became a measure of whether dialogue between government and business would continue.
Businesses started leaving. Last week, sugar mills Incauca and Providencia, along with firm Sucroal, left ANDI, Semana reported. Coca-Cola FEMSA left ANDI’s beverage chamber and said it was considering leaving the association altogether. Six days before he resigned, Mac Master argued that “ANDI is much more than its president.”
Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara called the resignation “an autonomous decision within ANDI” and said he had nothing to comment. Outside Congress, he called business associations “spaces for dialogue” between companies and government. “The more that communication flows and the easier it is, the better for both sides,” he said.
ANDI’s board now has to select a new president; reports on 1 October named no successor. The report identified the first test: whether ministers resume meetings with the association. Mac Master’s resignation changed no law, tax or trade rule, and he described his departure as a way to restore cooperation.
Party machinery, unanswered filings
Former senator María Fernanda Cabal announced in a social media livestream on Thursday evening, 1 October 2026, that she was leaving Centro Democrático. She had first sought an orderly departure. On 4 August, she filed a formal request to split from the party, seeking “an institutional, respectful and democratic exit” that would let both sides address what she called doctrinal differences.
“I waited for an answer because I considered this the right path,” Cabal said, as quoted by El Tiempo. “To this day I have not received it,” she added. “Not acknowledging receipt is also an answer,” she told viewers, according to Caracol Radio. Her departure wasn’t a formal split: the request for an escisión never received approval.
Cabal said the party’s base was right-wing, but its ideas had blurred, particularly during the last campaign. “I feel there is a natural prejudice against the word ‘right’ on the part of President Uribe,” she said. Uribe governed Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and remains Centro Democrático’s founder and best-known face.
Centro Democrático chose Senator Paloma Valencia over Cabal and Paola Holguín as its candidate for the 2026 presidential race. Valencia finished third in the first round on 31 May. Right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the June runoff and took office on 7 August. The party’s candidate selection and Cabal’s challenge unfolded inside the electoral machinery; her departure didn’t change the party’s congressional seats.
Cabal plans to present a political movement on Saturday, 3 October, and said the stakes include the 2027 regional elections. The movement had no settled name. “The intention is to be a party,” she said, and she wants to choose candidates for those elections as a step toward the 2030 presidential race. She told Blu Radio she hopes to be a candidate.
Centro Democrático thanked Cabal “for all these years of service to the Centro Democrático party and to Colombia,” wished her success and said, “Colombia will never be a lost cause.” Uribe posted, “For Dr María Fernanda Cabal, always respect.” Cabal said she remained grateful and respectful toward Uribe and her former colleagues, but substantive differences made leaving necessary. “I hold no grudge or resentment,” she told Blu Radio. “What I do feel, in a way, is ingratitude.”
The account describes no grassroots organizing or mutual-aid response. It records resignations, a reported restriction on ministerial meetings, party filings and plans to build another party. The next stated tests remain within those institutions: whether ministers meet ANDI again, and whether Cabal’s new movement enters the 2027 regional elections.