Colombia's President Targets Museum, Shakes Cabinet

On Wednesday, October 21, riot police guarded the National Museum in downtown Bogota as demonstrators protested President Abelardo de la Espriella’s removal of dozens of exhibits. The exhibits include material on social movements, feminist and LGBTQ+ activism, and Colombia’s political violence. The state is deciding which histories belong on public walls—and which communities it pushes out of view.

“I find it outrageous that they want to erase part of our history,” said Azul Riascos, a history student who joined the protest. Riascos said the government was promoting a vision of Colombia as exclusively white, Catholic and Spanish-speaking, excluding Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities.

Who Gets to Tell the Country’s History

Civil rights groups, artists and students accused the government of censorship and warned that parts of the country’s history could be erased. Dozens gathered outside the museum as riot police guarded its entrance. That’s the visible divide: people challenging an official cultural project on one side, state force protecting the institution on the other.

De la Espriella called the initiative a cultural “counterrevolution.” The previous week, he said he wanted to stop cultural institutions from falling under what he calls “atheist social communism.” His words frame the museum as territory to reclaim from political opponents; the exhibits concern movements, identities and violence in Colombia.

Anthropologist Arturo Sanabria called the government’s approach “a form of neocolonial intervention” during Wednesday’s protest. “These are imported narratives about terrorism and about being ‘woke,’” he said. Outside the museum, political scientist Estefania Cardozo said: “The government is making serious efforts in a cultural battle that probably doesn’t exist. It is inventing one to erase identities that cannot be erased because they already exist.”

Culture Minister Paola Holguin said the government was reviewing and redesigning exhibitions and curatorial practices at other museums overseen by her ministry. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also renamed a courtyard that had honoured an Indigenous leader, describing the change as part of the president’s campaign against “woke” ideology.

A Cabinet Shaken by a Budget Defeat

The cultural dispute coincided with Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara’s departure after Congress rejected the General Budget of the Nation bill because of an error in its legislative procedure. Bloomberg reported that the setback over next year’s budget raised questions about the government’s ability to advance its fiscal agenda and reassure investors about the nation’s finances. Congress’s decision blocks the bill; the reported consequences extend beyond the chamber to the government’s fiscal plans and investor confidence.

De la Espriella announced Lara’s departure on Wednesday night and said Alejandro Ordóñez would replace him. While officials formalize the appointment, Iván Cancino, Minister of Justice, will handle the duties of the Ministry of the Interior. ColombiaOne described the Interior portfolio as one of the most important in the Executive Branch because of its work in Congress, and said it ranks first in the State’s order of precedence, followed by Foreign Affairs, Finance and Defense.

Lara’s departure also came amid criticism from some political sectors over his relationship with lawmakers and the government’s setback in the budget bill’s legislative process. The joint First Committees were debating a bill for the submission of armed groups to justice. The national government sought a framework for dealing with illegal armed groups and replacing Petro’s failed policy of total peace.

The State’s Revolving Door

Lara was the highest-ranking official to leave De la Espriella’s government. Other departures include Viviane Morales from the Ministry of Education, Ricardo Valencia from the National Administrative Department of Statistics, Magda Yolima Amaya from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, Hannah Escobar from the Ministry of Health, Carlos Rene Montoya from Colpensiones and German Miranda from the National Fire Department. The account gives no single cause for that run of exits; it describes a government where leaders make appointments and removals at the top.

De la Espriella thanked Lara for his service, then named Ordóñez, a former inspector general and current Colombian ambassador to the OAS, to take over the political portfolio. “His experience, character, and career will be fundamental in facing the great challenges of our nation,” the president wrote. People outside the museum offered a different account of what the government’s cultural campaign is doing.