About 950 People Join Colombia 5.0 in Leticia, Amazonas, Where an App in Five Native Languages Wins the Hackathon

MinTIC’s digital-ecosystem tour reaches Leticia for the first time

About 950 people took part in the two-day Colombia 5.0 gathering in Leticia, the capital of the Amazonas department, on September 30 and October 1, 2026, according to the Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies), or MinTIC. It was the first time the ministry’s traveling meeting of Colombia’s digital ecosystems had been held in Leticia, and the program closed with a hackathon in which 10 teams from the region competed.

The winning solution was a mobile application available in five native languages, which MinTIC described as a tool to give the region’s products more visibility and to build partnerships with government entities. The ministry’s account of the event did not name the team, the application or the five languages.

Participants stand in a row in front of a screen during Colombia 5.0 in Leticia, several of them holding blue cases. (Photo courtesy MinTIC)

Teams were asked to develop a business model with a value proposition that combined technologies including artificial intelligence, chatbots and data from the region. In its announcement before the event, MinTIC said the hackathon had been designed around a specific regional problem: the competitive barriers that ethnotourism and ecotourism ventures run by indigenous communities in Leticia face against traditional agencies. Canal Trece, the ministry’s partner on Colombia 5.0, described the brief before the event as a technical challenge to design solutions with artificial intelligence focused on ecotourism, ancestral languages and the environment.

Local Projects and a Kids Zone

The gathering included a showcase of projects, startups and technology-based companies from the region. One was Niconga, gamified educational software for mathematics, reading and writing, and English from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Amazonia (National University of Colombia, Amazon campus). The Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (National Open and Distance University) set up a space for virtual experiences and artificial intelligence, and UDR Leticia showed a Lego robot prototype called MEGO Bailarín (MEGO Dancer). TecnoSelva, a student interest group at the Escuela Normal Superior (Higher Normal School), presented robotics and 3D-printing projects and sustainable solutions for the region.

Young attendees pose with a humanoid robot and a robot dog beneath SENA banners during Colombia 5.0 in Leticia. (Photo courtesy MinTIC)

In the Zona Kids (Kids Zone), 70 children took part in hands-on activities in computational thinking, educational robotics and programming, according to MinTIC.

Training at SENA

The in-person program was held at the Los Lagos campus of the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Learning Service), or SENA, in Leticia. MinTIC said sessions over the two days covered cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital skills and data governance, with content aimed at both the public and private sectors. The program the ministry published beforehand listed the hackathon, 11 workshops and nine conferences, including an October 1 keynote on digital sovereignty by Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, director of AI research at Zoho Corp.

Ahead of the event, Andrés Galindo, MinTIC’s acting director of digital economy, said the Leticia agenda would combine knowledge of artificial intelligence and skills development with “immersive experiences designed to solve real challenges of the community and local commerce,” in remarks published by Canal Trece.

“We want everyone, regardless of their level of knowledge or the role they play, to be able to access technology and make it their own.”

— Andrés Galindo, acting director of digital economy, MinTIC

Part of a National Route

MinTIC launched Colombia 5.0 in March 2026 as the successor to Colombia 4.0, with gatherings planned in 11 departments, a count that included Bogotá. “We evolved from Colombia 4.0 to Colombia 5.0 not merely as a change of name: it is the consolidation of a digital hub and ecosystem that connects the state, academia, companies, entrepreneurs and communities, to close gaps, generate opportunities and strengthen employability,” Carina Murcia, then minister of information and communications technologies (ICT), said at the launch.

An attendee uses a phone beside a laptop during Colombia 5.0 in Leticia. (Photo courtesy MinTIC)

The program has continued since President Abelardo de la Espriella took office on August 7, 2026, with Alexandra Falla Zerrate as ICT minister. The schedule on the official Colombia 5.0 site shows stops in Yopal, Casanare, on August 27 and 28, and in the Ciudad Bolívar district of Bogotá on September 24 and 25, before Leticia. The schedule now lists all 11 departments named at the launch as having hosted a gathering. The next stop is the Bosa district of Bogotá, on October 22 and 23 at a campus of the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Francisco José de Caldas District University), and MinTIC said two support sessions are planned in Cúcuta and Popayán.

According to MinTIC’s midyear tally, the first eight stops of 2026 drew 27,460 in-person and virtual participants, and their hackathons brought together 475 participants in 139 teams. The ministry said at the time that Amazonas, Vichada and Casanare had never hosted an event of this kind.

Headline photo: Attendees pose behind large COL5.0 letters alongside a humanoid robot and a four-legged robot in Leticia. (Photo courtesy MinTIC)