Inside Colombia’s New Government: Competent Technocrats or Far Right?

Inside the new cabinet

President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella has completed the formation of his Cabinet ahead of taking office on August 7, assembling an 18-member team that includes nine women and nine men in compliance with Colombia’s gender parity law. The appointments complete the lineup of officials who will lead the country’s executive branch during his first year in office.

The Cabinet’s composition offers the first clues about the profile the new administration may adopt, becoming the first Colombian government led by a politician identified with the far right.

Throughout the presidential campaign, De la Espriella portrayed himself as a political outsider, describing himself as one of “los nunca”, those who had never governed before, while referring to his rivals as “los de siempre,” a label for Colombia’s traditional political class.

One of the central questions is whether he will govern following the models of leaders he has cited as references, such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, or whether he will ultimately rely on the traditional right that has governed Colombia repeatedly within the constitutional framework and the country’s system of checks and balances.

That debate had already emerged during the campaign when he selected José Manuel Restrepo, an economist and former minister under President Iván Duque, as his running mate. Widely regarded as a technocrat, Restrepo’s nomination was interpreted as a signal of moderation to voters who questioned the presidential candidate’s limited political and government experience.

The final Cabinet combines ministers who served in previous administrations, representatives of traditional political dynasties, business leaders, figures aligned with the MAGA movement and President Donald Trump, representatives of evangelical churches and Christian communities, and several officials with no previous experience in the national government. It also includes a number of politicians who were outspoken opponents of the outgoing administration of Gustavo Petro.

Top row, from left: Elsa Noguera (Transport), Mauricio Gómez Amín (Commerce, Industry and Tourism) and Viviane Morales (Education). Bottom row, from left: Jaime Andrés Beltrán (Housing), Juliana Gutiérrez Zuluaga (Sports) and Iván Cancino (Justice and Law). Photos from the ministers’ social media accounts.

The most technocratic appointments

Among this group, one of the appointments that generated the greatest expectations was Ana María Vesga as health minister, one of the country’s most sensitive portfolios after years of debate over Colombia’s health care system.

A lawyer and representative of the business sector, Vesga previously served as executive president of ACEMI, the association representing Colombia’s leading EPS or health insurance providers. From that position, she became one of the country’s main voices on the health system crisis, its financing and proposals to strengthen it. Eliminating the EPS system was one of the main objectives of the unsuccessful health reforms promoted by the government of Gustavo Petro.

Another top priority for the incoming administration will be security, which De la Espriella says has deteriorated because of “the failure of Petro’s Total Peace policy.” He appointed retired Gen. Jorge Mora as defense minister. With more than 35 years of military service, academic credentials and technical expertise, Mora will lead the government’s strategy against illegal armed groups, which the president-elect has given an ultimatum to abandon criminal activity. Mora also unsuccessfully ran for public office with the endorsement of Centro Democrático, the right-wing party founded by former President Álvaro Uribe.

María Nohemí Arboleda, appointed minister of Mines and Energy, represents a profile that bridges technical expertise and politics. Since 2016 she has led XM, the company responsible for operating Colombia’s national electricity transmission grid, after spending much of her career at ISA, the state-controlled energy company based in Medellín. One of her main challenges will be the possible reactivation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method of oil and gas extraction criticized by the outgoing government for its environmental impact.

Representatives of traditional political dynasties

Among figures affiliated with Colombia’s traditional political parties and family political clans, those De la Espriella has referred to as “los de siempre”, Elsa Noguera stands out as the incoming transportation minister. She previously served as mayor of Barranquilla, governor of Atlántico and housing minister, while building much of her political career within Cambio Radical, the party linked to the Char political clan, one of the new president’s main political allies.

Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, the incoming interior minister, also fits that profile. He served two terms as a senator for Cambio Radical and has maintained close political ties with former Presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque, as well as former Vice President Germán Vargas Lleras, all leading figures of Colombia’s conservative right.

Indalecio Dangond, who will head the Ministry of Agriculture, advised the administrations of Ernesto Samper (Partido Liberal), Andrés Pastrana (Partido Conservador) and Álvaro Uribe (Centro Democrático), and also worked for Fedepalma, the palm oil producers’ federation that he will now oversee as minister.

Mauricio Gómez Amín, appointed minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, served two terms as senator, was a member of the House of Representatives and a city council member. He also managed De la Espriella’s presidential campaign and is considered a key political ally of the Char clan in Barranquilla.

Also in this group is three-term Centro Democrático Senator Paola Holguín, who will become culture minister. Although she sought her party’s presidential nomination, she distanced herself after Paloma Valencia was selected.

Holguín also maintains close political ties with Medellín Mayor Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, whose sister, Juliana Gutiérrez, has been appointed sports minister. They are joined by Natalia López, the incoming labor minister, who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate under the Creemos movement led by Fico Gutiérrez.

Fabio Arjona, the incoming environment minister, served as deputy environment minister during the Ernesto Samper administration from 1997 to 1998. He later led Conservation International in Colombia for two decades.

Rounding out this group is Miguel Gómez, the incoming finance minister. He belongs to one of Colombia’s traditional Conservative families: he is the nephew of slain Conservative leader Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, grandson of former President Laureano Gómez and brother of current Senator Enrique Gómez.

President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella poses with his Cabinet during a leadership retreat ahead of his inauguration. Photo published on X by the incoming administration.

Those who had never held government office

Five Cabinet members most clearly embody De la Espriella’s campaign concept of “los nunca”: Jorge Mora (Defense), criminal lawyer Iván Cancino (Justice and Law), audiovisual expert Alexandra Falla (Information and Communications Technologies), Omar Bula (Foreign Affairs) and Claudia Benavides (Science, Technology and Innovation).

Omar Bula’s appointment has attracted particular attention. Although De la Espriella has pledged to strengthen relations with the United States, the incoming foreign minister’s most significant international experience came between 1989 and 2012 through several missions with the United Nations World Food Program. At the same time, in recent years he has become a strong critic of the UN, describing it as a “left-wing directory” with an “anti-Western globalist agenda.” On social media he has also defended positions associated with the MAGA movement and argued that climate change is a false “woke idea.”

Claudia Benavides, meanwhile, was selected through a digital “talent hunt” platform created by De la Espriella to receive applications from citizens interested in joining the government. According to the president-elect, she was chosen from more than 300,000 applicants and had no previous relationship with him.

Signals to religious sectors

The presence of leaders linked to religious and Christian groups is another defining feature of the Cabinet.

The most prominent figure is former Senator and former Attorney General Viviane Morales. Although she built much of her political career within Partido Liberal, she has embraced conservative positions on same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, euthanasia and abortion. She also led a referendum initiative seeking to prohibit adoption by same-sex couples, although it was rejected by the House of Representatives.

Her appointment as education minister has raised concerns among academic and liberal sectors, particularly after stating that schools should “remove Marx and bring God back into the classroom.” Morales is also the wife of Carlos Alonso Lucío, a former M-19 guerrilla member who helped shape the ideology behind the Salvación Nacional movement and De la Espriella’s government.

Also, in this category is Jaime Andrés Beltrán, the incoming housing minister. The removed former mayor of Bucaramanga, Christian pastor and outspoken admirer of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele reflects the growing political influence of Christian movements within the governing coalition.

Between change and continuity

The Cabinet’s composition partially contrasts with one of De la Espriella’s central campaign messages: governing with “los nunca,” referring to people who, as he repeatedly said, had “never lived off the state’s payroll” and had never belonged to Colombia’s traditional political class.

Beyond the individual appointments, the Cabinet provides the first concrete indication of the governing model De la Espriella intends to pursue over the next four years.

The combination of figures drawn from the traditional political establishment, technocrats, private-sector representatives, leaders close to Christian movements and several officials with no previous government experience suggests a strategy focused more on governability and institutional stability than on political disruption.

That balance will be tested from the beginning of the administration in a highly fragmented Congress where no political force holds a majority, forcing the new president to negotiate each of his major reforms while confronting challenges including security, economic recovery, health care reform and strengthening relations with the United States.