Bruce Mac Master (above, right) has resigned as president of the Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia (ANDI), the country’s leading business association, after more than a decade at the helm and amid growing tensions between President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government and some representatives of the private sector.

Mac Master announced his decision in a letter to ANDI’s board of directors, citing “unexpected and concerning circumstances” that had made the organization’s environment more complex and could ultimately affect its members and employees.

“Multiple pressures have affected its ability to act freely and carry out its functions autonomously,” Mac Master said.

The business leader had headed ANDI since 2013 and had the organization’s backing to remain in the position until October 2027.

“I cannot allow circumstances external to the association to end up affecting its members, their freedoms or its normal operations,” he said. Mac Master also warned that the situation could affect the organization’s staff and limit ANDI’s ability to represent Colombia’s productive sector.

Allegations of government pressure

The resignation comes amid what some Colombian media outlets have described as a growing dispute between the De la Espriella administration and business associations.

Digital news outlet La Silla Vacía directly attributed Mac Master’s departure to pressure from the government.

“De la Espriella was after his head. He got it. As La Silla reported, it began with the government’s veto of the association. In theory, nothing was in writing. In practice, informal messages on the issue had begun circulating within the Cabinet weeks ago,” the outlet reported.

Mac Master’s departure follows another episode during the new administration’s first weeks in office that raised questions about the relationship between the executive branch and organizations representing the private sector.

Carolina Soto (above left) had been selected to become executive president of the Cámara Colombiana de la Infraestructura (CCI), replacing María Consuelo Araújo, who left the position after being appointed Colombia’s ambassador to the United States. Soto, however, stepped down less than a day after her appointment because of the opposition that, she said, her selection had generated.

“Given the opposition generated by my appointment, I have decided to decline,” Soto said in a statement to the CCI’s board of directors.

In the same message, she stressed the need to maintain a cooperative relationship between the infrastructure sector and public institutions.

“The CCI represents a fundamental sector of the economy that needs to work in coordination with the state; that is, with the national government, territorial authorities and public companies. The challenges facing the sector and the country are many and require greatness,” she said.

Soto also emphasized the importance of “the independence of private-sector decisions and the government’s respect for them.”

The new government’s relationship with business groups

The two episodes have put under scrutiny the relationship De la Espriella intends to maintain with Colombia’s leading business associations during his administration.

The government has been in office for less than two months, but the controversies surrounding the CCI and now ANDI have raised questions about how far it intends to extend its influence over private organizations that, while needing to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the state, operate independently.

In Mac Master’s case, allegations of direct intervention by the executive branch have been attributed to informal messages that reportedly circulated within the government. In his resignation letter, Mac Master referred to “multiple pressures” and “external circumstances,” although in the publicly known excerpts he did not directly identify the president or officials in his administration as responsible.

The distinction is significant because ANDI plays a central role in dialogue between Colombia’s business sector and the state and regularly participates in the country’s major economic, labor and regulatory discussions.

The departures of Soto and Mac Master therefore raise a broader question about the emerging relationship between the new administration and the private sector: whether the government will engage with business associations that maintain their autonomy from its policies, or whether the tensions of its first weeks in office foreshadow a relationship in which greater alignment with the new administration is expected from their leaders.