Who's Who in Abelardo de la Espriella's Cabinet?
Who's Who in Abelardo de la Espriella's Cabinet?
Meet the ministers who will support the far-right leader when he assumes the Colombian presidency on August 7.
Starting about a month after his election as Colombia’s president, Abelardo de la Espriella began to announce his cabinet in a fashion true to the far-right lawyer. Video clips on his social media, replete with cinematic voice overs and AI renderings of the future ministers, revealed each pick.
So far, de la Espriella has announced 11 of the individuals who will assume ministerial positions when he is inaugurated alongside his vice president, José Manuel Restrepo, on August 7. Ministers do not require confirmation by the legislature in Colombia. Seven picks are still to come, including the ministers of agriculture, culture, health, information and communications technologies, labor, mines and energy, and science. To comply with Colombia’s gender quota law, six of these picks have to be women. While de la Espriella campaigned on a reduction of the state and the elimination of thousands of public positions, he did not call for the closure of any ministries.
Meanwhile, he suspended the official transition process, where administrations share information with each other, as outgoing President Gustavo Petro (2022–present) has refused to recognize his victory.
Who has de la Espriella, a self-proclaimed outsider, chosen to bring with him to Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace?
Learn about the background of the race and the victory of right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella.
In Colombia, the interior minister manages the president’s relationship with the legislature, making them a critical figure in any administration. They are also third in the line of presidential succession.
In his first cabinet pick, de la Espriella selected Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, a politician with ample experience in Congress, for the role. A former member of the center-right Radical Change party, Lara served in the Senate from 2007 to 2010 and then in the House of Representatives from 2014 to 2018, acting as the body’s president in his final year. Prior to his congressional service, Lara occupied an “anti-corruption czar” position under President Álvaro Uribe (2002–2010), a moniker highlighted by de la Espriella in his announcement.
Lara comes from a political family. His father, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, served as minister of justice in the 1980s until his 1984 assassination by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
Colombia’s finance ministry will be helmed by Miguel Gómez Martínez, an economist who has held positions in both the private and public sector. Gómez Martínez served in the administrations of both Andrés Pastrana (1998–2002) and Uribe. Under the latter, he served as Colombia’s ambassador to France and to UNESCO.
In 2010, Gómez Martínez won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, representing Bogotá for four years as a member of the Party of the U. Outside of government, he served as president of Fasecolda, the trade association of the Colombian insurance sector, and Bancóldex, a state-owned bank.
Gómez Martínez comes from a prominent conservative family in Colombia–his grandfather, Laureano Gómez, served as president in the 1950s. His brother, Enrique Gómez Martínez, is the president of de la Espriella’s National Salvation party and will serve as a senator in the incoming legislative session.
De la Espriella has proposed a pivot from Petro’s foreign policy—realigning Colombia with allies like the United States and Israel. He’s selected Omar Bula Escobar, a diplomat with two decades of service, to help him fulfill that vision. Bula Escobar has represented Colombia in Brazil, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Egypt, Italy, Iraq, and Sudan. He worked at the United Nations for 20 years, including at the World Food Programme.
Bula Escobar is the son of former minister and Córdoba governor German Bula Hoyos. His brother, German Bula Escobar, served on the State Council.
Retired Major General Jorge Eduardo Mora López will serve as de la Espriella’s defense minister. He is a career member of Colombia’s military who spent 36 years in the army. There, he founded the Transnational Threat Deployment Force in 2021, a rapid-response division targeting criminal groups.
Mora López retired from service at the beginning of Petro’s presidency and has been an outspoken critic of Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, which sought to negotiate ceasefires with armed groups. His brother, General Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel, who died in 2025, was head of the military during Uribe’s government.
It is unknown whether Mora López will serve in his role as a civilian or if he will rejoin the military, which will affect the chain of command in the ministry. He led de la Espriella’s campaign in Norte de Santander.
Lawyer Ivan Cancino, who served as a delegate prosecutor before the Superior Court of Bogotá and in a variety of academic roles, will helm the justice ministry. Like de la Espriella, Cancino is known for his legal representation of high-profile clients. That includes Carlos Ramón González, the former administrative director of Petro’s presidential office who was tried for corruption, and Diego Cadena, who was convicted of witness tampering on behalf of Uribe.
Also like the president-elect, Cancino is a prolific media commentator, writing a regular newspaper column and appearing on television. He joined de la Espriella on the campaign trail frequently and led the transition team on justice. In this role, Cancino will be charged with executing de la Espriella’s vision for Colombia’s penal system, including the construction of ten mega-prisons.
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This won’t be Fabio Arjona Hincapié first time in Colombia’s environmental ministry. The marine biologist served as vice minister of the environment in Ernesto Samper’s administration (1994–1998). Arjona also worked as the manager of a hydroelectric plant and has been a global advocate for natural preservation, especially through his role as the director of Conservation International Colombia.
A prominent far-right voice in Colombia, lawyer Viviane Morales will serve as education minister. Morales was briefly Colombia’s attorney general from 2011 to 2012 but was forced to resign after questions arose over irregularities in her selection to the position.
Morales served in the Chamber of Representatives (1991–1998) and the Senate (1998–2002, 2014–2018) as a member of various political parties including the Liberal Party. She was also Colombia’s ambassador to France from 2018 to 2021.
In May 2026, Mauricio Gómez Amín stepped down from his Senate seat to work in de la Espriella’s campaign as the president of his political movement, Defenders of the Homeland. Now, he will serve as the minister of commerce, industry, and tourism.
Gómez Amín is from the Atlántico department, which he represented in the Chamber of Representatives (2014–2018) and the Senate (2018–2026) as a member of the Liberal Party.
Another costeña, Elsa Noguera, served as mayor of Barranquilla (2012–2016) and as the governor of the state of Atlántico while a member of the Radical Change Party. She has been in a cabinet before—serving as the minister of housing for one year for President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018). Now, she will return to the executive branch as minister of transportation.
A newcomer to public office, Juliana Gutiérrez will helm the sports ministry. Gutiérrez’s brother, Federico Gutiérrez, is the mayor of Medellín (2016–2019, 2024– present) and was one of the first major figures to support de la Espriella. Juliana Gutiérrez was an unsuccessful Senate candidate for her brother’s political party, We Believe, back in in 2025.
The son of pastors, Jaime Andrés Beltrán served as mayor of Bucaramanga, the ninth biggest city in Colombia, from 2024 to mid-2025 when his election was annulled as he belonged to multiple political parties, which is banned by Colombian law. In the 2026 elections, Beltrán intended to run for Senate with de la Espriella’s political party, but he gave up his candidacy to serve as a regional campaign manager.
