Colombian president purges National Museum of works promoting ‘communism’

Key Points:

• Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative ally of Donald Trump, has initiated a cultural “counterrevolution” by removing exhibits from the National Museum that focus on social movements, sparking protests over alleged censorship and historical erasure.
• The removed exhibits highlighted feminist, LGBTQ activism, and Colombia’s political violence, prompting civil rights groups, artists, and students to accuse the government of promoting a narrow vision of Colombia as exclusively white, Catholic, and Spanish-speaking.
• Experts note that de la Espriella’s actions mirror broader trends among Trump allies, adopting US political narratives that criticize cultural institutions as promoting “woke” or radical ideologies, similar to controversies surrounding the Smithsonian museums in the US.
• The Colombian government is also redesigning exhibitions in other museums and has renamed a courtyard previously honoring an Indigenous leader, framing these moves as part of a campaign against “woke” ideology.
• Critics argue that the government is manufacturing a cultural battle to justify erasing diverse identities, which they assert cannot be erased as they are integral to Colombia’s history.