Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has launched a cultural “counterrevolution” that includes removing dozens of exhibits from the National Museum, prompting protests and comparisons with US President Donald Trump.
The conservative Trump ally said he wanted to stop cultural institutions being taken over by what he calls “atheist social communism”. Exhibitions covering social movements, including feminist and LGBTQ+ activism, as well as Colombia’s political violence, have since been taken down.
The changes have been condemned by civil rights groups, artists and students, who accuse the government of censorship and warn that significant parts of Colombia’s history risk being erased.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the National Museum in central Bogotá on Wednesday as riot police guarded the entrance.
“I find it outrageous that they want to erase part of our history,” said Azul Riascos, a history student.
Riascos said the government was promoting an image of Colombia as exclusively white, Catholic and Spanish-speaking, excluding Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities.
Protests over National Museum changes
Arturo Sanabria, an anthropologist who spoke at the protest, described the government’s approach as a form of neocolonial intervention. “These are imported narratives about terrorism and about being ‘woke,’” he said.
Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the policy reflected a wider trend among Trump allies copying political narratives and strategies from the United States.
Mr Trump has been sharply critical of museums in Washington, particularly those linked to the Smithsonian Institution. In July, the White House released a report describing leaders of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as radical activists and ordered signs to be placed outside the museum saying some exhibits were inaccurate.
Nearly three months later, the signs had not been installed. Anthea Hartig, the museum’s director, told Congress that the White House report “does not fairly or accurately characterise the full body of work at the museum”.
Ms Sanchez-Garzoli said co-operation between Mr Trump and allied Latin American governments on security and counter-narcotics efforts also carried an ideological dimension.
Colombia’s Culture Minister, Paola Holguin, said the government was reviewing and redesigning exhibitions and curatorial practices at other museums overseen by her ministry.
The Foreign Ministry has also renamed a courtyard that previously honoured an Indigenous leader, describing the move as part of the president’s campaign against “woke” ideology.
“The government is making serious efforts in a cultural battle that probably doesn’t exist,” political scientist Estefania Cardozo said outside the museum. “It is inventing one to erase identities that cannot be erased because they already exist.”
