Colombia’s First Lady Imaginary Virtual Support

The fatal earthquake that shook Colombia last 10 August revealed how the four years of presidency of De La Espriella are going to be with his holy mismanagements, worrying more about his theater than enforcing the law upon which he pleaded oath. This being said, since the earth trembled, the normalized corruption is blooming. Legal procedures were neglected, and the aid was monopolized by the country’s First Lady, Ana Lucía Pineda. The fatal catastrophe became an immediate setting as an administrative playhouse, replacing official disaster relief with televised piety while survivors dug through the rubble.

With a so-called serious and competent leader, the president has a well-written statutory framework, 1523 of 2012 (National Risk Management), in which he can activate all the emergency mechanisms when a natural catastrophe hits the motherland. The State created thereby a National Risk System of Catastrophe Management (SNGRD in Spanish), where lies an untouched fund. Local authorities have the power, at least on paper, to call a territory an emergency and an extreme emergency so the funds and rescue teams could be activated immediately. The UN representation in Colombia and the International Red Cross are, in addition, part of that emergency apparatus under which international aid can be more effective and quicker.

However, the laws in Colombia are just a decoration for its bureaucratic legal system. The president, and ironically a criminal lawyer, Aberlardo De La Espriella, with his savior-way of thinking, thought that the earthquake aid must be monopolized through his wife’s nonprofit organization, Fundacion Colombia Luz y Sonrisa. Incorporated on July 7, 2026, with an initial capital of just 10 million pesos ($3,153), the mission of this nonprofit is to provide family branding and staged support to communities through “social programs”. It’s a bit far away from being a competent humanitarian entity that answers to natural catastrophes. But it's the president’s wife; thus, there was the need to create a bridge from his megalomaniac theatrical nonsense and the catastrophe to sell his image as a fake redeemer in front of cameras whilst the victims deal with their tragic trauma.

Opposition Senator Alejandro Ocampo subsequently filed a petition for transparency regarding the funds that the nonprofit received. A judge gave the order to unfold the financial balances of the First Lady’s foundation in 48 hours. There’s a serious accusation of the collected money versus the humanitarian assistance given, where several communities have expressed delay with the political engagements, or simply that they were forgotten by the executive. Needless to say, the virtual prayer call is a way to reach those uncommunicated zones through imaginary help. Meanwhile, people are needed for food, shelter, medicine and a solid project to rebuild their wrecked homes.

The First Lady’s answer to public scrutiny by displaying the tax registration number of the foundation to confirm its capacity to collect funds. It’s normal in the mind of this spiritual-show-business-woman to confuse the taxonomy of real humanitarian actions with Instagramable social programs. Then, she said that all the money is saved (thank goodness it’s not stolen, yet) and it’ll be used in a second phase of the aid. The foundation announced partnerships with three contractors to build houses in all the damaged regions from the earthquake, Risaralda, Choco, and Valle del Cauca. This is where things turn even messier and more corrupted.

By routing catastrophe management through the nonprofit organization, the legal pathway for public funds and open calls to rebuild the damaged zones is, well, inexistent. State institutions are legally bound to conduct transparent public tenders and observe strict conflict-of-interest prohibitions during an emergency reconstruction. Notwithstanding, with the current executive, why bother with the law when the humanitarian emergency can be operated with the family’s foundation and avoid legal constraints?

Without any competitive public bidding, friends of the foundation and the president’s family were pointed out to handle the “second phase” of the aid. Contracts were assigned to ACF S.A.S., an entity tied to De la Espriella’s legal practice; DuraPanel, a subsidiary of engineering giant Conconcreto, which retains De la Espriella’s firm for corporate counsel; and ACI Proyectos, an infrastructure builder with a history of joint public-private ventures alongside executive allies, most of them clients of De La Espriella Lawyers firm.

At the moment, communities in Choco are still waiting for the 27-house project valuated in one billion pesos, Urbanización Tierra Nueva in Quibdo. In Pereira and Dosquebradas, the reconstruction project led by the ACF S.A.S. has stalled following initial promotional and parnaphernalia ceremonies. In Cauca and Nariño, communities have expressed their discontent with the foundation, saying that the aid was prioritized in important urban areas, while the remote ones received the minimum or nothing. In numbers, the foundation has gathered over $17 million dollars (around 54 billion pesos) from private donors. Where all that money went? Perhaps AI subscriptions for the president’s proselytism videos, bribes to avoid legal procedures, or the Zoom subscription for the spiritual support of the First Lady and her church friends.

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