De la Espriella, a conservative ally of United States President Donald Trump, said last week that he wanted to prevent cultural institutions from being taken over by what he called “atheist social communism”, Al Jazeera reported.
Exhibits addressing social movements, including feminist and LGBTQ activism, and Colombia’s political violence have since been taken down. Culture Minister Paola Holguin said the government was also reviewing and redesigning exhibitions and curatorial practices at other museums overseen by her ministry.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the National Museum in downtown Bogota on Wednesday, while riot police guarded its entrance.
“I find it outrageous that they want to erase part of our history,” said history student Azul Riascos. He accused the government of promoting an exclusively white, Catholic and Spanish-speaking vision of Colombia that excluded Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.
The campaign extends beyond museums. Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs renamed a courtyard previously honouring an Indigenous leader, describing the move as part of the president’s campaign against “woke” ideology.
Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, characterised the Colombian approach as part of a broader trend of Trump allies adopting US political narratives and strategies.
Trump has also challenged museum presentations in Washington. A White House report in July branded leaders of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as radical activists and ordered signs warning that some exhibits were inaccurate. Museum director Anthea Hartig told Congress the report “does not fairly or accurately characterise the full body of work at the museum”.
Outside the Bogota museum, political scientist Estefania Cardozo challenged the premise of the Colombian campaign: “It is inventing one to erase identities that cannot be erased because they already exist.”