MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De la Espriella skips the UN and delegates Colombia's address to his vice president

“You know I promised not to leave Colombia and I am going to keep that,” the president said in a video

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella will not attend the United Nations General Assembly and has delegated the country's address to his vice president, José Manuel Restrepo, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, September 24. It is the first time in recent history that a Colombian vice president has taken on that role.

The decision stems from a campaign pledge. “You know I promised not to leave Colombia and I am going to keep that,” the president said in a video released on Friday, adding that Restrepo “will read before the UN plenary words that will surely make a great impact”. Opposition congressman Alejandro Ocampo said on X that this is the first vice president to deliver Colombia's address to the body since 1946, a claim that has not been independently confirmed.

Security will be the central theme, as agreed by the president and vice president at a meeting in Barranquilla, with the presentation of the new government's national security strategy. The foreign ministry also flagged investment and “strategic alliances” as priorities. Restrepo will speak immediately before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The vice president arrived in New York on Sunday leading a delegation markedly smaller than those of previous governments, comprising Foreign Minister Ómar Bula, UN Ambassador Mauricio Gaona and Ambassador to Washington María Consuelo Araújo. He travelled on a commercial flight, in economy class and in a middle seat, according to a photograph he circulated himself. On Monday he held meetings with the World Economic Forum, the Inter-American Development Bank, energy sector executives and Dominican President Luis Abinader. “We have a clear agenda: attract investment, train the talent artificial intelligence demands and modernise the state,” he said.

Lists of planned meetings differ by source. Ambassador Gaona mentioned the United States, United Kingdom, France, Peru, United Arab Emirates, Chile and Ecuador; other coverage adds Saudi Arabia, Estonia and Switzerland, and explicitly includes strengthening ties with Israel. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed him on X.

De la Espriella, in office since August 7, has softened his position on the organisation. During the campaign he called it “a political directorate of the left” and threatened to withdraw Colombia's delegation. Once in government, Bula confirmed before Congress that Colombia will remain on the Security Council, to which it was elected in 2025 and where its term runs to December 2027.

The new government's foreign policy has aligned with the United States and Israel. Last week, Colombia was one of four countries to abstain in the vote allowing Palestine to address the assembly remotely, after Washington denied visas to its representatives: 152 countries voted in favour, with the United States, Israel and Paraguay against. Washington last week kept Colombia on its list of countries it deems to have failed demonstrably to combat drug trafficking, though with explicit praise for the new president.

Last year's address, the final one by then president Gustavo Petro, led to the revocation of his US visa and his subsequent inclusion on the OFAC sanctions list. Petro referred to the episode on X on Monday: “Now that I will no longer give a speech at the United Nations Assembly, the last one put me on OFAC.”