Colombia's President Moves to Remove Exhibits from National Museum, Drawing Protests and Trump Comparisons

On Wednesday, dozens of demonstrators stood outside the National Museum in downtown Bogota while riot police guarded the entrance. They had come to protest the removal of exhibits from inside, a move that follows an announcement by Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella that he is leading a cultural "counterrevolution."

De la Espriella, a far-right conservative and ally of United States President Donald Trump, said last week that he wants to stop cultural institutions from being taken over by what he calls "atheist social communism." Since then, dozens of exhibits have come down. Among them were displays on the history of social movements, including feminist and LGBTQ activism, and on Colombia's political violence.

Civil rights groups, artists and students have responded with protests, accusing the government of censorship and warning that important parts of the country's history could be erased. Azul Riascos, a history student, called it outrageous that anyone would try to erase part of the national past. He said the government is promoting a picture of Colombia as exclusively white, Catholic and Spanish-speaking, an image that leaves out Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.

The campaign extends beyond a single museum. Culture Minister Paola Holguin said her ministry is reviewing and redesigning exhibitions and curatorial practices at other museums it oversees. Separately, Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs renamed a courtyard that had honored an Indigenous leader, describing the change as part of the president's fight against "woke" ideology.

Critics see an imported script. Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, the Andes director at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy organisation, said the approach reflects a wider pattern of Trump allies copying US political narratives and strategies. She added that Trump's cooperation with allied Latin American governments on security and counternarcotics also carries an ideological dimension. Anthropologist Arturo Sanabria, speaking at the protest, said these are imported narratives about terrorism and about being "woke," and described the approach as a form of neocolonial intervention.

The comparison points to Trump's own dispute with Washington museums, especially those tied to the Smithsonian Institution. In July, the White House released a report branding leaders of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History as radical activists and ordered signs placed outside the museum telling visitors some exhibits are inaccurate. Nearly three months later, those signs have not been installed. The museum's director, Anthea Hartig, told Congress the report "does not fairly or accurately characterise the full body of work at the museum."

Political scientist Estefania Cardozo, also outside the museum on Wednesday, argued that the government is waging a cultural battle that probably does not exist. In her view, it is inventing one in order to erase identities that cannot be erased because they already exist.

With Holguin's review of other museums under way, further changes to exhibitions appear likely, and the protests may follow them.