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Colombian President-Elect Names Rodrigo Lara Interior Minister
Abelardo de la Espriella appointed the son of a justice minister killed by Pablo Escobar's orders. The announcement followed de la Espriella's narrow runoff victory on Sunday.
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Colombian president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella named Rodrigo Lara as his future interior minister on Friday. Lara's father, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, served as justice minister until his 1984 assassination in Bogotá on orders from Pablo Escobar. De la Espriella defeated Iván Cepeda by less than one percentage point, or more than 251,000 votes, in Sunday's runoff.
He is scheduled to take office in August and has pledged a heavy hand on crime. Lara was eight years old at the time of his father's death. He went into exile in Europe with his family and later returned to Colombia.
He previously served as anti-corruption czar under former President Álvaro Uribe and as a senator. "He who NEVER, despite having been a victim of violence, stopped working for his homeland," de la Espriella said in a social media post. " De la Espriella, a businessman with no prior elected office, received an endorsement from President Trump during the campaign.
Human rights organizations documented more than 50 massacres in Colombia in 2026. In 2025 President Trump determined that Colombia had failed demonstrably in counternarcotics commitments and threatened military strikes on Colombian territory.
