The outcome means the incoming government will not hold the majority needed to dictate the congressional docket. De la Espriella had nominated Deluque, a close ally, to assume the leadership of the Senate, a position that grants control over the legislative agenda. Eight parties had initially expressed support for Deluque, which would have secured him 55 votes in the anonymous ballot. However, the final count showed Henríquez winning with 56 votes to Deluque’s 45.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, who leads the Democratic Center, had ordered his 17 senators to vote for Henríquez. Uribe accused “Abelardo’s circle” of attempting to dismantle his party and vowed to “defend ourselves,” comparing the party to bees defending their hive against a roaring tiger. In a significant political shift, outgoing President Gustavo Petro, a key adversary of De la Espriella, also backed Henríquez. At a rally ahead of the vote, Petro warned members of his Historic Pact party not to vote for “fascism.”
All 26 senators from the Historic Pact, led by Senate bench leader Ivan Cepeda who lost the presidential election to De la Espriella last month, voted for Henríquez. Additionally, dissidents from the eight parties that had pledged support for Deluque switched their votes, contributing to the candidate’s defeat. This development leaves De la Espriella, who takes office in less than three weeks, without the loyalty of his largest coalition partner in Congress.
The incoming president will now be required to negotiate his legislative agenda with the Democratic Center and other factions. The vote underscores the fragmented nature of the new legislature and the limited unilateral power the executive branch will hold in its early months.
In a separate legislative development, Congress is set to begin debating a bill to prohibit surrogacy in Colombia. Representative Luis Miguel López Aristizábal of the Conservative Party, who authored the bill, announced that the first of four required debates will occur in the coming days. The proposal was introduced in mid-August in response to four rulings by the Constitutional Court calling for regulation in an area currently lacking legal frameworks.
The bill does not criminalize the pregnant woman but establishes her as the legal mother for all legal purposes. It creates a criminal offense of “reproductive exploitation through surrogacy,” imposing penalties of 10 to 16 years in prison and fines of 500 to 1,500 times the minimum wage on those who promote, facilitate, finance, or organize the practice. These sanctions apply to Colombian citizens abroad who participate in surrogacy. The bill also ensures that surrogate mothers are not required to return any payments received.
