De la Espriella and the Gilinski Group: What the Record Shows
COLOMBIA · MEDIA AND POLITICS
Key Facts
- —The president Abelardo De la Espriella, a trial lawyer who won Colombia’s presidency in June.
- —The family The Gilinskis, who own a bank, a food group and Colombia’s best-known news magazine.
- —The loan A Gilinski-controlled bank lent his runoff campaign 17,500 million pesos, about US$4.4 million.
- —The magazine Semana ran 133 of his campaign videos in full, without labelling them as campaign material.
- —The appointment A former Semana board member now runs the agency that pays Colombia’s cash transfers.
- —The response His campaign refused to answer questions. Semana and his lawyer demanded a rectification.
In Colombia the same family can own the bank that lends to a campaign and the magazine that covers it. A new presidency has made that arrangement visible.
Colombian reporting has traced several connections between President Abelardo De la Espriella’s campaign and the Gilinski business group. His side disputes how they have been described.
Who the Gilinskis Are
Jaime Gilinski is among Colombia’s wealthiest men, and his family controls assets across three industries that rarely sit together.
They own GNB Sudameris, a bank. They fought a long takeover battle for Nutresa, one of Latin America’s biggest food groups, and won.
They also own Semana, Colombia’s best-known news magazine, which they bought in 2020 and reshaped sharply.
A family that owns a bank, a food empire and a magazine has three different ways of being close to a government.
The Loan
The investigative outlet La Silla Vacía reported that GNB Sudameris lent De la Espriella’s runoff campaign 17,500 million pesos.
That is about US$4.4 million, in a campaign that ran through May and June.
Bank lending to campaigns is lawful in Colombia and regulated rather than prohibited. No electoral authority has examined this loan.
What the reporting raises is proximity rather than legality. The bank belongs to a family that also owns the magazine covering the race.
The Airtime
The same investigation found that Semana ran 133 of the campaign’s videos in full.
They were not labelled as electoral propaganda.
Labelling is not a formality in Colombian election law. It determines whether coverage counts as campaign spending or as journalism.
This is the strand with the clearest public interest. It concerns what readers were told, not what a bank did privately.
The Appointment
Sandra Suárez now directs the Department for Social Prosperity, the agency that runs Colombia’s main cash transfer programmes.
She previously advised Semana and sat on its board alongside Gabriel Gilinski.
Moving from a media board to a senior government post is neither unlawful nor unusual in Colombia.
It appears here because it sits in the same circle as the rest, not because anyone has alleged impropriety.
What the President’s Side Says
The campaign declined to answer La Silla Vacía’s written questions, calling them captious and tendentious.
Semana and the president’s lawyer then sent the outlet a formal rectification demand.
That is a recognised instrument in Colombian media law. It obliges an outlet to consider correcting what it published.
The process has not concluded, and the Gilinski group has said nothing else publicly.
What Is Not in the File
Two claims travel alongside this story and belong to other people.
Semana and Gilinski money did finance a Colombian presidential campaign to the tune of 2,100 million pesos. It was Vicky Dávila’s campaign, not this one.
De la Espriella was also not the Gilinskis’ lawyer in the Nutresa takeover. El Tiempo’s own investigation of that deal names other firms entirely.
The Santo Domingo group appears in coverage of the president for one reason. Alejandro Santo Domingo flew to Quibdó in September with a dozen businesspeople to fund earthquake reconstruction.
Why It Is Worth Following
Colombia has elected a president from business and the courts rather than from politics, and mapping his commercial relationships is ordinary work.
The Gilinski group is a serious force in Colombian banking, food and media. Where it overlaps with a presidency, the overlap is public business.
For a foreign investor, the question is regulatory independence rather than scandal. A banking group close to an administration is a governance question.
Nothing here has been before a court, and no authority has made any finding.
More: Colombia news and analysis, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the Gilinskis?
A Colombian business family controlling GNB Sudameris bank, the food group Nutresa and the magazine Semana.
What is the reported campaign loan?
17,500 million pesos, about US$4.4 million, from GNB Sudameris to the runoff campaign.
Is that legal in Colombia?
Bank lending to campaigns is regulated rather than prohibited. No authority has examined this loan.
What is the Semana element?
The magazine ran 133 campaign videos in full without labelling them as electoral propaganda.
Has the president responded?
His campaign refused to answer questions, and Semana and his lawyer sent a formal rectification demand.
Has anything been decided?
No. No court or electoral authority has made any finding.
Sources: La Silla Vacía, El Tiempo, Semana, Portafolio, El Espectador.
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