The first family of Colombia is the family of the president of Colombia, who is both head of state and head of government of the Colombia. Members of the first family consist of the president, the first lady of Colombia, and any of their children. However, other close relatives of the president and first spouse, such as parents, grandchildren, stepchildren, and in-laws, may be classified as members of the first family if they reside in the Executive Residence of the Casa de Nariño Complex.
The current first family is the family of the 36th president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella since 2026.
In Colombia, the term "first family" or "presidential family," informally referring to the president's immediate family, is most frequently used in the media. Individually, each member of the first family is assigned to a group within the National Intelligence Directorate, who then assign each member a code name. Used by special agents, these code names uniquely identify members of the first family for their ongoing protection, as well as for reasons of brevity, clarity, and tradition.
List Pey Family Lozano de Peralta family Nariño Family Groot Family Castro Family Ayala Family Arrubia Family Gamba Family Vergara family Torres Family Álvarez family Restrepo Family Fernández Family Camacho Family Castillo Family García Family Valenzuela Family Villavicencio Family Mejía Family Serrano Family Bolivar Family Santander Family Caycedo Family Mosquera family Urdaneta Family Obando Family Márquez Family Alcántara Family López Family Melo Family Herrera Family Obaldía Family Mallarino Family Ospina Family Calvo Family Nieto Family Largacha Family Santos family Uricoechea Family Murillo Family Rojas Family Riascos Family Acosta Family Gutiérrez Family Salgar Family Pérez Family Parra Family Núnez Family Salda Family Calderón Family Otálora Family Hurtado Family Campo Family Payán Family Holguín family Caro Family Cuervo Family Quintero Family Sanclemente Family Marroquín Family Reyes Family Angulo Family Gónzalez Family Restrepo Family Concha Family Suárez Family Abadía Family Olaya Family Echandía Family Lleras Family Valencia Family Montalvo Family Pastrana Family Azuero Family Liévano Family Turbay Family Betancur Family Barco Family Gaviria Family Samper Family Uribe Family Duque Family Petro Family De la Espriella Family (Present)
Relations Throughout history, Colombia has had more than 120 heads of state, including presidents, presidential appointees, military leaders, ministers with presidential functions, and politicians who have held the vacant position, throughout more than 200 years of history, since 1810 up to the present.
The South American country is one of the few countries in the world that, without being a monarchy, has been governed by people related to each other, either by maternal, paternal or mixed lines. There are also kinships by affinity thanks to multiple marriages between these families, so that power has come to be concentrated in a handful of families. Some considered bureaucratic dynasties, others political clans and more commonly known presidential families or first family. The use of the term "first family" to refer to the family of the President of Colombia only came into widespread use in North America during the Kennedy administration in the United States.
a compilation of those relationships, not just between presidents, but also between first ladies and presidents. The order of appearance of the families responds to a strictly alphabetical order.
Álvarez Family Descendants of Spaniards that served as colonial royal officers during the 16th. Later family of Colonial Lawyers that became creole elite and got to the highest bureaucratic ranks during the 17th and 18th century, its members had exceptional bureaucratic careers and the family created a bureaucratic dynasty (1730s–1810s). Dismantled after the Bourbon Reforms.
presidents
Antonio Nariño y Álvarez (1765–1823) He was president of Colombia between 1813 and 1815, although he had to leave office several times throughout that period. He drafted the Spanish version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Revolution. Manuel de Bernardo Álvarez del Casal (1743–1816) was president of Colombia between 1813 and 1814, replacing his maternal nephew Antonio Nariño.
External lineː Ricaurte-Nariño
Trinidad Ricaurte Nariño was the niece of Antonio Nariño y Álvarez, and was the mother of José Manuel Marroquín Ricaurte (1827–1908), who was president of Colombia from 1900 to 1904.
External lineː Ricaurte-Lozano de Peralta
Jorge Tadeo Lozano (1781–1816) was president of Colombia in 1811 representing the deposed king of Spain Fernando VII. He was the son of the Marquis of San Jorge, Jorge Miguel Lozano, who was the grandfather of Antonio Ricaurte Lozano, a relative of Trinidad Ricaurte Nariño.
External lineː Olaya-Ricarte
Emeterio Olaya Ricaurte was the maternal great-grandson of the Marquis of San Jorge, Jorge Miguel Lozano, and married Empress Herrera Medina. The couple had Enrique Olaya Herrera (1880–1937), the first liberal president after half a decade of conservative hegemony, holding power from 1930 to 1934 for liberalism.
External lineː Olaya-Londoño
Enrique Olaya Herrera married María Teresa Londoño Sáenz, who was the daughter of descendants of Antonio Ricaurte.
Arango Family The Arangos are pioneers in the conquest and colonization of American territories, being one of the oldest families in present-day Colombia. Its members came from the Asturian nobility, and had Italian ancestors. The family currently has an important presence in Antioquia, especially in Medellín. The most influential political branch settled in Bogotá, coming from Cartagena, with the lawyer from Cartagena from an Antioquian family, Carmelo Arango.
President
Andrés Pastrana Arango President of Colombia between 1998 and 2002.
Presidential candidate
Carlos Arango Vélez (1879–1974): Lawyer and politician of the Liberal Party, of which he was a promoter of the most radical wing, close to communism; in fact he was co-founder of the radical leftist movement close to communism called Unirismo with Jorge Eliecer Gaitán. Candidate for the presidency in 1942, losing to Alfonso López Pumarejo.
First lady
María Cristina Arango Vega (de Pastrana) (1928–2017): First Lady between 1970 and 1974 by her marriage to the lawyer Misael Pastrana, and mother of Andrés Pastrana Arango. She was the daughter of Carlos Arango and a descendant of Domingo Caycedo through his mother's line.
Arboleda Family The Arboledas are originally from the city of Popayán, which had its period of greatest influence between the 17th and 20th centuries. It has its origins in the Arboleya region in Asturias, Spain.
President
Joaquín Mariano Mosquera y Arboleda Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera y Arboleda Julio Arboleda Pombo O'Donnell (1817–1862). He ruled between June 10 and July 18, 1861, being overthrown by his relative Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. Although he should have taken office on April 1, his position was temporarily held by the country's attorney general Bartolomé Calvo Díaz (1815–1889).
First Lady
Mariana Benvenuta Arboleda y Arroyo.
Unionː Arboleda-Pombo
José Rafael Arboleda y Arroyo (1795–1831), married Matilde Josefa Pombo O'Donnell (1799-?)24, who was the daughter of the Spanish-Irish noblewoman María Beatriz Isabel O'Donnell Annethant (1755–1833); and cousin of the Spanish-Irish nobleman Leopoldo O'Donnell (1809–1867). The Arboleda and Pombo O'Donnell couple had President Julio Arboleda.
Calderón Family President
Juan Manuel Santos Calderon
Unionː Santos-Calderón
Enrique Santos Castillo, nephew of Eduardo Santos, married Clemencia Calderón Nieto, niece of Clímaco Calderón Nieto, with whom he had Juan Manuel Santos Calderón.
Vice president
Francisco Santos Calderon
presidential appointees
Climaco Calderón Reyes (1852–1913). As attorney general, he held office temporarily from December 21 to 22, 1882, with the sudden death of the incumbent Francisco Javier Zaldúa. Guillermo Quintero Calderon (1832–1919). Hero of the civil war of 1884, he was nicknamed the Hero of the Smoke. He exercised the presidency as designated in 1895, replacing the incumbent Miguel Antonio Caro.
Unionː Calderón-Pérez
Clímaco Calderón married Amelia Pérez Triana, daughter of the liberal politician and former president of Colombia, Santiago Pérez Manosalva.
Caicedo Family President
Domingo Caycedo y Sanz de Santamaría Felipe de Vergara Azcárate y Caycedo
Gomez Family President
Laureano Gómez (1889–1965). He was elected president in 1949 for the Conservative Party. He was in charge until 1951, when he had to resign due to health problems. When he wanted to resume he was victim of a coup plotted within his party. He was the father of Álvaro and grandfather of Enrique Gómez.
Presidential candidates
Álvaro Gómez Hurtado (1919–1995). He ran 3 times as a presidential candidate. The first in 1974 and the second in 1986, by the Conservative Party. In 1990 he presented his candidacy for the National Salvation Movement (MSN). He failed to win in any of the elections but always came in second. Enrique Gomez Martinez. Presidential candidate for the 2022 elections by MSN.
Unionsː Gomez-Hurtado
Laureano Gómez married María Hurtado Cajiao, from the Hurtado de Popayán family. María Hurtado was related to Ezequiel Hurtado Hurtado.
Holguín Family The Holguín have their center of power in the city of Cali, department of Valle del Cauca. It has its origins in Spain, and the most distant ancestor of the Holguín in Colombia was Nicolás Martín Holguín, comrade-in-arms of Sebastián de Belarcázar, founder from the city of Popayan.
presidents
Carlos Holguin Mallarino (1832–1894). He was elected president for the conservatism for the period 1888–1892. He was the older brother of Jorge Holguín. Jorge Marcelo Holguin Mallarino (1848–1928). He was appointed president to complete the term of Rafael Reyes in 1909 after his resignation, but was removed by Congress in August. He was then appointed to complete the term of Marco Fidel Suárez, who also resigned, this time in 1921.
Presidential candidate
The mathematician and former mayor of Medellín, Sergio Fajardo, is a presidential candidate for the Compromiso Ciudadano party for the 2022 elections. He is partner of the diplomat María Ángela Holguín Cuellar, great-granddaughter of Jorge Holguín, and his wife Cecilia Arboleda, a her turn daughter of Julio Arboleda.
First Lady
Carolina Ortiz Holguín spouse of Floilán Largacha.
Unionː Holguín-Caro
Carlos Holguín Mallarino married Margarita Caro Tobar, daughter of the co-founder of the conservatism José Eusbio Caro, and sister of Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar (1843–1909), who held the presidency from 1894 to 1898. Caro created the 1886 constitution together with Rafael Nunez Moledo.
Unionː Holguín-Mallarino
Manuel María Ramón Mallarino Ibargüen (1808–1872), was the first president for the Conservative Party, occupying the position between 1855 and 1857. His sister María Josefa Mallarino Ibargüen married Vicente Holguín Sánchez, from whom Carlos and Jorge Holguín descend Mallarino.
Hurtado Family presidents
Ezequiel Hurtado Hurtado (1825–1890). He held the presidency from April 1 to August 10, 1884, replacing Rafael Núñez, who was out of Bogotá. Eliseo Payan Hurtado (1825–1895). As Núñez's vice president, he held office from January 7 to June 4, 1887. His mother was related to Ezequiel Hurtado. Froilan Largacha Hurtado
Presidential candidate
Alvaro Gomez Hurtado
López family presidents
Alfonso López Pumarejo (1886–1959) Alfonso López Michelsen (1913–2007)
Presidential candidate