Iván Cepeda

In this Hispanic American name, the first or paternal surname is Cepeda and the second or maternal family name is Castro.
Iván Cepeda
Cepeda in 2020
Senator of Colombia
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 July 2014
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
In office
20 July 2010 – 20 July 2014
ConstituencyCapital District
Personal details
BornIván Cepeda Castro
(1962-10-24) 24 October 1962 (age 63)
Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
PartyHistoric Pact (2025–present)
Other political
affiliations
  • PCC (1975–1987)
  • JUCO (1975–1987)
  • M-19 (1990–2003)
  • FSP (1999–2003)
  • PDA (2009–2025)
  • PHxC (2021–2025)
Spouse
​
(m. 2014)​
Parents
EducationSofia University (BPhil)
University of Lyon (MPhil)
Occupation

Iván Cepeda Castro (born 24 October 1962) is a Colombian politician. He is a political leader on the Colombian left and the Historic Pact movement, through the creation of the Manuel Cepeda Vargas Foundation, in tribute to his father, who was assassinated in 1994.[1][2][3]

Cepeda has worked to promote the memory of Patriotic Union members killed by the Colombian state since 1984, regarded by institutions such as the National Center for Historical Memory as victims of a political genocide. He bases his stance on the defense of human rights and peace processes.

He has lived in exile on several occasions. A member of the Historic Pact party, he has served as a Senator since 2014 and was previously a member of the Chamber of Representatives (2010–2014). He is the party's nominee for the 2026 presidential election.

Early life and education

Born in 1962 in Bogotá[4] into a political family, Cepeda is the eldest son of Manuel Cepeda Vargas, leader of the Colombian Communist Party, and Yira Castro.[5] In 1965 at the age of 3, Cepeda and his family were forced into exile, and during his early years lived in Prague. [citation needed]

Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, his family sought refuge in Havana, Cuba. They returned to Colombia in 1970 but remained a target of political violence. At the age of 13, Cepeda joined the Communist Youth. At age 19, he moved to Bulgaria to study at Sofia University, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in philosophy.[5]

Early career

Cepeda's time in the Eastern Bloc was a period of ideological transition; Cepeda returned to Colombia in 1987 as a critic of the Soviet model, which he considered authoritarian, advocating instead for a democratic and pluralistic left-wing approach.

In Colombia, Cepeda became involved in the presidential campaign of Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa.[citation needed] Jaramillo Ossa was assassinated in 1990. The same year, Cepeda joined the M-19 Democratic Alliance party, after the former urban guerilla group signed a peace treaty and disarmed.[4] On August 9, 1994, his father, then a Senator, was assassinated in Bogotá by a joint operation between state agents and paramilitary groups.[6][7]

Human rights activism

Following his father's assassination, Cepeda created the Manuel Cepeda Foundation with his then-wife, Claudia Girón, to identify the perpetrator. In 2003 Cepeda and others founded the National Movement for Victims of State Crimes, made up of 17 organizations that sought justice for crimes that occurred during the armed conflict in the 1980s and 1990s.[4] This led to increased violent threats against Cepeda, leading him to go into exile in France in 2000.[4] He would later return to Colombia in 2003 to resume his work advocating for victims of state and paramilitary violence in Colombia. [citation needed]

Political career

Chamber of Representatives (2010-2014)

Cepeda entered electoral politics in 2009, winning a seat in the Chamber of Representatives for Bogotá in 2010. As a member of the Alternative Democratic Pole, he focused in investigating paramilitary influence in politics. [citation needed]

Senate (2014-Present)

Elected to the Senate in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022,[4][8] Cepeda served as a peace talk facilitator, first with the far-left[9][10] Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group FARC[11] and then with the far-left guerrilla organization ELN.[12]

Between 2023 and 2025, Cepeda ranked as the second senator with the most absences from plenary sessions of the Congress, surpassed only by Lidio García of the Liberal Party.[13] He said that most of his absences were due to his participation in meetings of the Dialogue Table with the ELN and in meetings related to the peace process.[13]

2026 presidential campaign

Following the legal and political shifts of 2025, Cepeda emerged as the principal successor to President Gustavo Petro within the left-wing Historic Pact coalition. In October 2025, he won the party's internal primary with 65% of the vote, defeating former health minister Carolina Corcho.[14]

Colombia's National Electoral Council (CNE) has launched a preliminary investigation into Iván Cepeda's campaign for the 2025 inter-party primary, prompted by a request from Senator Jota Pe Hernández and former Cali city councilman Juan Martín Bravo. The allegations concern donations that may have significantly exceeded legal limits. However, the process remains in the preliminary verification phase, as the CNE is still collecting evidence from Cepeda regarding his primary campaign's finances.[15]

In March 2026, Cepeda officially registered his candidacy for the May 31 general election, selecting indigenous leader and fellow Senator Aida Quilcué as his vice-presidential running mate.[16][17]

His campaign has focused on the continuation of the Total Peace policy, agrarian reform, and the protection of judicial independence.[18] Cepeda follows a line of continuity in terms of human rights and the fight against climate change, as his proposed government program generally incorporates “environmental approaches” into its various proposals. In his political strategy, under the slogan “The Power of Truth,” he supports Gustavo Petro’s agrarian reform as well as a transformation of the energy mix. He also opposes “the establishment of new foreign military bases [in Latin America],” while supporting “multilateralism” and “non-membership in military alliances such as NATO.”[19]

Cepeda is the primary civil party in a high-profile legal dispute with former President Álvaro Uribe. The case began in 2012 when Cepeda presented testimonies to Congress alleging Uribe's involvement in the creation of paramilitary groups. Uribe initially sued Cepeda for defamation. The Supreme Court of Colombia dismissed the charges in 2018 and instead opened an investigation into Uribe for witness tampering and bribery. This led to Uribe’s 2020 house arrest and his resignation from the Senate, a move that shifted the jurisdiction of the case to the ordinary justice system.[20] In July 2025, a criminal court convicted Uribe of bribery and procedural fraud, sentencing him to 12 years of house arrest.[20]

However, the conviction was overturned in October 2025 by the Superior Tribunal of Bogotá, which cited procedural flaws in wiretap evidence and acquitted the former president.[21] Subsequently, Cepeda’s legal team announced the filing of an extraordinary appeal (casación) before the Supreme Court.[22]

Personal life

Cepeda was previously married to Claudia Girón. He is currently married to attorney Pilar Rueda.[23]

References

  1. ^ "Colombia leftist faces pro-Trump rival in presidential election runoff". www.bbc.com. 2026-06-01. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  2. ^ Staff, Al Jazeera. "Cepeda, de la Espriella advance in Colombia's presidential election". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  3. ^ Correal, Annie; Glatsky, Genevieve; Ferré-Sadurní, Luis (2026-05-31). "Colombia Presidential Election Heads to a Runoff". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Este es Iván Cepeda, el candidato del Pacto para 2026" [This is Iván Cepeda, the Pacto candidate for 2026.]. La Silla Vacía (in Spanish). February 5, 2025. Archived from the original on 2011-09-13. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  5. ^ a b "Perfil de Iván Cepeda Castro" [Profile of Iván Cepeda Castro]. Universidad de los Andes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  6. ^ "Manuel Cepeda Vargas v. Colombia | IACHR". iachr.lls.edu. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  7. ^ Cajar, Prensa (2021-11-27). "Colombian State fails to comply with IACHR Court order in the case of Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas". CAJAR (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  8. ^ "Colombia election analysis: historic gains for the left". Justice for Colombia. 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  9. ^ Walsh, Bryan (2016-09-12). "How Peace-Finally-Came to Reign Throughout the Western Hemisphere". TIME. Archived from the original on 2 November 2024. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  10. ^ Aidi, Hisham. "Why Colombians opposed the peace deal with FARC". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  11. ^ Semana (2016-08-06). "Iván Cepeda: el facilitador para la resolución del conflicto". Semana.com - Últimas Noticias de Colombia y el Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  12. ^ Sequera, Vivian (2022-11-21). "Colombia, ELN rebels start peace talks, hoping to end six decades of war". Reuters.
  13. ^ a b "Lidio García, presidente del Senado, e Iván Cepeda: los congresistas con más ausencias en el Legislativo" (in Spanish). El Colombiano. 4 August 2025. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  14. ^ Turan, Bawer (2025-10-27). "Ivan Cepeda becomes favorite of Colombia's left after record-breaking primary". Colombia News. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  15. ^ "Colombia's election authority investigating leftist frontrunner". Colombia Reports.
  16. ^ Alsema, Adriaan (2026-03-10). "Ivan Cepeda, frontrunner in Colombia's election race, picks indigenous running mate". Colombia News. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  17. ^ El Espectador (2026-03-11). Iván Cepeda y Aida Quilcué inscribieron su candidatura presidencial | El Espectador. Retrieved 2026-03-13 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ Brown, Rich. "Colombia: Meet the Candidates 2026". Americas Quarterly. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  19. ^ "Iván Cepeda o el poder de la verdad".
  20. ^ a b "Historic Ruling in Colombia: A Win for the Country's Legal System". WOLA. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  21. ^ Lugo, Valentina Parada (2025-10-21). "Colombian court acquits former president Álvaro Uribe of all charges". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  22. ^ Giraldo, Manuela Pena (2026-03-06). "Colombia ex-president Alvaro Uribe running for senate after acquittal for witness bribery". The Bogotá Post. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
  23. ^ Orillas, Las Dos (2025-10-28). "Dos mujeres, los pilares en la vida de Iván Cepeda" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-05-20.
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