De la Espriella to Donate Salary to Social Causes: What’s His First Paycheck For?
Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella confirmed that he will donate the salary he receives as head of state each month to social and charitable causes in different regions of the country. The decision was announced from Quimbaya, a municipality in the department of Quindío that suffered severe damage during the earthquake last August.
In addition, the announcement continues one of the promises he made during the presidential campaign: not keeping the salary corresponding to his position and instead allocating it to projects that, according to his proposal, have a direct impact on communities in need of support.
In this way, the first salary already has a destination. De la Espriella donated his entire first monthly salary as president to two nursing homes in Quimbaya, Consentidos de Jesus and Santo Domingo Savio. During his visit, he also announced that the government will prioritize the renovation work needed by the latter facility, including the renovation of its kitchen. The president said he will continue personally taking his salary to different regions to support social projects.
De la Espriella to donate salary to social causes: what’s his first paycheck for?
De la Espriella himself recalled in Quimbaya that during the campaign he pledged not to collect the presidential salary. “I promised during my campaign that I was not going to collect the President’s salary,” he said, before explaining that each month he will take those funds to a different region to allocate them to a social or charitable cause.
The first destination was Quimbaya’s older adults. At the Santo Domingo Savio home, the president said the necessary renovations will be carried out to improve the facility’s conditions and emphasized the importance of helping a population that, he said, cannot be forgotten by the country. The Presidency reported that the president wants to maintain this arrangement throughout his administration.
“In an act of gratitude and love for those who helped build the foundations of this homeland, I donated my entire first basic salary as President, distributing it among these homes to support our grandparents and launch the priority work they urgently need,” De la Espriella wrote on his X social media account.
The measure, however, can also be interpreted from a political perspective. His critics may consider it a populist gesture, especially because it turns a personal decision by the president into a public display of austerity and closeness to vulnerable sectors.
For his supporters, on the other hand, it represents the fulfillment of a campaign promise and a concrete way to use an income that the president considers he does not need.
Un país que se olvida de sus abuelos es un país que no tiene futuro.
En mi visita a Quimbaya llegué a los hogares geriátricos Santo Domingo Savio y Consentidos de Jesús para mirar a los ojos a nuestros adultos mayores y recordarles algo fundamental: no están solos. Hoy tienen… pic.twitter.com/VeUYStmgOM
— Abelardo De La Espriella (@ABDELAESPRIELLA) September 12, 2026
A president who does not need the salary
De la Espriella’s personal circumstances make the decision particularly striking. At 48, the president came to office after building a substantial fortune over many years as a criminal defense attorney and businessman.
Before entering politics, he was known for his lifestyle, business dealings, and professional career, which enabled him to become one of the country’s most recognized and controversial lawyers.
His professional career was marked by representing high-profile clients and taking on particularly controversial cases. Among them are Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab — accused by the U.S. of being Nicolás Maduro’s front man and now expected to be a key witness in the case being pursued against the former Venezuelan president in that country — and David Murcia Guzman, the mastermind behind one of Colombia’s largest pyramid schemes, who now accuses the president of taking millions of dollars in cash payments for himself.
He also took part two decades ago in proceedings related to talks between the government of Alvaro Uribe (2002–2010) and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an episode that his opponents used during the campaign to question his record and level accusations over alleged ties to paramilitarism, which he has denied.
His arrival at the presidency therefore represented a leap from a highly lucrative private career to the forefront of Colombian politics. Donating his salary is intended precisely to reinforce one of the characteristics with which he built his electoral image: that of a candidate who did not need politics to make a living and who could present himself as an outsider to the traditional political establishment.
The president’s salary will go to a different cause each month
De la Espriella has established that the money will not always go to the same sector. His commitment is to visit different regions and choose social or charitable causes that he can directly support with his salary. “Each month I will go to a region of Colombia to personally deliver it to a social or charitable cause that transforms lives,” he said.
Starting in Quindío also connects the pledge with one of the priorities the president has set since taking office: bringing part of the government’s actions to the regions. In Quimbaya, in addition to announcing support for the nursing home, De la Espriella reiterated his commitment to helping the municipality recover after the earthquake that struck the country in August.
The gesture will have limited economic value compared with the size of the national budget, but considerable political weight. Each month, the presidential salary will once again become a public act and an opportunity to reinforce the image De la Espriella built during his campaign: that of a president who says he does not need the money from the office and intends to turn it into direct aid for those he believes need it most.