Ivan Cepeda Reveals His Running Mate for Colombia’s Presidential Election

Written on 03/10/2026
Josep Freixes
The presidential candidate for Colombia’s left wing, Ivan Cepeda, announced that indigenous leader Aida Quilcué will be his running mate. Credit: Montserrat Boix, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia.

The Colombian ruling coalition’s presidential candidate, Iván Cepeda, announced this Monday the name of the person who will accompany him as his vice-presidential running mate in the 2026 elections. The chosen one is Senator and Indigenous leader Aída Quilcué, a figure with a long trajectory in the social movement of the country’s southwest and one of the most visible voices of Indigenous peoples in national politics.

The announcement came just hours after the political map was reshaped following Sunday’s legislative elections and inter-party consultations, in a context of high polarization and with the presidential race beginning to take shape. After yesterday’s results, the prospects of the right have gained momentum.

With this announcement, Iván Cepeda, candidate of the left-wing Historic Pact and political heir to the project that brought Gustavo Petro to power in 2022, regains a leading role in the political debate. The presidential hopeful introduced Aida Quilcué as a running mate who represents “resistance, social struggle, and the construction of a more just and democratic country.”

The designation, however, sparked debate in different political sectors, in part because many analysts expected the candidate to choose a figure with a stronger electoral profile in cities or with experience in the executive branch.

Ivan Cepeda reveals his running mate for Colombia’s presidential election

Cepeda announced the decision through a public message shared on social media and echoed by national media outlets. In it, he highlighted the historic role of Indigenous peoples in defending human rights and in the country’s social mobilization processes.

“I feel honored by this decision, since the CRIC [Cauca Regional Indigenous Council, a political organization that for more than 50 years has defended the autonomy, lands, and culture of Indigenous peoples in the Cauca region] and Aida represent the best of the traditions, resistance, and social struggle for the construction of a just and democratic country,” he said in a video that Cepeda posted on his personal account on the social network X.

For the left’s presidential candidate, the choice of Quilcué represents a “recognition of the country’s cultural diversity.” At this point, it is worth recalling the strong results that the left—and the Historic Pact in particular—tend to obtain in that area of the country’s southwest, something that was repeated yesterday in the legislative elections.

In this sense, Quilcué’s selection also reinforces a political narrative that the government coalition has sought to consolidate since 2022: that of an alliance between progressive urban sectors and social movements from historically marginalized territories. The candidacy of an Indigenous female leader seeks to project that idea of diversity and representation, in addition to strengthening the presence of the Historic Pact in regions such as Cauca, where community movements have had considerable political weight.

The announcement also comes at a time of high visibility for Aida Quilcué. In February of this year she made national headlines after reporting a temporary kidnapping while traveling along a road in the department of Cauca, an episode that once again put on the table the risks faced by social leaders in Colombia.

From community leader to national political figure

Aída Marina Quilcué Vivas was born in 1973 in the municipality of Páez, in the department of Cauca, and belongs to the Nasa Indigenous people. Her political trajectory is deeply tied to the defense of the territorial and cultural rights of Indigenous communities in southwestern Colombia.

Her leadership began in the 1990s, when she worked as a health promoter in the Indigenous Association of Cauca. Over time she assumed responsibilities within the organizational structures of the Indigenous movement, especially in the CRIC, one of the most influential social organizations in Colombia.

Between 2003 and 2009 she served as senior counselor of the CRIC, from where she took part in organizing the so-called Indigenous Minga [traditional collective organization formula linked to the indigenous movement] of 2008, a massive mobilization that brought thousands of Indigenous people to march to Bogotá to denounce human rights violations and demand greater territorial autonomy.

During those years her personal life was marked by a tragic event that had major national repercussions. Her husband, Edwin Legarda, died in 2008 after being shot by members of the Army on a road in Cauca. The case became a symbol of the tensions between Indigenous communities and security forces in the midst of the Colombian armed conflict.

Over more than three decades, Quilcué has participated in multiple spaces of Indigenous representation and has promoted initiatives related to the protection of ancestral territories, environmental defense, and the autonomy of Indigenous peoples.

She also took part in national dialogue bodies with the state and participated in the processes that led to the inclusion of the ethnic chapter in the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the former FARC guerrilla.

In recognition of her trajectory, in 2021 she received the National Award for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia, in the category that recognizes a lifetime dedicated to this cause.

Her leap into institutional politics came in 2022, when she was elected senator for the special Indigenous constituency with the support of the Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement (MAIS). Since then she has been one of the most visible voices in Congress on issues related to ethnic communities, human rights, and the defense of territory.