Nancy Vergara is a politician with a long career in Colombia who, in 2026, is seeking —for the third time— a seat in the Senate in the elections next March. Vergara is part of the lists of the Patriots party (Patriotas, in Spanish), a political organization characterized, among other things, by having a gender quota —as required by electoral law and the Constitution— but based on a male gender quota.
The base of Patriots seeks to give women a voice, although not from the point of view of traditional feminism —something Vergara strongly criticizes— but rather from a perspective that she herself unequivocally describes as “ultra-right,” based on the defense of traditional values such as “God, the traditional family, and the homeland,” as she explains in an exclusive interview with Colombia One.
Highly critical of the current left-wing government of President Gustavo Petro, she claims that she was the one who conceived the Ministry of Equality —which this government officially established— although with a different perspective and one that ultimately never came to fruition under the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
Having moved past her previous bids as a candidate for the Party of La U and the Conservative Party, in 2026 Nancy Vergara is seeking a seat in Congress through the Patiots party, a small organization that openly defends its “clear and open support” for ultra-conservative candidate Abelardo De la Espriella, who leads all polls as the preferred candidate within Colombia’s political right.
Nancy Vergara, candidate to the Colombian Senate
Nancy Vergara is a wife and mother, an international political consultant, and president of the International Foundation Firmes con las Mujeres. This organization has sought for the past 26 years to give women a voice while distancing itself from the traditional tenets of feminism, which it openly rejects. Vergara is also the creator of Patriots, the first political party of women with a male gender quota.
The congressional hopeful highlights the role of women in society, something she has worked on for years through empowerment initiatives and the fight against violence against women in the country. “Mothers are the head and backbone of a household,” she states, adding that she has spent “a decade trying to organize a women’s party in Colombia, but they have not allowed me to.”
Even so, Vergara is explicit in rejecting the label of a “feminist party,” a social movement she strongly criticizes. “We are a party of ordinary women, of people who wake up early to provide for their families,” she explains, while also asserting that “men will always be our complement, and when we talk about family we always think of this complementarity and that equity, highlighting the role of women from the home, which is why we reject feminism,” she emphasizes.
Four pillars of the Patriots party
With this premise in mind, Nancy Vergara speaks about the four pillars of the Patriots party: “faith above all; life, from the mother’s womb —which leads us to reject abortion and the so-called irrational feminism that is promoting the 2030 agenda—; the concept of family between a man and a woman —as God commanded us— and the defense of the homeland,” she lists.
Based on this definition of the fundamental principles of this political organization, which aspires to gain representation in Congress, we asked Vergara whether there would be any possibility of building bridges of collaboration with the Mira party, a Christian organization that already has representation in the Colombian legislature and defends similar values.
On this matter, candidate Vergara is clear: “We would make a good team, but we do not have any party-level rapprochement at this time. We also have different ideologies, although the same principles, especially on the issue of faith,” she notes, leaving the door open to possible legislative agreements with this or other parties “if they align with our principles, voting in favor of life, of faith, in favor of the family, and in favor of the homeland.”
Despite the small number of candidates on the voting lists for the legislative elections on March 8, Nancy Vergara argues that if they achieve representation, her organization “will contribute a great deal to the country.” She also maintains that they will be guarantors of the defense of democracy. “When a politician stays in power, their interests grow,” she laments, and notes that her organization’s bylaws prohibit a political public officeholder from serving consecutive terms, which —she says— is a way to fight corruption.
Support for Abelardo De la Espriella as a presidential candidate in Colombia
Based on all of the above and taking into account the complex web of parties generated by Colombia’s electoral system in Congress, at least since the 1991 Constitution, Vergara and her party openly support the candidacy of Abelardo De la Espriella as future president of Colombia.
“We are clearly with De la Espriella as a presidential candidate. We have not made that alliance public yet, although we are just days away from achieving it, and we say it clearly: we are aligned with him because he is a patriot, and I believe that a presidential candidate who shares our same ideological pillars must be supported by us as a party and work as a team,” she argues in defense of an independent opposition option. Lawyer Abelardo De la Espriella, at least in polls, is the favorite candidate among voters seeking change from the current Petro government.
At the international level, although they have no open relationship nor does she say she receives support from other political forces, Vergara acknowledges that “as a Colombian-Spaniard, I myself am a member of the Vox party in Spain.” The congressional hopeful for Patriots in Colombia maintains that she has “very close ties and share the same principles” with the Spanish far-right party. “If we make it to Congress, the first person I will invite is Abascal —the leader of Vox— because he has also taken on this idea of saving Spain, which is what we want to do in Colombia.”
In this regard, she recalls that when she created the party in Colombia, she reclaimed the name “Patriots” as a tribute to the organization Patriots for Europe, the far-right parliamentary group in the European Parliament of which Vox in Spain is a member, along with other political organizations of the same ideology such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally from France.
In line with the discourse of Patriots for Europe, Vergara hopes that “after Trump’s decisive blow against Maduro,” following a process of democratization, Colombia could experience a “process of return of Venezuelan migration,” nearly three million of whom currently reside in Colombia. “Those who do not want to return will have to abide by the Constitution. Personally, I am glad about what Trump is doing —he is a patriot— and he is putting order in his house,” she concludes.
A pro-life vision from a woman, far from traditional feminism
Nancy Vergara, who has already made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Colombia’s Congress, also has proposals based on defending the role of women in a polarized society and in the aftermath of the government of Gustavo Petro (2022–2026), which she strongly criticizes.
“I have always been shaped by military life. My maternal grandfather was a member of the Civil Guard [a Spanish police force of a military nature], and my paternal grandfather was a police officer in Colombia. I myself am also a reserve soldier in Colombia, which has helped me have very clear patriotic principles and a strict way of life,” she says at the very start of the interview.
Vergara highlights the work of the foundation she created and now leads in Colombia with an international outlook. “We have supported children from vulnerable populations here in Colombia to promote their education and nutrition, through the Godparent Program [a third-party social investment program for children from vulnerable populations in the country], to provide the help that the state has not given,” she explains.
Although she insists that she does not use this social work to advance her political ambitions, it is undoubtedly a foundation that defines the more human profile of this congressional hopeful from the Patriots party. In this sense, she herself and her foundation were victims of internal violence and displacement 15 years ago after being threatened by the former AUC, a now-defunct paramilitary group.
With this background and these premises, Nancy Vergara will seek to bring her proposals to Colombia’s Senate, with the voice of a woman speaking in the feminine and using language completely different from what has traditionally occupied that role from a gender perspective. The date is March 8.