Iván Duque Márquez

President of Colombia

1 August 1976 Bogotá, Colombia

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Incumbent

33rd President of Colombia In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Duque and the second or maternal family name is Márquez. Iván Duque Márquez (Spanish pronunciation:  ; born 1 August 1976) is a Colombian politician and lawyer who is the current president of Colombia. He was elected as Colombia's youngest president, as the candidate from the Democratic Centre Party in the 2018 presidential election. Backed by his mentor, former president and powerful senator Alvaro Uribe and buoyed by a populist wave, he was elected despite having been relatively unknown a year before the election. He ran on a centre-right platform which included opposing the so-called "Havana Accords", the peace agreement with the FARC guerilla group. His decision to provide temporary protected legal status to nearly 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants drew praise from leaders around the world. However, poverty and economic inequality worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Duque's failure to continue unconditional peace negotiations with ELN (after the 17 January terrorist attack) was also criticised by opposition parties and sections of the public. The police response to the resulting 2020 Bogota protests and the ongoing nationwide protests left 13 dead and around 400 injured, and approximately between 60 dead and 2,100 injured, respectively.