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Pareja vista de espaldas frente a una isla caribeña al atardecer, en San Andrés

A May video from San Andrés was presented as a current trip

A video of President Abelardo de la Espriella and First Lady Ana Lucía Pineda in San Andrés, recorded on May 1, 2026, circulated on October 24 as if it were a…

--- The context --- Colombia remains focused on reconstruction after the earthquake of August 10, which left thousands of families affected. In that climate, any image linked to the presidential couple is examined closely, and conversation on social media escalates within hours when a post presents material without clarifying when it was recorded. --- The facts --- On Saturday, October 24, a video of President Abelardo de la Espriella and First Lady Ana Lucía Pineda on the island of San Andrés circulated on social media, presented as if it showed a recent leisure trip. The post that spread it that way was deleted, but by then the material already circulated widely. Verification of its origin produced the decisive fact: the video was not current. It had been recorded and originally published on May 1, 2026, on the couple's official accounts. The images predated even the August earthquake and did not show any getaway after the disaster, as many who reacted had assumed. --- The positions --- Former senator María José Pizarro questioned the spread of the images and directed her criticism at the management of aid for those affected, arguing that many families are still sleeping in tents and schools remain destroyed while a romantic moment of the couple is displayed. Cartoonist Julio César González, known as Matador, reacted with irony to the island scene and asked where the money raised to respond to the earthquake emergency for those affected has gone. Congressman Alejandro Ocampo linked the images to budget complaints and stated that, 75 days after the earthquake, thousands of families are still waiting for a housing solution, many of them in tents. He also maintained that the first lady's foundation reported aid in tons without specifying how much money it received, and that his information request went unanswered. Activist Manuel Andrés Zamudio questioned the standard applied to leaders and compared the reaction with the one a former president would have received. --- What remains unknown --- There is still no detailed public accounting that settles the underlying debate: the state of reconstruction, the situation of the families in tents, and the destination of the funds gathered to mitigate the earthquake's impact. Those data would allow a serious evaluation of the disaster response, separate from the controversy over an old image. --- Unanswered questions --- When will a complete and verifiable accounting of the donations received and their destination be published? How many families are still sleeping in tents, and what concrete timelines exist for their housing solution? What response will the formal information requests about aid and reconstruction receive? --- EPM analysis --- The episode shows two levels that should not be confused. The first is factual: a video from May was presented in October as a current trip, and that incorrect presentation fed a wave of criticism built on a false premise. The second is the legitimate debate about reconstruction and aid transparency, which deserves answers with figures, not conclusions drawn from an image stripped of its date. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the starting point of any judgment must be the material's real date: the video was from May, and presenting it as a current trip was an error that distorted public debate. Correcting that fact does not close the underlying conversation, because reconstruction after the earthquake and accountability for donations are serious matters that require complete and verifiable information. Citizen scrutiny grows stronger when it rests on proven facts, and loses precision when it is born from an image taken out of context.
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