Who is Leopoldo Múnera? The profile of the new rector of the National University

After weeks of uncertainty about who it was going to be Dolly Montoya’s successor as rector of the National University of Colombiathe Higher University Council (CSU) of the institution, in a controversial decision, chose the professor Leopoldo Múnera as the new rector of the most important public higher education institution in the country.

Múnera’s appointment came with five votes in favor: Vice Minister Álvarez, the two representatives of the President of the Republic -María Alejandra Rojas Ordóñez and Nataly Garzón-, Víctor Manuel Moncayo, the new representative of the National Council of Higher Education, and the student representative Laura Quevedo.

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On the other hand, the other three councilors refused to votearguing that they were being induced to commit a crime and disobey the court order issued last week in which the right to due process (including the principle of presumption of legality of administrative act) was protected. José Ismael Peña as rector of the National.

​The councilors who refused to vote were Diego Torres (representative of the professors), Ignacio Mantilla (representative of the former rectors) and Verónica Botero (appointed to the Academic Council).

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It was preliminarily thought that this would be a commissioned tour, however, with the events that occurred during the designationMúnera’s appointment is considered final.

However, it is worth remembering that his permanence in office would depend on the decisions made by the Council of State, where several legal processes are underway against the March 21 session. Given this, it is important to remember that The high court has already admitted a protection against Peña’s appointment, and there are at least four others filed.

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In this way, it is in the hands of justice to determine the legality of the designation and whether there were errors in the process, and, therefore, define whether or not Peña returns to the rectorship of the National University.

This could have taken place with the approval in the morning hours of the Resolution 067 of 2024which left Peña’s appointment void and once again left the appointment of the new rector of the National University up in the air.

The new rector of the National University of Colombia is a professor at the Faculty of Law, Political and Social Sciences of the same institution. He has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Political Science from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.

He has been a professor at this institution since 1987, and previously worked for different organizations such as the Popular Research and Education Center (Cinep).

He is known at the university for having been vice-rector of the headquarters in Bogotá, dean of the Faculty of Law, Political and Social Sciences, and director of the Law curricular program.. He also received the Gerardo Molina Order in 2019, the highest distinction awarded by this institution.

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