The man who is going to protect Colombia’s most threatened lives was, until recently, an aspiring influencer. Didier Fabián Blanco Rodríguez, the newly appointed director of the National Protection Unit by incoming president Abelardo de la Espriella, recently had his moment on TikTok. As a candidate for the House of Representatives for the far-right party Salvación Nacional in the March legislative elections, he accumulated some 79,000 followers on the social network by insulting the Colombian left. Although his videos date back further, he reinforced them in his failed attempt to reach the Legislature with messages that speak of “shitty leftists”; they say he wants to “wipe his ass” with outgoing president Gustavo Petro, or mock the Afro-Colombian accent.
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Further back, one stands out in which, in his underwear, he reclines on a bed full of wads of money. In others, he reinvents himself as a food critic and recommends a pizzeria with the same ease with which he dismisses his political opponents. Despite this past, the incoming president has chosen the psychologist and lawyer from Tolima to lead one of the most sensitive state entities: the one that protects the lives of social leaders, journalists, politicians of all ideological currents, and personalities who have been threatened in a country known for its violence.
Blanco, who failed in March with less than 5,00 votes, will direct the National Protection Unit or UNP, which decides, every day, who receives a bulletproof vest, an armored car, or an escort, and who is left waiting. The entity is also in charge of protecting FARC ex-combatants who signed a Peace Agreement in 2016, whom the incoming director has equated with dissidents.
A specialist in human talent management and criminal law, De la Espriella’s team has presented him as “one of the most important polygraphers in Colombia,” although no entity certifies such a virtue. On his shoulders will be the responsibility of protecting, among many other people, left-wing leaders such as Senator Iván Cepeda, whom the new director called “san muela picha,” “terminal patient,” “bandit,” and “representative of cancer” during his campaign. Another name that frequently appears in his attacks is Daniel Coronell, one of the most representative figures in Colombian journalism, whom he calls “renowned clown” or “escort,” and with whom he has also said he wants to “wipe his ass.”
His fixation with the press did not end with the campaign and has reached Juanita León, the founder and director of the media outlet La Silla Vacía. Just 15 days ago, Blanco uploaded a video on social media attacking the digital medium specializing in politics, labeling it “anti-Semitic” and mocking the journalist and her family. Furthermore, he called on his followers not to believe it: “May people not take them seriously and may the media not transcend,” said the man who will direct the entity that must decide on journalists seeking state protection. In March, when he was a candidate for the House, he wrote on X that he hoped the medium would publish a print edition “so I could wipe my ass with Cepeda, Petro, Coronell, Santos, and the Democratic Center” and with La Silla Vacía, which is digital.
Before the new Government took him into account, the Ibagué native had forged a good part of his career in local politics, in the shadow of the former mayor of Ibagué, Andrés Hurtado, investigated for illicit enrichment and undue interest in the celebration of contracts. Amid the accusations, the former mayor appointed Blanco to the state-owned Gestora Urbana de Ibagué and then transferred him to the management of the Unidad de Salud de Ibagué (USI), a position the criminal lawyer held until he resigned amid a scandal over parallel payrolls. His time at that entity is one of the most sensitive episodes of his professional career.
In 2022, then-councilman of Ibagué Rubén Darío Correa pointed him out, in a political control debate on corruption, and reminded him of the video with the banknotes: “the man in the video in white underwear and dollars on TikTok left the USI payroll at 671 people,” said Correa, alluding to a staff that, according to complaints, he inflated for clientelist purposes. His critics, at that time, pointed out that the entity had become a bureaucratic stronghold.
This year, when De la Espriella began to grow politically, Blanco obtained the endorsement of the Salvación Nacional party, the group that later endorsed the president-elect. The future high-ranking official then used his social media capital to launch a campaign called “I’ll explain it to you in 105 seconds,” alluding to his number on the ballot. It was not enough to reach Congress, but now he is days away from reaching the Executive.
De la Espriella has spoken of abolishing the UNP, as part of his ambitious plan to cut the state to a minimum and with the argument of years of corruption scandals it has dragged since its creation in 2011. Since 2022 alone, the UNP has reported the theft of at least 157 armored vans and 225 firearms. In 2024, a “dirty war” broke out between the two major armored vehicle contractors of the entity with cross-complaints for conspiracy to commit a crime and document forgery. The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce opened an investigation for cartelization in 21 armored vehicle selection processes that moved close to three trillion pesos.
Blanco arrives at an entity that has an active strike. Since July 20, hundreds of escorts have been protesting outside the national headquarters, denouncing a lack of transparency in the provision of almost 7,000 new positions and uncertainty about thousands of contracts that expired this week. The outgoing director and personal friend of Petro, Augusto Rodríguez, refused to negotiate, claiming that he only “executes decrees,” and the president ended up asking the Police to clear the facilities by force, something infrequent in his left-wing administration.
Blanco has said that he will arrive at the entity to protect everyone equally. “My only priority will be to protect lives, of politicians and social leaders with equal importance and urgency,” he wrote in a statement after his appointment. The problem is that in his controversial messages he has fiercely questioned journalists, politicians, and human rights organizations. The man who has used his public networks to demonize the Colombian left must now be the state’s highest guarantor of life.
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