Monday, August 3, 2026
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Online Zoom
The Georgetown Americas Institute is pleased to host a conversation with Marcela Meléndez, executive director of Fedesarrollo, and Alejandro Werner, GAI founding director, on the economic challenges awaiting Colombia's incoming government. Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidential runoff and is set to take office on August 7. A narrow victory and a divided Congress leave the incoming government without a broad mandate to tackle the difficult set of structural problems it inherits, including a widening fiscal deficit, credit downgrades, labor-cost pressures, security concerns, and energy and health crises. Join us for a timely discussion on the policy priorities, fiscal constraints, and multilateral engagement that will shape Colombia's economic path as the De la Espriella government takes office.
Featuring
Marcela Meléndez is executive director of Fedesarrollo, Colombia's leading economic policy think tank. She previously served as deputy chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank and as chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Development Programme, where she was lead author of the 2021 Regional Human Development Report "Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean." She was previously partner and director of ECONESTUDIO and a lecturer at the School of Economics at Universidad de los Andes. She co-directed Colombia's Mission of Equity and Social Mobility and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.
Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed nearly nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that, he served as undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico's Finance Ministry and held several positions there and at the Central Bank. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.