Enrique Peñalosa

Enrique Peñalosa Londoño (born 30 September 1954) is a Colombian politician. He was mayor of Bogotá from 1998 until 2001 and again from 2016 until 2020.

Early life and education Peñalosa was born in Washington, DC, to Cecilia Londoño and , former Minister of Agriculture and permanent ambassador for Colombia to the UN. During his childhood, Peñalosa studied at Gimnasio Campestre and the Colegio Refous. His family moved to the United States when he was 15 years old for his father's work as the ambassador of Colombia to the UN. He attended Duke University through a partial football scholarship, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History.

He has also worked as a journalist and consultant on urban and transportation policy. In 2009, Peñalosa was elected president of the board of directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a non-profit organization headquartered in New York. Peñalosa resigned from the ITDP board in 2015 upon his election.

Entry into politics Peñalosa began his political life by attending youth groups of followers of the liberal presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in Bogotá while working for the state-owned water supply company, Empresa de Acueducto de Bogotá (EAAB). He later supported Julio César Sánchez, a Cundinamarca local political chief, who in return helped him get elected as that department's deputy.

In 1986 he was chosen by president Virgilio Barco, a friend of his father, as an economic advisor. In 1990, he ran for the congress without the support of any politician and got elected with 22,000 votes. He only remained in that position for a year because the Colombian Congress was closed on the eve of the new Colombian Constitution. However, in those 12 months, he presented many initiatives and managed to pass a reform law, a notable accomplishment for a freshman congressman.

In 1991, he decided to run for mayor of Bogotá with the same tactics he had used to gain his seat in Congress, without the support of any politicians, just by face-to-face contact while touring the city walking, biking or riding on public transportation. He ran against Jaime Castro Castro, who ultimately won the election. In 1994, Peñalosa ran for a second time against Antanas Mockus, who defeated him by a large margin.

Mayor of Bogotá (1998–2001) In 1997, he ran a third time, now facing Carlos Moreno de Caro, winning by a close margin of votes. Peñalosa received from Mayor Mockus a city in good fiscal condition and with a District Council that was mostly independent. The impact of Peñalosa and Antanas Mockus on the development of Bogotá is described in a documentary film released in October 2009 with the title Bogotá Change. It is promoted as being "the story of two charismatic mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa who, with unorthodox methods, in less than 10 years turned one of the world's most dangerous, violent and corrupt capitals into a model city. Mockus and Peñalosa along with key members of their staff as first hand witnesses, the film uncovers the ideas, philosophies and strategies that underlie the changes in Bogotá and which are now being exported to cities worldwide". Throughout the first half of his time as mayor, Peñalosa underwent very low approval ratings, even surviving a recall election process mid-term. As public infrastructure projects started to progress, his popularity increased very significantly, such that by the end of his term his approval ratings were some of the highest of any Bogotá mayor in recorded history.

Controversy during his first term According to most public analysts in Colombia, Peñalosa was the third in a series of three mayors who significantly improved the public conditions in the city of Bogotá in the late 1990s. Mayor Jaime Castro finished his term with low popularity, but was able to reform the city's financial structures. This led to a period of budgetary surpluses, which continued during Antanas Mockus' term. Mockus began an important change in Bogotá's civic culture with his Cultura Ciudadana (Citizen Culture) campaign, which encouraged civic behavior and strived to create a sense of belonging for the inhabitants of the city.

Peñalosa's six biggest policy actions during his first period as mayor included the relocation of informal vendors who occupied the public zones and streets, the improvement of all the city parks and the construction of several new ones, the construction of major public libraries and large public schools in the poorest areas in the city, the renovation of important avenues such as the 15th Avenue and Autopista Norte, the removal of cars from sidewalks by raising them and installing bollards, and starting construction of the first Mass Transit System in Bogotá, the heavy BRT called TransMilenio, whose construction started under Peñalosa to be finished under Antanas Mockus's second term (2001–2003).

Some of his policies were unpopular with certain political groups within the city. Among these were his intent to buy the Country Club of Bogotá to build a public park, which brought him in conflict with some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Northern Bogotá. He also faced problems when he installed bollards along some avenues in highly congested sectors to prevent cars from parking on the sidewalk in front of the buildings and shops. Peñalosa also lost popularity, but improved the city's mobility, by introducing the Pico y Placa, a restriction on the rush hour circulation of private vehicles. (Pico y placa roughly translates to "rush hour and license plate"; during rush hour licence plates ending with a given number couldn't circulate on specific days of the week, four ending numbers each day, thus about 40% of the vehicles).

The construction of the city's first "Cicloruta" (translation for "Bike route or Bike way"), which are two-way roads that run along some of the city's main avenues, was another great development of the city as an invitation for people to avoid using private motor vehicles, and to provide a cheap and healthy transportation route for those who didn't have access to one. Their construction brought some controversy at first, as the Cicloruta's corridors crossed in front of private houses where in the majority of the cases space was taken from their front sidewalk without their consent and with no remuneration. The legal property documents weren't edited either, which meant that whoever owned the house in front of the sidewalk where the Cicloruta was built, was its actual owner and had to pay taxes on it.

For his activities in promoting public transportation, bike use and public space in urban areas in his first term in office, Peñalosa was awarded several international sustainability and urban planning awards, and was selected as a distinguished guest in urban policy studies at NYU. thumb Enrique Peñalosa Londoño at the 2009 Sustainable Transport Awards.

Candidate for a second term as Mayor Although he was a possible candidate for the 2010 Colombian presidential election and led the Por el Pais que Queremos Foundation (PPQ), Spanish for "For the Country we Want", he chose to run again for mayor in 2007. He was defeated by Alternative Democratic Pole candidate Samuel Moreno by 15 percentage points.

In 2011, Peñalosa decided to run his candidacy again for the Bogotá city hall, but this time, as the official candidate for the Colombian Green Party. He lost the election to Gustavo Petro who won the mayoral race with 32% of the vote against 25% for Peñalosa.

In 2015 he won the mayoral elections with 33 percent of the vote, defeating former labour minister Rafael Pardo Rueda. Democratic Center candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, who served as Peñalosa's Secretary-General, came in fourth place during the election.

The scandal was triggered in 2016 by an opinion article published in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, which reported in April 2016 that Peñalosa did not hold a doctoral degree as had been widely reported by several sources, including in the personal profile section in several of his published books. which the mayor dismissed as typing errors by someone in his team.

According to an opposition group actively promoting Peñalosa's 2015 election to be recalled, Peñalosa has been misrepresenting his graduate degrees for 35 years. The group denounced that in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Peñalosa had directly stated that he held a PhD in public administration; however, only the edited interview was ever published, and given the differences between the Spanish and Portuguese languages, other proof of this statement remained unverified, including a direct statement from the lead reporter of said interview.

Peñalosa himself has repeatedly claimed that he has never mentioned in public that he has a PhD degree, and that he firmly believes that his two graduate degrees earned in France are equivalent to master's degrees in the Colombian education system, while stating that his political opponents are actively trying to tarnish his academic credentials with unsubstantiated attacks while promoting his election to be recalled. In his first term as mayor, Peñalosa also went through a significant recall election attempt by his political opponents. According to Peñalosa's official public curriculum vitae presented to Colombian authorities when elected as mayor, Peñalosa holds a bachelor's degree in economics and history (Earned in May 1977), a master's in government affairs (earned in September 1979) and a "third cycle graduate title in Public Management", referring to the DESS title (Earned in September 1980).

International Advocacy and Collaboration Following his mayoral tenure in Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa remained active in international urban-policy networks. He developed a professional relationship with Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj and visited Tirana in November 2024 for the Albanian presentation of A City for All, where Veliaj awarded him the Key to the City.

In 2026, Peñalosa publicly criticised the continued pretrial detention of Veliaj, calling for a fair trial and arguing that the mayor’s lengthy detention without conviction raised due-process concerns. Peñalosa also advocated for Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, expressing concern about his pretrial detention and its implications for due process and judicial independence. He argued that the allegations against İmamoğlu should be decided through a fair trial and that he should be released under proportionate precautionary measures pending a final judgment.

Awards Simón Bolívar Journalism Award 1986 for his economy related journalism section in El Espectador newspaper. Simón Bolívar Journalism Award 1990 for his documentary Capitalismo, la mejor opción.