Four predecessors in less than two years, each one discovering the same thing
En las costas caribeñas de Colombia, donde millones de hogares dependen de una red eléctrica frágil, el Estado ha nombrado a su quinto interventor en menos de dos años para intentar rescatar a Air-e, la distribuidora de energía sumida en una crisis que ningún administrador ha logrado contener. Jaime Mesa Buitrago, abogado con experiencia interna en la propia empresa intervenida, asume el cargo no como un forastero, sino como alguien que ya conoce la profundidad del abismo. Su designación cierra una disputa política entre facciones oficialistas, pero deja abierta la pregunta más difícil: si el problema es estructural, ¿puede un solo hombre, por bien preparado que esté, torcer el rumbo?
- Air-e lleva veinte meses bajo intervención estatal y cuatro interventores han desfilado por el cargo sin lograr estabilizar una empresa que sigue ahogada en deudas y fallas operativas.
- La disputa interna entre sectores del gobierno por controlar el nombramiento se prolongó casi tres meses, con Tania Peñaranda sosteniendo el timón de forma interina mientras las facciones negociaban en la sombra.
- Millones de usuarios en Atlántico, Magdalena y La Guajira siguen expuestos a interrupciones del servicio eléctrico, pagando con su cotidianidad el costo de una crisis que el Estado no ha podido resolver.
- Mesa Buitrago llega con una ventaja inusual —conoce la empresa desde adentro— pero también con plena conciencia de cuán profunda es la herida que debe sanar.
- El patrón de rotación acelerada en el cargo sugiere que la crisis de Air-e no es gerencial sino sistémica, y que el quinto interventor enfrenta los mismos muros estructurales que derribaron a sus predecesores.
El jueves 14 de mayo, Jaime Humberto Mesa Buitrago fue designado como el quinto agente interventor de Air-e, la empresa que distribuye y comercializa energía eléctrica en el Caribe colombiano. Su nombramiento llegó tras veinte meses de intervención estatal y una intensa pugna entre facciones oficialistas que se disputaban el cargo mientras Tania Peñaranda lo ocupaba de forma interina desde hacía casi tres meses.
Mesa Buitrago no llega como un extraño. En 2025 se desempeñó como secretario general de Air-e Intervenida, lo que le dio acceso directo al estado real de la empresa: sus deudas, sus fallas operativas, la magnitud de una crisis que afecta a millones de hogares y negocios en Atlántico, Magdalena y La Guajira. Es abogado egresado de la Universidad Católica de Colombia, con especializaciones en ciencias administrativas y constitucionales, y en responsabilidad y daños. Antes de llegar a Air-e, ocupó la vicepresidencia administrativa y financiera de la Agencia Nacional de Minería y la subdirección de minería de la Unidad de Planeación Minero Energética.
La intervención de Air-e comenzó el 12 de septiembre de 2024, cuando la Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios tomó el control de la compañía. Desde entonces, Carlos Diago, Edwin Palma y Diana Bustamante intentaron, sin éxito duradero, estabilizar la empresa. Ninguno superó los cuatro meses en el cargo.
Mesa Buitrago hereda una compañía que sigue sin resolver los problemas que originaron la intervención. Su conocimiento interno puede ser una ventaja, pero también le impide hacerse ilusiones: sabe mejor que nadie lo que le espera. La pregunta que sobrevuela su nombramiento no es si tiene las credenciales, sino si algún interventor puede realmente torcer el destino de una crisis que parece más estructural que administrativa.
On Thursday afternoon, May 14th, Jaime Humberto Mesa Buitrago was named the fifth interventor agent of Air-e, the energy distribution and sales company that serves Colombia's Caribbean coast. The appointment came after twenty months of government intervention and a fierce, behind-the-scenes competition among government-aligned factions for the role.
Mesa Buitrago, a lawyer, arrives at the position with an unusual advantage: he already knows the company's inner workings. He served as general secretary of Air-e Intervenida in 2025, giving him direct exposure to the financial and operational wreckage the utility has become. Air-e distributes and sells electricity across three departments—Atlántico, Magdalena, and La Guajira—serving millions of households and businesses in one of Colombia's most economically vital regions.
The selection process had grown contentious in recent weeks. Tania Peñaranda had been holding the position in an interim capacity for nearly three months, a temporary arrangement that reflected the difficulty of finding a permanent replacement. The jockeying among competing interests within the government had intensified as the vacancy stretched on, each faction pushing its preferred candidate. Mesa Buitrago's appointment finally resolved that standoff.
His credentials are solid. He earned his law degree from Universidad Católica de Colombia in 1999, followed by a specialization in administrative and constitutional sciences from the same institution two years later. In 2005, he obtained another specialization, this one in liability and damages law from Universidad Externado de Colombia. Before joining Air-e's leadership, he worked in the energy sector itself: from June 2025 onward, he served as subdirector of mining at the Mining and Energy Planning Unit. Before that, from November 2022 to March 2025, he held the position of administrative and financial vice president at the National Mining Agency.
The intervention of Air-e began on September 12, 2024, when the Superintendency of Household Public Services took control of the company amid a severe financial and operational crisis. The government appointed Carlos Diago as the first interventor, tasking him with stabilizing the utility and ensuring service continuity. That effort did not hold. Diago was followed by Edwin Palma, who lasted roughly four months. Then came Diana Bustamante, whose tenure stretched slightly longer than three months but was marked by criticism over the lack of substantive progress.
Now Mesa Buitrago inherits a company still drowning in liquidity problems, still struggling operationally, still unable to resolve the fundamental issues that forced the intervention in the first place. Four predecessors have cycled through the role in less than two years. The pattern suggests that the crisis runs deeper than any single administrator can fix—that the problem is structural, financial, and political all at once. Mesa Buitrago's insider knowledge may help him navigate the terrain, but it also means he understands exactly how difficult the road ahead will be.
Citações Notáveis
Mesa Buitrago brings insider knowledge from his 2025 role as general secretary of Air-e Intervenida, giving him direct exposure to the company's financial and operational crisis— Company records and government appointment documentation
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does this company keep cycling through interventors so quickly? What's actually broken?
Air-e is caught between impossible pressures. It's a utility serving millions of people who depend on electricity, but it's financially insolvent and operationally fractured. Every interventor inherits a crisis they can't solve alone—not without massive capital injection or structural reform that goes beyond their authority.
And Mesa Buitrago is different because he's already been inside the company?
He knows the machinery. He was general secretary, so he's seen the books, the staffing problems, the political constraints. That's valuable. But it also means he can't claim ignorance about how hard this is. He knows what the last four people discovered.
The article mentions a "fierce competition" for this job. Why would anyone want it?
Because it's a position of real power in a strategically important company, and it's a government appointment. In Colombian politics, these roles matter—they're visible, they're connected to resources, they're stepping stones. But yes, the fact that people fought for it and then it kept turning over suggests the job itself is nearly impossible.
What happens if Mesa Buitrago also fails?
Then the government faces a harder question: whether Air-e can be saved through intervention at all, or whether the company needs something more fundamental—restructuring, privatization, massive public investment. Right now they're trying to manage a crisis. Eventually they'll have to decide whether they're trying to fix it.
And the people using the electricity?
They're waiting. Millions of them across three departments, hoping the lights stay on and the bills stay manageable. The intervention was supposed to protect them. So far it's mostly protected the company from collapse while the underlying problems persist.