Is failing to pay child support an offense in Colombia?

Yes. Deliberate failure to pay may constitute the offense of inasistencia alimentaria. For there to be criminal liability the conduct must be intentional (a conscious and deliberate refusal to pay) and without just cause.

What does it mean that the conduct must be "dolosa" (wilful) for an offense to exist?

It means that the person under the obligation refuses to pay knowingly and intentionally, while being able to pay. Mere delay caused by genuine inability does not, in itself, give rise to criminal liability.

In criminal proceedings, who has the burden of proving that the debtor could in fact pay?

In criminal proceedings the Fiscalía (Prosecutor's Office) bears the burden of proving the elements of the offense, including the failure to pay without just cause. In practice, when the accused invokes a just cause (for example, a genuine inability to pay), it is usually for the accused to produce the evidence supporting it. The specific scope of the evidence depends on the case and should be reviewed with a lawyer.

Who can set the amount of child support?

Child support may be set by the family court judge and, through conciliation or on a subsidiary basis, by the Defensor de Familia (Family Defender); where there is no Defensor, the Comisaría de Familia (family commissioner's office) takes over, and it may also set a provisional amount as part of protection measures for domestic violence. Conciliation centers do not set the amount: they only give validity to the parties' agreements. (Articles 82 and 111 of Ley 1098 de 2006; Ley 2126 de 2021.)

Can my salary or my pension be garnished for failing to pay support?

Yes. To collect support, the judge may order the garnishment of up to 50% of the salary, even where it is the minimum wage, because support is an exception to the general rule that wages cannot be garnished (article 156 of the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo, Colombia's Labor Code). Bank accounts and other assets may also be garnished to cover the debt. The percentage and the ceilings applicable to each type of income must be reviewed in the specific case.

Can I be barred from leaving the country for owing support?

It is possible by two routes. Within the proceeding, the judge may order a bar on leaving the country as a precautionary measure, especially if there is a risk of evasion; it is not automatic. In addition, Law 2097 of 2021 provides, as an effect of registration in the REDAM, the bar on leaving the country and carrying out migration procedures while the default persists. Whether it applies and when depend on the case.

Can the amount be modified if the financial situation changes?

Yes. If the circumstances taken into account when it was set change —the income of the person owing support or the needs of the recipient— either party may request its modification (increase or reduction), duly justified, before the family judge or through a new conciliation. (Art. 411 ff. of the Civil Code and the procedural rules on support.)

What is the REDAM and what does being listed on it involve?

The Registry of Defaulting Support Debtors (REDAM), created by Law 2097 of 2021, is a pressure mechanism for compliance. A person is registered once they are in arrears on three (3) support installments, whether consecutive or not, set in a judgment, conciliation, or other enforceable title. Being reported creates specific restrictions in public and private procedures until the account is settled.

What specific restrictions does being listed on the REDAM bring?

Among others: inability to be appointed to public office or to contract with the State, obstacles to certain private contracts, inability to renew or receive State subsidies that require being free of support debts, and warnings in notarial and administrative procedures.

Will I be reported to Datacrédito (Colombia's credit bureau) if I do not pay the support?

The main report is made in the REDAM, which is not the same as Datacrédito. However, Law 2097 of 2021 provides that the REDAM information be forwarded to the credit, financial, and commercial risk bureaus, and that the REDAM certificate be required when applying for or renewing credit. In other words, support arrears can indeed have effects in the credit sphere. It is advisable to check the state of implementation of this forwarding.

Does being on the REDAM automatically prevent me from leaving the country?

Registration in the REDAM does provide, by mandate of Law 2097 of 2021 (art. 6, num. 5), for the bar on leaving the country and carrying out migration procedures while the default persists. It is a foreseen effect of the registry, not necessarily an instant block; its concrete operation depends on implementation and on the case. Independently, the judge may also order the bar on leaving the country as a precautionary measure.

Can the Comisaría de Familia set the amount of child support?

Setting it definitively is a matter for the family court judge. The Comisaría de Familia may set it provisionally within a protection measure for domestic violence, or where the functions of the Defensor de Familia have been transferred to it. For ordinary cases without domestic violence, the appropriate course is to go to the Defensor de Familia or to the family court judge.

What is "just cause" (justa causa) for not paying support?

It is a genuine, involuntary and demonstrated inability to meet the payment, such as a serious illness, a proven loss of income or unfitness for work. Anyone invoking it must show that they acted diligently and still could not pay.

Can I renegotiate the amount without going to court?

Yes. You may attempt a new conciliation before the Family Ombudsman (or the Family Commissioner where there is no Ombudsman) or file a petition to review the support amount before the family judge when the circumstances taken into account when it was set have changed. (Law 640 of 2001 on conciliation; art. 411 ff. of the Civil Code.)

What should I do if a criminal complaint is filed against me, or if I want to enforce payment?

Before taking isolated steps, it is advisable to review the evidence, the conciliation options and the collection routes. If you need to resolve a default, negotiate an amount or respond to a criminal complaint, your course of action should be tailored to the particulars of your case with legal support.

Unpaid Child Support in Colombia

Q: What prison term does inasistencia alimentaria (the Colombian criminal offense of failing to provide legally owed support) carry?

The base penalty is 16 to 54 months of imprisonment and a fine of 13.33 to 30 SMLMV. When the failure to provide support is committed against a minor, the penalty rises to a range of 32 to 72 months of imprisonment and a fine of 20 to 37.5 SMLMV. These amounts are expressed in minimum wages, so their value is updated each year. The classification and the specific penalty depend on the case.

Penalties: imprisonment and fines

The willful default of payment can constitute the crime of absence of food, as established in article 233 of the Penal Code. For there to be criminal liability must be met several elements, among them:

Intentional conduct: That is, that the person consciously and deliberately refuses to pay the support amount.
Absence of just cause: According to case law, there is just cause where the obligor proves that they did not have the real capacity to comply despite acting with diligence; cases such as serious illness, involuntary unemployment, temporary or permanent incapacity, among others that affect their financial capacity.

If no just cause is proven, the offense is established. In the criminal proceeding it falls to the Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía) to show that the debtor could in fact pay and did not. This may lead to financial and custodial penalties: the base penalty is imprisonment of 16 to 54 months and a fine of 13.33 to 30 minimum wages. Where the victim is a minor, the penalty rises to a range of 32 to 72 months of imprisonment and a fine of 20 to 37.5 minimum wages. In other words, the debtor risks losing their liberty if a persistent and unjustified failure to pay is shown. Before pursuing the criminal route for failure to provide support, it is advisable to review beforehand how to file a criminal complaint, since a poorly structured complaint may delay the procedure or weaken the evidence.

Civil consequences: measures to ensure the payment

The purpose of these measures is not to punish, but to ensure that the beneficiary receives what they need. The support payment is set by the family judge and, through conciliation or on a subsidiary basis, by the Family Ombudsman (Defensor de Familia). Conciliation centers do not set support payments: they may only validate agreements reached between the parties.

When there is a failure to pay, and in the case of support for children and adolescents, article 129 of the Code on Childhood and Adolescence empowers the judge to adopt measures to secure payment. The most common include:

Attachment of wages or pension: support payments are an exception to the rule of non-attachability, so wages may be garnished by up to 50%, even when it is the minimum wage (article 156 of the Substantive Labor Code).
Attachment of assets and bank accounts: it affects real estate, vehicles, savings accounts or any asset that can be sold at auction to cover the debt.
Ban on leaving the country: in the event of default, the judge may order the migration authority —today Migración Colombia— to bar the obligor from leaving the country until they post sufficient guarantee of compliance, and may order that they be reported to the credit bureaus.

If the financial situation of either party changes, a modification of the support amount may be requested —whether to increase it or to reduce it—

Sentencia T-891 de 2013 — Corte Constitucional (M.P. Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva)

The Corte Constitucional recalled that, as a general rule, the minimum wage is exempt from attachment and that only one fifth of the rest of the wage may be affected; however, the law allows a higher limit where the deduction corresponds to support obligations: up to 50% of any wage, including the minimum wage. The correct reading for someone who has to pay support is that this 50% operates as a statutory cap that the payer is required to apply from the outset when the deduction is for a support payment, and that if there are several concurrent deductions on the same wage, a judge may afterwards verify that this limit and the debtor's mínimo vital (basic subsistence income) are still respected. T-891/13 — the 50% cap on wage attachment.

Sentencia C-1064 de 2000 — Corte Constitucional (M.P. Álvaro Tafur Galvis)

The Corte Constitucional examined a provision equivalent to the one now in force and upheld as constitutional that the judge notify the immigration authority so as to prevent the person owing support from leaving the country until they provide a guarantee of payment. It made clear that this restriction on freedom of movement is not absolute and may be limited by statute in order to reconcile it with the primacy of children's rights; under article 129 in force of Ley 1098 de 2006, the measure applies where the judge has information that the obligor is more than one month in arrears in paying the support amount already set, and it is not an automatic consequence from the start of the proceeding: providing sufficient guarantee of payment is enough for it to be lifted. C-1064/2000 — leaving the country and support obligations.

provided that the request is duly justified (articles 411 et seq. of the Código Civil).

Article illustration: This is what can happen to you if you do not pay child support

Administrative consequences and social: REDAM, mobility and procedures

In addition to the above, failing to pay child support leads to being reported in the Registry of Defaulting Support Debtors (REDAM), created by Law 2097 of 2021, which works as a legal pressure mechanism to compel the debtor to comply. A person is registered once they are in arrears on three support installments, whether consecutive or not, set in a judgment, conciliation, or other enforceable title. Being reported in the REDAM creates specific restrictions, among them:

Ineligibility to be appointed to or sworn into public office and to contract with the State.
Impediment to leaving the country and to carrying out immigration procedures while the arrears continue.

A point that is often misunderstood: being reported in the REDAM does not prevent you from selling an asset or obtaining credit. When transferring assets subject to registration or when applying for or renewing credit, the notary's office (in Colombia the notary draws up the public deed of transfer) and the financial institution will ask you for the REDAM certificate, but that requirement has an informational effect only: the Corte Constitucional, in Sentencia C-032 de 2021, struck down the automatic collection of the debt in those procedures, and the Consejo de Estado (Concepto 2508 de 2023) made clear that the notary may not refuse you the deed nor the bank refuse you the credit because you are on the register.

Sentencia C-032 de 2021 — Corte Constitucional (M.P. Gloria Stella Ortiz Delgado)

The Corte Constitucional reviewed Ley 2097 de 2021 (REDAM, the Registro de Deudores Alimentarios Morosos, the register of delinquent support debtors) of its own motion and assessed, among other things, the consequence of barring departure from the country for the defaulting debtor entered in the register. It applied a strict proportionality test and concluded that the measure is constitutional: it protects a compelling constitutional aim (the rights of those entitled to support, almost always children and adolescents). The Court made clear that this consequence does not depend on the debtor's will and is not automatic on the mere failure to pay: it is triggered only when a judge, after a procedure with a five-business-day period to respond and a right of defense, formally orders the entry in the REDAM; it is a legal consequence that the judge declares upon verifying persistent arrears, not something the obligor chooses to face. C-032/2021 — review of the REDAM and departure from the country.

All these restrictions remain in place until the debtor is fully up to date with the support obligation.

What to do when the breach is already affecting the family

Failure to pay support in Colombia has severe effects, ranging from criminal penalties and fines to garnishments, travel restrictions, and registration in the REDAM. Not paying affects the debtor's liberty, assets, and legal standing. For that reason, when faced with a delay, it is advisable to act in time: gather the evidence of non-payment, consider conciliation, and choose the appropriate collection route before taking isolated actions. This helps preserve family and financial stability and prevents the conflict from escalating.

When to seek legal support for overdue child support

If you need to resolve a situation of non-payment, negotiate a support amount, or respond to a complaint, it is advisable to seek guidance. A family law attorney in Bogotá can guide you clearly and in a way suited to your case, and help you make informed, responsible decisions. If you prefer, you can write to us at 313 8411825 to review your situation.

What the rulings say: real cases of inasistencia alimentaria in Colombia

The statutes describe penalties in the abstract. The rulings of the Corte Suprema show what happens in practice. Below are three real cases decided by the Sala de Casación Penal that illustrate when a person ends up convicted and when they do not.

The case of the teacher who paid a pittance (Sentencia CSJ SP395-2021, Radicado 58136). Alexander Espinosa Ramírez, a teacher, had owed $230,000 (Colombian pesos) a month for his minor daughter since 2010, set in a conciliation before the ICBF (Colombian Family Welfare Institute). During the two years investigated —July 2015 to July 2017— he paid barely 20% of what he owed. He claimed to be a "teacher without steady work" and argued that "what matters is not whether the support was paid in full, but whether the child was provided for." The Court rejected that argument. It stated that "the evidence taken establishes that he acted with the knowledge and the intention of partially evading his support obligation", because during that period he had in fact been carrying out work that enabled him to pay more. The conviction became final. Paying something, but not what is owed, is not a valid defense if you had the means to pay more.

The case of the man acquitted because the Fiscalía did not investigate (judgment CSJ SP5130-2021, case file 58373). William Arenales Riaño had owed $100,000 a month for his daughter since 2010. Over more than six years he handed over barely $1,300,000 in total. The Tribunal Superior de Villavicencio convicted him. Ruling on the impugnación especial (doble conformidad, the right to have a first conviction reviewed), the Court set aside the Tribunal's conviction and upheld the acquittal at first instance. One telling detail: the evidence on the accused's employment record was investigated under the wrong cédula (national identity document) number, which prevented it from being introduced at trial. As a result, the Fiscalía could only mention that the accused "had held several jobs", but "it did not specify dates, places, remuneration or circumstances that would demonstrate financial means." The Court was emphatic: "it is mandatory to establish the accused's financial capacity, if the aim is to characterise the omission as unjustified." Without that evidence, there is no conviction. This ruling does not reward non-compliance: it shows that someone who does have the means to pay, but whose capacity the Fiscalía fails to prove properly, may be acquitted.

The case of the unemployed social worker (CSJ SP482-2023, case file 55296, November 2023). Lilia Velandia, a university graduate, was sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment because a judge and a court inferred that, being a professional, she could pay support for her son. Throughout the proceedings she maintained that she had been unemployed for months and had no resources. The Corte Suprema (Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice) set the conviction aside: "where the party fails to meet their obligation, not of their own will, but because of a force majeure circumstance such as the lack of financial resources, their criminal liability cannot be inferred." The Court also criticized the Fiscalía for not having investigated the accused's actual income, and not merely her profession.

What makes the difference? The three cases point to the same test: the phrase "sin justa causa" (without just cause) in article 233 of the Código Penal. Someone who does not pay because they do not want to, having the means, will face conviction. Someone who genuinely cannot pay has a defense, but must be able to prove it with concrete evidence —simply asserting it is not enough. And someone who says nothing about their real financial situation runs the risk that the judge will infer that they could indeed pay.

Sources: Sala de Casación Penal (Criminal Cassation Chamber), CSJ SP395-2021 (M.P. José Francisco Acuña Vizcaya); CSJ SP5130-2021 (M.P. Gerson Chaverra Castro); CSJ SP482-2023, case file 55296 (M.P. Diego Eugenio Corredor Beltrán, 29 November 2023).

Abogada penalista analizando un caso de inasistencia alimentaria

Laws and case law cited

Código Penal (Colombian Criminal Code, Ley 599 de 2000), article 233 (as amended by Ley 1181 de 2007)
— inasistencia alimentaria: base penalty of 16 to 54 months' imprisonment and a fine of 13.33 to 30 SMLMV (monthly minimum wages); aggravated where the victim is a minor, 32 to 72 months' imprisonment and a fine of 20 to 37.5 SMLMV. Official text.
Code on Childhood and Adolescence (Law 1098 of 2006), article 129
— provisional support payment, garnishment, a bar on leaving the country through the migration authority (today Migración Colombia), and reporting to the credit bureaus in the event of default. Función Pública.
Código Sustantivo del Trabajo, article 156
— wages may be garnished up to 50% for the payment of support obligations, even where the minimum wage is involved. Función Pública.
Civil Code, articles 411 and following
— support legally owed and modification of the amount when financial circumstances change.
Law 2097 of 2021
— Registro de Deudores Alimentarios Morosos (REDAM, the register of delinquent support debtors): registration once three payments are in arrears, and transmission of the information to the credit, financial and commercial risk bureaus.

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Unpaid Child Support in Colombia: Legal Consequences