[9] Since its foundation in 1887, El Espectador acted as a speaker for the Colombian Liberal Party, at the time opposed to the administrations of the conservative regime.

On 6 September 1952, its facilities, then located in downtown Bogotá, as well as the building of competitor El Tiempo and the houses of Liberal Party leaders Eduardo Santos and Carlos Lleras Restrepo, were looted and partially destroyed, apparently with the tacit consent of the government.

In 1955 the newspaper, outspokenly opposed to the military government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, publishing several articles by Alberto Lleras Camargo, with a substantial effect on public opinion.

In 2007, its publisher Fidel Cano Correa said he did not agree with former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez's personal behaviour and government style, but he specified that was his own position and not the newspaper's.

[13] During the 20th century, El Espectador criticized other mass media in Colombia, which preferred to remain silent instead of denouncing the atrocities happening in the country.

[14] In the early 1980s, the daily published several articles denouncing illegal loans and other irregularities allegedly performed by the Grupo Grancolombiano, one of the most powerful financial groups at the time.

"[citation needed] The newspaper rejected being considered as "subversive opposition" and criticized Liberal president Julio César Turbay Ayala's government, which by its words wished to "have a totally loyal, extremely pro-government press, not silenced but flattering."

El Espectador also criticized, openly, drug trafficking: What this country really needs is not money, metal, pure materialism, but a deep resurgence of morals in both public and private sectors.

12 January 1986[11]Our mafiosos find that the no-extradition (to United States) is their best life insurance, because they know that if they commit any serious or slight offences in Colombian territory, the generous cheque book or the sinister machine-gun, or the paid hit man, or the unscrupulous bodyguard willing to kill at the first chance, will keep them free enjoying their dirty, perverse fortuneGuillermo Cano.

August 1986[11]As stated before, El Espectador stood firm against drug trafficking and often published articles on related crimes.

On 17 December 1986, the then director of El Espectador, Guillermo Cano Isaza, was assassinated in front of the newspaper offices by gunmen paid by Pablo Escobar, after publishing several articles critical of Colombia's drug barons.

The same day, 6 armed men broke into an exclusive island in Islas del Rosario, near Cartagena de Indias, and set fire to the Cano family's summer house.

On 29 May 2000 Reporters Without Borders issued a letter of protest to Interior Minister Humberto de La Calle Lombana, on the kidnapping of journalist Jineth Bedoya,[23] at the time working for El Espectador, allegedly carried out by members of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).

In an article published by El Espectador, Gómez had revealed that the Mapiripán Massacre, in which 49 peasants were killed by paramilitary militias, had been supported by members of the Colombian Army.

He denounced human rights violations by AUC, as well as the alleged tolerance on drug barons in the past by the then presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

[26] On 8 February 2003 photojournalist Herminso Ruiz was beaten and had his camera confiscated by members of the Colombian National Police while he was covering El Nogal club bombing.

[27][29] In May 2003 the newspaper, through an editorial written by its then director Ricardo Santamaría, reported on "interference" on an investigation it was carrying on the alleged irregularities in Banco del Pacífico, claiming that Police intelligence officials had obtained access to a draft of the report and sent it, through the Colombian National Police director, Teodoro Campo, to the then Interior Minister Fernando Londoño, who was a chairman of the bank.

[30][31] On 18 November 2004, a Bogotá court sentenced columnist and film director Lisandro Duque to three days in jail and a 470 euros fine, for not publishing a rectification after a sentence for defamation, when in column published 13 April 2003 Duque criticized Claudia Triana de Vargas, manager of a film production company.

Elespectador.com received the Colombian Chamber of Computing and Telecommunications's Premio Colombia en Línea 2008 award to the best online news website in the country.

Since then, their editors Rodrigo Pardo, Carlos Lleras de la Fuente, Ricardo Santamaría, and Fidel Cano Correa tried to recover the financial balance and the newspaper's circulation.

Counting with the free time readers have available on weekends, El Espectador focused on opinion, investigation, and analysis pieces, recovering its circulation, influence, and earnings.

On Mondays El Espectador publishes a 6-page edition of The New York Times International Weekly,[46][47] and on Tuesdays a two-paged Fox Sports minisection.