Nowadays, English is positioned as the quintessential lingua franca, undertaking a fundamental role in establishing transnational connections and displacing the use of other local languages. In our context, the incidence of English is reflected in public policies such as the National Bilingualism Program (NBP), which proposes the exclusive use of English as a foreign language to allow economic, political and cultural overture of the country in competitive terms. This paper takes on the decolonial turn as a perspective of analysis of the PNB to identify the persistence of coloniality in political structures, which are estranged from the social realities of the population they intend to govern. At the same time, it proposes an interpretation of the NBP, reflecting on a practice that promotes intercultural competence mindful of the linguistic diversity of the target context of its action.