Colombia’s President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella speaks throughout a press convention in Bogota, Colombia, July 30, 2026.
John Vizcaino/AP
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John Vizcaino/AP
BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s new president might be sworn into workplace Friday amid tight safety measures aimed toward stopping protests and potential assaults by insurgent teams.
Abelardo de la Espriella, an outspoken conservative who has been praised by President Trump, has promised to confront insurgent teams in Colombia with higher navy power whereas chopping authorities spending to cut back a finances deficit that doubled beneath outgoing President Gustavo Petro.
De la Espriella, a former prison protection lawyer who ran as a political outsider, is breaking with custom by holding his inauguration ceremony in Cali somewhat than the capital, Bogotá. The 48-year-old selected the southwestern metropolis, which has been hit onerous by drug violence and assaults from insurgent teams, as the positioning of his swearing-in.
Some 11,000 troops have been deployed to town to make sure the protection of the brand new president and the roughly dozen heads of state attending the inauguration.
These anticipated to attend embody Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, alongside U.S. Performing Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and King Felipe VI of Spain.
Drones have been banned, and privately owned automobiles is not going to be allowed on metropolis roads throughout Inauguration Day.
“One of many basic priorities of my authorities might be to exert management of our territory,” de la Espriella stated in a speech earlier this week. “If we do not management our cities and our rural areas, this nation will lose its sovereignty.”
Over the previous 4 years, drug gangs and insurgent teams linked to a long time of political battle in Colombia have turn into more and more highly effective in rural areas, the place they extort native companies and revenue from actions equivalent to unlawful mining and the drug commerce.
Petro, a progressive, tried to barter peace agreements with many of those teams beneath a technique generally known as “Whole Peace”. However critics say the technique failed, with some armed teams utilizing ceasefires granted by the federal government to rearm, regroup and increase their management over rural communities.
De la Espriella has stated he’ll finish peace talks with Colombia’s insurgent teams and confront them with higher navy power.
The rich lawyer, who has by no means held elected workplace, helps a more durable method to crime that features constructing giant prisons and utilizing aerial spraying and drones to destroy unlawful coca crops, a observe Colombia halted greater than a decade in the past due to environmental considerations.
Elizabeth Dickinson, a Colombia analyst on the Worldwide Disaster Group, stated that with de la Espriella, “the pendulum swings again to the appropriate” after 4 years of a left-leaning administration that struggled to realize leads to negotiations with armed teams.
She stated elevated navy stress may assist weaken insurgent teams and encourage some fighters to demobilize, however fully ending the opportunity of future talks may very well be counterproductive.
“We’re speaking a few battle that has an estimated 27,000 people concerned in several armed and prison teams,” Dickinson stated. “These people will want a route again into regular life.”
De la Espriella gained Colombia’s presidential election by about 250,000 votes, defeating left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda by roughly one share level.
He’s the newest conservative chief elected in Latin America as voters more and more deal with crime and safety considerations.
Proper-wing leaders have lately gained elections in Peru, Chile and Ecuador, reflecting a conservative shift in components of South America.
These politicians have sought nearer alignment with the Trump administration on points equivalent to immigration and anti-drug insurance policies.
De la Espriella has expressed help for the Trump administration’s controversial marketing campaign of militarly strikes towards vessels suspected of carrying medicine within the Caribbean and japanese Pacific, by which greater than 200 individuals have been killed.
He’s additionally anticipated to hurry up the extradition of insurgent leaders needed in the USA on drug fees. He has begun aligning Colombia’s overseas coverage with Washington by chopping diplomatic ties with Cuba and restoring relations with Israel.
Domestically, de la Espriella has stated he needs to chop authorities spending by as a lot as 40% to cut back the rising finances deficit. He has already introduced plans to shut 14 Colombian embassies in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
However de la Espriella must construct a majority in Colombia’s fragmented Congress if he needs to push by way of deeper reforms, stated Sergio Guzmán, a political analyst in Bogotá.
The brand new president additionally faces opposition from Petro, who has refused to acknowledge the election outcome and claimed, with out offering credible proof, that the vote rely was rigged.
Guzmán stated the fraud allegations may gasoline protests towards de la Espriella’s authorities amongst Colombians who’re already involved that his anti-crime insurance policies may result in human rights abuses by safety forces.
“Petro goes to be a relentless nuisance for De la Espriella,” Guzmán stated. “However I believe De la Espriella is prepared for a battle with Petro, each rhetorically and probably on the streets.
