Colombia’s new president takes office in ceremony in Cali highlighting hard line on armed groups
BOGOTA, Colombia: Conservative Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia’s president Friday, not in the capital as is the tradition, but in the volatile southwestern city of Cali in a move meant to signal his hard-line approach to illegal armed groups operating in the region.
De la Espriella, 48, succeeds Gustavo Petro after winning a close runoff election on June 21 against the outgoing president’s ally, Sen. Iván Cepeda.
De la Espriella, who has never held public office before, ran as an outsider, financing his campaign with the fortune he amassed as a lawyer and businessman. His inauguration, held at a university auditorium before Congress, marks a further shift to the right in the region.
King Felipe VI of Spain, acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Latin American presidents including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Chile’s José Antonio Kast all attended.
After the ceremony, de la Espriella plans to travel to a military battalion in Cali to address the troops. He aims to boost the morale of the service members and simultaneously warn the illegal armed groups operating in the area that they must surrender or face being declared “military targets.”
De la Espriella, who calls himself “El Tigre” or “The Tiger,” has pledged to tackle the persistent violence in Colombia by breaking with Petro’s policy of negotiating with armed groups, arguing that the peace process has failed.
Security became the main challenge of the swearing-in ceremony. Authorities deployed several checkpoints to search vehicles, looking for potential suspects or explosives.
Illegal economies, such as drug trafficking and illegal mining, are disputed among groups like the dissident factions of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that did not accept the peace agreement signed a decade ago, the Clan del Golfo cartel, and the National Liberation Army guerrilla group.
