![\"Guests](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AFP__20260807__C48L3FG__v1__HighRes__ColombiaPoliticsInauguration-1786147205.jpg\")
Guests at Universidad Santiago de Cali watch Colombia\u2019s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, deliver a speech from the Pichincha Battalion on a giant screen during his inauguration ceremony in Cali [AFP\/Luis Acosta]<\/p>\nRight-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella has been sworn in as Colombia\u2019s president after winning a run-off election on promises to crack down on armed groups, cut government spending by as much as 40 percent, and revive the South American country\u2019s oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
De la Espriella, 48, took the oath of office on Friday, breaking with tradition by holding the ceremony not in the capital, Bogota, but in Cali, a city in Colombia\u2019s volatile southwest that has long borne the brunt of the government\u2019s conflict with armed groups.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
The choice signalled a decisive break from the strategy of negotiated peace with those groups pursued by outgoing leftist leader Gustavo Petro, whom de la Espriella defeated in June\u2019s run-off. De La Espriella has dismissed Petro\u2019s policy as a failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no room for manoeuvres that undermine the stability of the nation,\u201d de la Espriella said on Friday, as he pledged to \u201crelentlessly defeat narco-terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201cthe option of dialogue is completely exhausted\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Colombian business owners, de la Espriella vowed his government \u201cwill be your partner in investing in Colombia\u201d.<\/p>\n
He called for \u201cthe development of responsible and sustainable fracking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot resign ourselves to having proven oil reserves that will last only a few more years, nor can we accept the decline \u2060of our gas reserves,\u201d he said, adding his government will work to strengthen state-run oil company Ecopetrol.<\/p>\n
\u2018El Tigre\u2019<\/p>\n
A political newcomer known to supporters as \u201cEl Tigre\u201d, The Tiger, de la Espriella built his fortune and public profile as a lawyer and businessman rather than through elected office, largely self-financing his campaign as an outsider candidate.<\/p>\n
His arrival in power marks a sharp ideological reversal for a country that, for the past four years, was led by a former rebel fighter who was frequently critical of the drug and immigration policies of United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
De la Espriella has, in contrast, hewed closer to Trump and his militaristic approach to drug crime in Latin America.<\/p>\n
Security dominated Friday\u2019s ceremony, which was held at a university auditorium before Congress. Soldiers and armoured vehicles lined roads near the venue, and police manned checkpoints, screening vehicles for explosives in the preceding days.<\/p>\n
After the ceremony, de la Espriella travelled to a nearby military battalion to address troops directly, framing the visit as both a morale boost for the armed forces and a signal of the approach he plans to take.<\/p>\n
Colombia\u2019s southwest remains contested territory for dissident factions of the demobilised FARC rebel movement, which rejected the peace deal the group signed a decade ago with the government. The Clan del Golfo drug cartel and the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group are also active in the area.<\/p>\n
The new president has also pledged to join the so-called \u201cShield of the Americas\u201d, a US-backed regional coalition against drug trafficking that grew out of a summit hosted by the Trump administration in March. He has promised to restore diplomatic relations with Israel and sever ties with Cuba and Nicaragua, branding them as \u201ctyrannies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Petro had initially refused to accept the election result, alleging that vote tallies had been manipulated. The claim was dismissed by international observers and Colombia\u2019s electoral authorities. Petro ultimately conceded that he would respect the outcome.<\/p>\n
Still, protests broke out in Cali, Bogota and Barranquilla on inauguration day.<\/p>\n
In Cali\u2019s Puerto Resistencia neighbourhood, once the epicentre of mass antigovernment demonstrations in 2021, 25-year-old protester Sebastian Ocampo said residents were \u201cdefending dignity\u201d against a president he said had not won their support.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Jorge Restrepo, a professor of economics at Javeriana University in Bogota, said the close election margins underscore the challenges ahead in leading an ideologically divided country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis discourse today, his speech, actually shows a lack of detail, a lot of intentions, a lot of political principles that distance himself from the previous left-wing progressive government of Gustavo Petro,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the lack of detail shows that it will be very difficult for him to make reality what he has promised to Colombia, which is\u2026a \u2018miracle nation,’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
US pledges aid plan<\/p>\n
De la Espriella\u2019s win extends a run of electoral victories by conservatives across Latin America, with seven right-wing leaders elected since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. That includes Peru\u2019s Keiko Fujimori, Chile\u2019s Jose Antonio Kast, and Argentina\u2019s Javier Milei.<\/p>\n
Trump personally endorsed de la Espriella\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
Guests at Universidad Santiago de Cali watch Colombia\u2019s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, deliver a speech from the Pichincha Battalion on a giant screen during his inauguration ceremony in Cali [AFP\/Luis Acosta]<\/p>\n
The \u2060US State Department on Friday said the Trump administration plans to provide $1bn in security assistance to de la Espriella, pending approval from the US Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a cornerstone of this renewed partnership, the United States, working \u2060with Congress, intends \u2060to announce $1 billion in assistance as part of \u2060a security package to \u2060support President \u2060de la Espriella\u2019s Administration in achieving our shared goals,\u201d the \u200cState Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Leaders in attendance at Friday\u2019s event included Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI, acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and several Latin American conservative leaders, including Milei and Kast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella has been sworn in as Colombia\u2019s president after winning a run-off election…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":988232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,12575,396323,2961,1612,224,5337,50,80,55040],"class_list":["post-988231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-colombia","tag-farc","tag-la","tag-latin-america","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-the-far-right"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117058041500176281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}