Colombia’s new president takes office in ceremony in Cali highlighting hard line on armed groups

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — 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 U.S. 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.

De la Espriella, a Colombian-American citizen, comes to power after receiving the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump and as regional concerns grow about crime, immigration and the economy.

“His rise to power will reinforce this rightward shift across much of Latin America and consolidate a regional bloc of conservative governments against a dwindling number of left-wing administrations,” Glaeldys González, an analyst with the International Crisis Group for the Andes, told The Associated Press.

De la Espriella has said that his government will unite Colombia with the “Shield of the Americas,” a regional coalition to fight drug trafficking that emerged from the summit held by Trump in March.

He also announced that he will resume diplomatic relations with Israel and sever them with Cuba and Nicaragua, which he considers “tyrannies.”

De la Espriella will face robust opposition from Petro, who at first refused to recognize his electoral victory and insisted on alleged fraud, claiming that results from thousands of tally sheets were manipulated by programmers. The accusations of fraud have been dismissed by international observers as well as electoral authorities in Colombia.

However, the outgoing president left the presidential palace Friday saying he would respect the popular will.

Petro, who did not attend, will be “relentless” and “acerbic” as an opponent, seeking to strengthen his leadership, said political analyst Sergio Guzmán.

Petro has urged social movements in the southwest of the country to organize “people’s militias” to defend themselves against potential attacks from what he called the “fascists,” and called on his supporters to prepare for a general strike should they try to imprison him after he leaves office. Petro was named a “priority target” by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the AP reported in March.

These kinds of calls from Petro, coupled with the hard-line approach de la Espriella intends, increase the likelihood of “confrontations during demonstrations or more forceful responses from the authorities,” according to Andrés Macías, a researcher specializing in conflict and peace at Externado University.

In Cali, where Petro has a large following and most voted for Cepeda, social and student organizations protested. Demonstrations also took place in Bogota and Barranquilla.

“Here we are defending dignity, resisting and making it clear that he (de la Espriella) did not win here and we are letting him know it,” Sebastián Ocampo, 25, told the AP while demonstrating in Puerto Resistencia, a residential area of ​​Cali that was the epicenter of massive anti-government protests in 2021.

“There are very divided opinions in Cali … we are just hoping that the demonstrations will be peaceful,” said Amanda Castro, a 29-year-old merchant from southern Cali.

___

Follow the AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america