"The Tiger's" campaign rhetoric grows more violent as voters prepare to head to the polls
Tension heightens as de la Espriella lurches from scandal to scandal, threatening critics, yet he doesn't seem to have lost momentum
Election campaigns in Colombia have come to a close ahead of Sunday’s presidential elections. The last few weeks of the campaign have been tense, with ultra-right, Trump-endorsed candidate Abelardo de la Espriella personally attacking journalists and even threatening to “disembowel” leftists who try to block his agenda.
The final polls show de la Espriella leading over his leftist opponent, Senator Ivan Cepeda, who last week filed new evidence with the Prosecutor’s Office accusing de la Espriella of deeper ties to right-wing paramilitary structures than he publicly admits.
Those charges won’t matter, however, if de la Espriella wins. Meanwhile, some Cepeda supporters have promised to take to the streets in the event of an election win by the far-right candidate.
De la Espriella, best known as a high-profile defense attorney, is running a populist campaign inspired by Bukele in El Salvador and Milei in Argentina. Calling himself “the Tiger,” he has promised “iron fist” crackdowns on criminal armed groups and corruption, as well as economic austerity programs in the country.
Security has been one of the central themes of the run-up to elections. Current President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, which involved negotiating with non-state armed actors in return for their disarmament, has had mixed results — and some serious setbacks.
Criminal groups have continued to expand in both numbers and territory, a trend that began under Petro’s predecessor, Ivan Duque.
“The insecurity is why I’m voting for Abelardo,” Angela Diaz, a de la Espriella supporter, told PWS in Medellin. “Petro has been a disaster in dealing with the guerrillas,” she said. Diaz opposes Colombia’s 2016 peace deal with rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Following the deal, as FARC fighters disarmed en masse, Colombia experienced the sharpest drop in violence in the history of the country. Since then, however, conflict has again been slowly expanding as other non-state armed groups have stepped into the vacuum that the government — then under the control of former president Duque — failed to fill.
De la Espriella has promised to eliminate key elements of the peace deal, including Colombia’s Peace Court (JEP), which has conducted widespread investigations into human rights violations by all involved parties as part of its Truth Commission efforts.
He has also promised that under his control, Colombia would leave the United Nations and invite joint US-Colombian military actions against armed groups.
During the last two weeks of the campaign, de la Espriella has lurched from one scandal to another. He released a video falsely claiming that Cepeda was “months away from dying” from a rare medical condition. His campaign removed the claims from their social media accounts after widespread condemnation.
De la Espriella also falsely accused journalist Daniel Coronel of accepting bribes — and luxury cars — in Miami in return for critical coverage of the ultra-right candidate. His campaign presented no evidence of the accusations. Coronel responded that the claim is “absurd,” responding that de la Espriella is trying to intimidate him through character assassination.
De la Espriella has a long history of publicly going after journalists who have criticized him or investigated his past. In addition to personal attacks and wild accusations, he has also launched more than 100 lawsuits against his critics in the media.
Some de la Espriella supporters are stoking fear of violent riots by Cepeda supporters in the event of a loss. The candidate has promised to crush them, claiming they would be organized by Petro and Cepeda. There is no evidence that this claim, or any of his other claims, have any merit whatsoever.
The right-wing firebrand has promised to build 10 “mega jails,” and increase punitive sentencing guidelines for criminals, including life sentences. Life sentences are not allowed under the Colombian constitution. De la Espriella has vowed not to let that stop him.
“He is a fascist,” said Susana Garcia in Bogota. “It’s astonishing to me that after decades of these failed ‘iron fist’ policies have failed to stop the growth of armed groups, some voters think this time will be different.”
Garcia fears de la Espriella’s promises to ignore human rights protections guaranteed under both international and Colombian law. “I keep reading from centrists that both candidates are ‘extremists’,” she told PWS. “It’s a ridiculous framing. Only one candidate in this election has promised to disembowel me and take away my rights.”
De la Espriella is promising big change, though most of his policies are a throwback to the right-wing goverments that ruled Colombia during its 53-year civil war. He even describes his security plan as based on that of former right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, who he considers a mentor.
If the polls are correct, and de la Espriella does win, he will be very unlikely to build a majority coalition in Congress, which is dominated by the more traditional political parties he eschews.
When Petro won in 2022, becoming the first leftist president in the country in modern history, it was in no small part due to the disaster that was the administration of Ivan Duque before him, who left office the least popular president Colombia has ever had.
He dismantled or stonewalled large parts of the 2016 Peace Deal, emphasized aggressive military strategies against armed groups, ushered in market-friendly austerity reforms, and when his policies led to a national rebellion in the form of a mass general strike, cracked down on protesters violently, killing dozens.
Populist slogans aside, de la Espriella’s platform represents more of the same rather than the radical departure he claims.
Duque publicly endorsed de la Espriella on Thursday from his home in Miami. It seems he too sees the similarities.
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
