BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Conservative Abelardo de la Espriella will be sworn in as Colombia’s president Friday under heavy security in Cali, a city in the country’s volatile southwest, breaking with the tradition of holding the ceremony in the capital, in a move meant to signal his hard-line approach to illegal armed groups De la Espriella, 48, will succeed 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, to be held at a university auditorium before Congress, marks a further shift to the right in the region.King Felipe VI of Spain and Latin American presidents including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Chile’s José Antonio Kast are expected to attend.
After the ceremony, de la Espriella will 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.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.
