‘No country in the world can be independent at the moment,’ said Abelardo de la Espriella soon after winning the first round of Colombia’s presidential election. Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and self-described ‘Catholic with an ecumenical outlook’ who dubs himself ‘the Tiger’, was talking to pastor Miguel Arrázola. They were discussing the connections Espriella hoped to build with Washington, and in particular with Donald Trump after the US president’s strained relations with Colombia’s outgoing leftwing president Gustavo Petro. Arrázola is the founder of the Rivers of Life family church in Cartagena and highly influential in a country where 18% of population identify as evangelical Christians.

‘It will be the first time Colombia has a Republican president,’ said Espriella. ‘I vote Republican in the US. I voted for Trump in 2024.’ He has Colombian, Italian and US passports, having acquired the last in 2023 after spending ten years in Florida. This makes him the second South American head of state to hold a US passport after Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa.

Espriella is vocal about his loyalty to Trump. The US president, true to form, told Colombians how to vote on 21 June to ensure Washington’s financial, economic and security cooperation with Bogotá. Colombia is clearly a key piece in the White House’s neocolonial policy in its backyard.

‘I want a Plan Colombia 2, and I want the US bases back,’ Espriella said, referring to the plan which, on the pretext of a war on drugs, enabled Washington to station US troops in the country from 2000 to 2015, notably to combat guerrilla fighters. During his election campaign, Espriella promised to rebuild Colombia’s armed forces, destroy coca plantations and crush armed groups and cartels with the help of the US and Israel. He aimed to put an end to his predecessor’s failed strategy of ‘total peace’.

Part of the far-right tide

Espriella is part of a far-right tide sweeping Latin (…)

Full article: 1 792 words.

(1) Radio Centro, Guayaquil, 6 June 2026. Espriella won the runoff on 21 June.

(2) Brazil and Haiti in 2026; El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Argentina in 2027.

(3) The total area in the country has increased fivefold since 2013.