Colombia's De la Espriella set to take office

Colombian President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella is set to take office on Friday, promising a tougher campaign against drug-running guerrillas and closer ties with the United States.

The 48-year-old former lawyer will move Colombia to the right after four years under outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro. De la Espriella has pledged to bomb jungle cocaine labs, build “mega-prisons” and reduce the size of the state.

His inauguration is planned for Cali, in southwestern Colombia, rather than at Congress in Bogota. Cali has seen several guerrilla pipe bomb attacks in recent years, and armed groups still control pockets of countryside south of the city. Authorities have deployed 11,000 troops and an anti-drone system for the event.

De la Espriella, who holds dual US and Colombian citizenship, has offered to launch joint military operations and host US troops on Colombian soil. He has also announced plans to sever ties with the leftist governments of Nicaragua and Cuba, calling both “tyrannies.”

He won a narrow June runoff against leftist rival Ivan Cepeda by less than one percentage point. Petro has called for mass protests during the inauguration and has claimed election fraud without providing evidence.

De la Espriella says he wants a new “Plan Colombia II,” named after a 2000s security agreement with the United States aimed at drug cartels and leftist armed groups. Renata Segura of the International Crisis Group told AFP that Colombia’s military has limited troop capacity and lacks technological equipment, and warned that a heavy-handed approach could harm civilians because guerrillas are deeply embedded in communities.