Abelardo de la Espriella Wins Colombian Presidency, but Now Comes the Hard Part

With 100% of the nearly 26-million ballots tallied throughout Colombia on June 21, 48-year-old profesional lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella captured 12.95 million votes (49.66%) — almost 1% more than the 12.7 million (48.7%) votes cast for his opponent, Senator Ivan Cepeda.

The vote totals are expected to be confirmed through Colombia’s well-established auditing system over the next several days, ensuring that de la Espriella will take office on August 7, replacing outgoing President Gustavo Petro.

While pundits characterized this election as a contest between “right-wing” de la Espriella and “left-wing” Senator Cepeda, the personalities of both go beyond mere propaganda labels.

For example: de la Espriella is flashy and often bombastic, with a streak of narcissism that can provoke comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump, whereas Cepeda – a lifelong Marxist, educated in the Former Soviet Union — can sound like a monotonous, 1950s-era Soviet Minister of Propaganda, spewing class-war slogans to naive students as well as to actual disadvantaged groups.

In his post-election victory speech last night, de la Espriella – arriving to a platform stage in a bulletproof-glass-enclosed vehicle, mimicking that used by Vatican Popes – mostly shouted platitudes and cited undefined “miracles,” but thankfully vowed to defend Colombia’s liberal Constitution — and respect those who didn’t vote for him (about half of Colombia’s voters).

Now, de la Espriella will inherit (on August 7) a nation in deep fiscal trouble thanks to the policies of President Petro, who not only put Colombia’s finances deep in debt but also let violent narco gangsters vastly expand Colombia’s illegal coca crops and cocaine exports during the past four years.

As a result, de la Espriella is about to find out that his promise to destroy coca fields and cocaine labs not only will upset Cepeda’s naive “peace” supporters (about half of national voters) but also will alienate the hundreds of thousands of poor peasants that also profit from this illegal trade.

Tellingly, the Colombian departments (like U.S. states) that overwhelmingly voted for Cepeda yesterday are the same departments overwhelmingly dominated by coca plantations and cocaine labs.

So: The challenge for de la Espriella – like that faced by all previous Presidents in Colombia (and similarly world-wide) – is not just bombing and spraying coca fields, but also finding some profitable (and peaceful) alternatives to the illegal drug trades — as well as finding ways to reverse the fiscal crises.

Prior Colombian presidents have emphasized either “teeth” (pure military force) or “tooth” (soft words) in attempts to curb the drug trade — and the democracy-destroying gangsters that run it.

But a better combination of “teeth,” “tooth” and “economic alternatives” likely would be the real “miracle” that Colombia — and de la Espriella — would (wisely) need to pray-for.

Best of luck to all.