In June, Abelardo de la Espriella, aka El Tigre, won the Colombian presidential runoff fair and square, defeating current president Gustavo Petro's hand-picked commie replacement Ivan Cepeda.
The country went back to the right after its failed social experiment known in most sane circles as Petro the Clown, and de la Espriella will take over as president on August 7. He's vowed to be tough on violence, crime, and drug trafficking, and he's vowed to grow Colombia's relationship with the United States even stronger after four years of Petro calling us imperialists.
He will reverse many of Petro's failed policies, and he plans to join the Shield of the Americas — the coalition of like-minded countries in the Western Hemisphere that came together in March at the invitation of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio to figure out how we can cooperate and coordinate to combat our adversaries, among other things.
The margin was narrow, true. El Tigre won by a single point, though many experts say that number doesn't represent a country divided so much as it does a country partially overrun by criminal groups. Furthermore, the elections went smoothly and were closely monitored by independent international observers, who claimed that everything was on the up-and-up. There were no real reports of widespread fraud.
Petro's been having some sort of drunken meltdown ever since. (I'm not being funny — if you've ever read his long and winding Twitter rants, you'd understand why everyone believes he partakes in his country's biggest export, but I can neither confirm nor deny.) Initially, he said he'd start the formal transition — what they call the "empalme" process — but then he started claiming massive fraud without evidence and making accusations that the Colombian diaspora didn't vote properly or that dead people were voting. It got tedious. Cepeda even seemed to grow weary and conceded to El Tigre a few days after the election.
Petro blamed the United States for interfering because Trump endorsed El Tigre, and he accused Benjamin Netanyahu of tampering with the system because "only they" (Israel, hint, hint) have the power to do such things. He called the incoming government fascists and Nazis and has accused it of "crimes against humanity." He hinted that the other side is planning a coup (I'm not sure how you have a coup when you won the election) and claimed he wanted only peace but then promised violence, and on the ground, he's barely cooperating with the transition process. His social media posts are a mix of Latin American history, conspiracy theories, and attacks against those who defeated him.
I've never seen a toddler throw this much of a fit, much less a grown man. And that's why El Tigre suspended the formal transition process earlier this week.
Well, he's not the only one who has had enough of this. On Friday, the 13 member countries of the Shield of the Americas put out a joint statement, which pretty much serves as a major warning to Petro. It reads:
We observe with deep concern the recent statements and actions that, without duly substantiated grounds, cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process in the Republic of Colombia and generate uncertainty regarding the normal course of the institutional transition.
In every constitutional democracy, the sovereign will of the citizens — freely expressed at the ballot box and formalized by the competent electoral authorities — constitutes the sole foundation of the legitimacy of public power. Disregarding the results officially proclaimed by said authorities constitutes a serious disregard for the popular will and for the principles that underpin the Rule of Law.
We reject any action, statement, or decision that seeks to delegitimize the mandate conferred by the citizens, to discredit without basis the competent electoral authorities, or to obstruct the institutional transition, known in Colombia as the empalme process. The transition between governments does not constitute a political concession, but rather a constitutional and institutional duty designed to guarantee the continuity of the State, democratic stability, and the effective fulfillment of the popular will.
We issue a firm call to all Colombian authorities to act in strict adherence to the Constitution, the law, and democratic principles; to respect the results officially proclaimed by the competent electoral authorities; and to guarantee a peaceful, orderly, and transparent transition, in accordance with the highest standards of the Rule of Law.
Petro isn't completely harmless. The former guerrilla could cause some instability as the country transitions to its new government. Rubio, many members of our Congress, and leaders of other nations in the region know this and want to prevent it — that's why they were very quick to legitimize the results and congratulate El Tigre the moment he won. It wasn't just a nice gesture. It was sort of a reminder to Petro that the world is watching and that the United States especially isn't going to put up with his crap anymore.
That said, Petro also wants the sanctions the United States has placed on him lifted so that he can continue his career in activism or whatever it is he does, so he walks a fine line here. In the midst of all this, he claims he called Trump and asked for them to be removed. My personal opinion is that he's all talk right now. That could change once El Tigre is president, but I think at this moment he's more concerned with having his future freedom than he is with what happens in Colombia. But never say never.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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