FAFO Chronicles: Not Even a Week In, and I Can't Even Keep Up With Colombia

Then there was the earthquake on Monday — a 7.4-magnitude that devastated parts of the country. According to the latest reports on Wednesday night, 265 are dead, 3,949 are injured, and 496 people remain missing. 

President de la Espriella jumped right into action in the aftermath of the earthquake, flying directly to the hardest hit regions himself and overseeing the emergency response. It was his first real test as president, and I have to say that so far, I've been impressed, as have many of the people whom I've spoken with who live in the area. 

But I didn't come here to write about earthquake response. 

The new Colombian president was technically a longshot to win, but he did so largely because he promised to be tough on narcos and terrorists. Organized crime from gangs, cartels, and militant groups is the main driving force behind this rightward movement we're seeing in Latin America — people are tired of being held hostage by violence and terrorism. 

We'll call it the Nayib Bukele effect. People saw how he cleaned up El Salvador, and they want the same things for their countries. Bukele actually inspired de la Espriella's plans to crack down on these criminal elements that have taken over parts of the country, and he's offered his services as a consultant. 

Colombia's new president wasted no time at all in getting down to business on the promises he made to clean up the country. Within the first 48 to 72 hours of his presidency, he: 

• Transferred 117 high-profile inmates to maximum security prisons where they could no longer organize criminal activity from the inside — he called their current digs a discoteca
• Captured Héctor Orlando Bastidas Bravo, aka Bonito, "one of the leaders of the Comandos de Frontera, an armed group in Colombia composed of former members of the FARC and linked to both drug trafficking and other criminal activities"  
• Killed Alias Alexis Perdomo in a military operation —  a main finance leader of the Teófilo Forero Castro structure of the Second Marquetalia 
• Killed Hernando Forero Mosquera, a principal cabecilla of Estructura 28 of the FARC dissidents
• Killed two members of the Clan del Golfo (one a cabecilla) and captured four more from a different Clan del Golfo financial/narco cell
• Killed two ELN members while seizing roughly 1.5 tons of explosives (including 440 grenades adapted for drones) and destroying two bunkers and five camp areas

Just imagine what would have happened if there hadn't been an earthquake. El Tigre, as they call him, didn't come to play around. He came to lead. Meanwhile, word on the street is that the military has been waiting to do this for quite a while, but it was afraid to share its intelligence with Petro because it feared he'd alert the terrorists ahead of time. If you'll recall, Petro is a former guerilla himself, and his plans for these groups were less bombs and guns and more peace and love... which — shocker — didn't work and had the opposite effect.   

By the way, if you're wondering what Petro's response to the earthquake was, well, as one of my favorite journalists put it, "Colombia is going through a tragedy, and former President Petro is recommending a Netflix series."

Petro posted on X the night of the earthquake, "I invite all the Colombian people to watch episode one of the second part of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by our Nobel Prize in Literature winner, comrade Gabriel García Márquez. May our people see in the world of art our own history of rebels."  

Colombia atravesando una tragedia y el expresidente Petro recomendando una serie de Netflix. https://t.co/XCee9KAHGx

— Orlando Avendaño (@OrlvndoA) August 11, 2026

Anyway, back to the grownups. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that de la Espriella has already authorized joint U.S.-Colombia military operations inside Colombia and the country will join the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition or A3C, a multinational security initiative led by the Department of War and SOUTHCOM. It targets drug cartels and transnational narco-terrorist networks using coordinated military tactics. 

Colombia is officially joining the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C).

I met with Minister of Defense Mora (@mindefensa) in Panama City today as we launched a new chapter in U.S.-Colombia defense cooperation. pic.twitter.com/19Rb4WMMi9

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) August 12, 2026

In other words, if you're a terrorist or narco in Colombia, you might want to stop FA, because if you don't, you're about to FO. The fun and games are over.