The far-right politician will take office on Aug. 7 after narrow victory in presidential runoff.
On Thursday, Cristian Quiroz, president of the National Electoral Council, presented Abelardo de la Espriella with his credentials as Colombia’s president-elect and Juan Manuel Restrepo with his credentials as vice president-elect.
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De la Espriella, who will assume the presidency on Aug. 7, was accompanied by his family and dozens of supporters at the Corferias convention center auditorium in Bogota.
Once he received the credentials, someone in the audience shouted, “Stand Firm for the Homeland”, while the far-right politician raised his hand to his temple to perform the military salute that became one of the symbols of his campaign.
According to the official results, De la Espriella received 12.9 million votes (49.6%) in the second round of the presidential election, compared with nearly 12.7 million votes (48.7%) obtained by leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda.
“Lo que yo le hacía a los gatos para divertirme es atarles 5 petardos en el cuerpo y luego los explotaba, esperando que los gatos volasen pero ya te puedes imaginar lo que pasaba”
Este es el psicópata que EEUU ha elegido para ser presidente de Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella,… https://t.co/04T5yAhnOA pic.twitter.com/m69VBaP8e0
— Daniel Mayakovski (@DaniMayakovski) June 22, 2026
The text at the top reads, “‘What I used to do to cats for fun was tie five firecrackers to their bodies and then detonate them, hoping the cats would fly, but you can imagine what happened.’ This is the psychopath the U.S. has elected as Colombian president, Abelardo de la Espriella, a criminal who boasted on TV about torturing and murdering live cats. I’m sorry, but this is just too blatant. I can’t believe that a human wreck of this caliber received the votes of more than 10 million people. No one believes these electoral farces anymore, controlled by the CIA for decades, where on one side you have liberals and on the other side is the Third Reich reincarnated.”
Colombia’s president-elect is a U.S. citizen, an admirer of President Donald Trump, and a donor to the Republican Party. The 47-year-old attorney made his fortune defending clients linked to paramilitarism, drug trafficking, corruption, and corporate fraud.
In July 2025, De la Espriella founded the “Homeland Defenders” movement and registered his presidential candidacy with the sole objective of preventing the left from remaining in power through a presidency led by Sen. Ivan Cepeda.
During his public appearances before the media, the far-right politician, who refers to himself as “The Tiger,” has made aggressive and controversial statements, including describing women as beings whose brains are designed for household tasks, calling for the elimination of leftists by disemboweling them, and acknowledging that he killed cats while playing during his childhood.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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