According to the former presidential candidate—speaking at a gathering in the capital of the Atlantico department—the incoming leader not only swore allegiance to the northern nation upon becoming a US citizen but also “has outstanding legal issues” with that country’s justice system.

“From acting as a facilitator for drug traffickers and paramilitaries—profiting from their ill-gotten gains—he has shifted to becoming an agent who will be pressured by the United States, its government, and its federal agencies to allow all manner of foreign intervention in Colombia,” he asserted in his speech.

He argued that the oath the leader is set to take to assume office “is an act that will formalize the subjugation of our independence to the will and domination of the United States government.”

He noted that De la Espriella and his inner circle aim to turn Colombia into a major platform for US military, economic, and political intervention across Latin America, operating under the “Shield of the Americas” plan, US tariff policies, and the new hemispheric security doctrine.

“From this perspective, the program he intends to impose threatens democratic foundations. It is a program to restore the old neoliberal model—concentrating wealth once again, widening inequalities, and dismantling the social gains of the first progressive government, as well as destroying agrarian reform,” he emphasized.

Cepeda stressed that the incoming president intends to implement states of exception and “apply a doctrine of persecution, repression, and terror against the general population, the political opposition, and social leaders.”

He declared that there would be no surrender to authoritarianism or to a new form of state-sponsored terrorism.

jdt/ool/ifs