Colombia’s far-right President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella said that he won’t allow his country’s left to “destabilize democracy” through civil disobedience against his US citizenship.
In his weekly address to the nation, De la Espriella stressed that after Friday he will be president and “with the force of the constitution and the law” ensure that his power will be upheld.
The civil disobedience announced by leftist opposition leader Ivan Cepeda “is nothing more than a euphemism for an attempt to destabilize democracy,” said De la Espriella.
“I will not allow it,” said the president-elect.
I am the president of all Colombians, and I will ensure, through the power of the Constitution and the law, that what the Colombian people decided—which was to elect me—is upheld. My call to the entire nation is that we stop normalizing what is wrong, illegal, and corrupt. Let’s call things by their proper names and confront them for what they are. This so-called “civil disobedience” is nothing more than a euphemism for an attempt to destabilize democracy, and I will not allow it.
Abelardo de la Espriella
According to De la Espriella, the left “combined all forms of struggle,” a term used by the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC to justify the violence used by the insurgents, “and lost.”
Cepeda called on his followers to peaceful civil disobedience in response to the president-elect’s refusal to renounce his US citizenship.
The incoming opposition leader and his political party, the Historic Pact, support legal efforts to challenge De la Espriella’s election on claims that fraud concerns have not been tackled.
More radical elements within the Historic Pact, including outgoing President Gustavo Petro, have sustained that the far-right won the elections through deceit and fraud, but have failed to present evidence that would confirm a criminal conspiracy.
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