‘Institutional threat’: election of far-right leader raises fears for democracy in Colombia

When more than 20 women accused a Colombian evangelical pastor in 2012 of sexually abusing them, the defendant’s lawyer sought to discredit the allegations by telling the court that they were “ trepadoras ” – a pejorative term meaning social climbers. He ultimately secured his client’s acquittal – although the case remains under review by the supreme court – but footage of the remark resurfaced during Colombia’s presidential campaign, sparking outrage among many progressive voters. On Sunday, that lawyer was elected Colombia’s next president. Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself “El Tigre” (The Tiger), a millionaire who launched his legal career defending paramilitary leaders and has never held public office, defeated the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda by a razor-thin margin of just 250,000 votes out of an electorate of 41 million. On 7 August, he will replace Gustavo Petro, the country’s first and only leftist president, marking a sharp swing back to the right for the country – and De la Espriella is seen as considerably further to the right than Colombia’s long line of conservative presidents. …