Colombia’s next president has spent years using the law against the press
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August 4, 2026
Summary
President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella takes office with a history of legal battles against journalists who have questioned him.
A column published in 2016 prompted attorney Abelardo de la Espriella, now Colombia’s president-elect, to file a lawsuit against journalist Jonathan Bock(opens in new tab), then director of the Foundation for Press Freedom(opens in new tab) (FLIP).
In the column, published by Semana magazine(opens in new tab), Bock detailed a business venture launched at the time by De la Espriella that promised to remove negative information from the public sphere and promote a positive image of its clients.
What appears to have caught the attention of De la Espriella, a criminal defense attorney who represented a long list of politicians accused of ties to paramilitary groups, was that in the headline and final line of the column, Bock compared him to Saul Goodman, the fictional lawyer who represented drug traffickers in the hit series Breaking Bad.
“I received a notice that I had been sued [for libel and slander] and that part of the process involved a conciliation hearing,” Bock recently told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). “Within 10 minutes, his strategy and his performance became very clear. He became very aggressive and started trying to intimidate me.”
At the hearing, Bock asked De la Espriella which part of the column he wanted corrected. According to the journalist, De la Espriella responded aggressively, threatening to bankrupt him, insulting him and attempting to assault Bock’s lawyer. No settlement was reached, but the case did not move forward either.
“What he wanted was for me to remove the material and apologize to him,” Bock said.
According to a FLIP analysis based on data from Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office, Bock is just one of 109 journalists whom De la Espriella sued(opens in new tab) between 2008 and 2019 for libel and slander.
LJR recently spoke with Colombian journalists about De la Espriella’s relationship with the press and what they expect now that he is set to take office on Aug. 7. Although they agree they will have to wait and see how his presidency unfolds, the lawsuits and attacks he has directed at his critics have raised concerns among journalists and organizations such as Reporters Without Borders(opens in new tab).
“I had filed it away as just another anecdote,” Bock said. “But today, in retrospect, it tells me a lot about how intolerant the person who is now [president-elect] is toward the press and criticism.”
LJR requested comment from De la Espriella’s communications team, but had not received a response by the time this article was published.
“Abuse of the justice system”
De la Espriella’s lawsuits often include requests to remove content, demands for public apologies and requests to seize or freeze journalists’ assets, according to La Silla Vacía(opens in new tab) and several journalists who spoke with LJR.
Ana Bejarano(opens in new tab), a columnist for Cambio magazine and a lawyer who co-founded El Veinte(opens in new tab), an organization that advocates for freedom of expression, has also faced criticism from the president-elect, who announced plans to sue her over her column “Alex and Abelardo(opens in new tab).”
In the column, Bejarano wrote about De la Espriella’s role as defense attorney for Alex Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman whom U.S. authorities have accused of being former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s financial frontman and of overseeing a corruption scheme in Venezuela(opens in new tab). De la Espriella’s involvement with Saab contrasts with the anti-Maduro tenor of his presidential campaign and a book he published in 2018 attacking Maduro, titled “Death to the Tyrant(opens in new tab).”
The threat of legal action against Bejarano drew criticism from organizations like FLIP(opens in new tab). So far, however, Bejarano has not been formally notified of any lawsuit against her, she told LJR.
Bejarano has also represented journalists sued by De la Espriella, including Cecilia Orozco, who has has been sued four times(opens in new tab). One of the lawsuits stemmed from the use of the word “filipichín(opens in new tab),” which the Royal Spanish Academy defines as “a young person who is very concerned about their physical appearance and strictly follows fashion.” De la Espriella considered the description defamatory.
De la Espriella “is one of the people who has taken the press to court the most […] and all of the lawsuits have been frivolous,” Bejarano said. “In other words, they are unfounded. They involve matters […] that are absolutely true and he simply wants to silence them, or matters that are silly and innocuous. It is a structural abuse of the justice system.”
Another case Bejarano handled involved journalists Ignacio Gómez and Guillermo Gómez. In it, De la Espriella requested a type of preliminary injunction against one of Ignacio Gómez’s properties, preventing the property from being sold while the legal proceedings developed. The injunction ultimately affected an unrelated person who happened to have the same name as Ignacio Gómez.
Bejarano agreed with Bock that beyond winning a case, the goal of these lawsuits is to wear journalists down. Because of the time and financial costs involved, journalists often end up agreeing to remove published material or reach other types of settlements.
“It is a desire to silence all matters of public interest in which he has been involved, and there are many of them,” Bejarano said.
Digital attacks
De la Espriella also criticized journalists during his presidential campaign. In an interview, however, he said he was not interested in targeting journalists, but rather what he called “activists.”(opens in new tab)
These criticisms have already had an effect. FLIP has documented digital attacks against news organizations(opens in new tab) following critical reports about De la Espriella, and La Liga Contra el Silencio, a coalition of journalists that investigates censored or underreported stories in Colombia, published an analysis of attacks carried out by accounts allegedly linked to his campaign(opens in new tab).
One of the most serious cases involves journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo, who left the country under the protection of Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office due to security concerns.
By the end of July, more than 300 reporters and public commentators had signed a letter denouncing Restrepo’s “systematic harassment.”(opens in new tab)
“Such a degree of harassment turns her case into a dangerous precedent for censorship of journalism under the government of Abelardo de la Espriella, and is a clear demonstration of his authoritarian nature,” the letter said.
La Silla Vacía is another outlet that has faced these attacks, its director, Juanita León, told LJR. Both the outlet and León herself have been targeted by smear and disinformation campaigns, including AI-generated fake images.
According to León, the outlet became a target after publishing an investigation(opens in new tab) into business dealings in which De la Espriella allegedly lost money. A column by Germán Calderón, one of De la Espriella’s campaign lawyers(opens in new tab), was the first criticism, followed by attacks from social media accounts.
“Abelardo’s campaign accused us of being part of [George] Soros’ conspiracy against Abelardo and of being a media outlet allied with [Gustavo] Petro’s government,” León said. “They said that in a letter they sent to Marco Rubio(opens in new tab).”
She added that they were later accused of supporting the campaign led by former President Álvaro Uribe(opens in new tab), a conservative politician.
“So, we went from the left to the right very quickly,” León said.
Security, a major challenge
For press freedom advocates, violence against the press should be one of the president-elect’s main concerns.
Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the continent for journalists(opens in new tab). During the current administration, nine journalists have been killed(opens in new tab), two of them in 2026(opens in new tab), according to FLIP figures.
The country’s journalist protection program, operated by the National Protection Unit(opens in new tab) (UNP), has been repeatedly criticized for its shortcomings. Colombia’s Constitutional Court has forced the agency to review its protection programs(opens in new tab).
Recently, De la Espriella announced that attorney Didier Blanco would head the UNP. The announcement sparked controversy: In social media posts, Blanco has attacked opposition leaders, news organizations and journalists — groups that have required UNP protection or may need it in the future.
“I wish La Silla Vacía would publish a print edition so I could wipe my ass with Cepeda, Petro, Coronel, Santos and the Democratic Center and literally say, I wiped my ass with La Silla Vacía and the same people as always,” Blanco wrote on his X account(opens in new tab) on March 23. In addition to the outlet, Blanco was referring to outgoing President Gustavo Petro, Senator Iván Cepeda — both members of the opposition party and currently protected by the UNP — journalist Daniel Coronel, former President Juan Manuel Santos and the right-wing Democratic Center party.
“The situation with the protection mechanism, with the National Protection Unit, is disastrous. Protection should be De la Espriella’s and the government’s main concern: understanding how journalism is practiced in the [country’s] regions and all the difficulties and precariousness involved,” Bock said.
Bejarano and León also discussed the role De la Espriella could play in addressing attacks on digital platforms. Although influencers and other accounts that have led the attacks do not depend on De la Espriella and do not act in an official capacity, the president-elect could help bring an end to the attacks, they said.
“There are a lot of public policies that can be implemented to protect the press, but the most important thing is how the president speaks about the press. What does the president say about the press? What is his attitude? What kinds of interviews does he give? How does he respond to criticism?” Bejarano said. “We are coming from a president who was highly confrontational with the press, and unfortunately, the promise is that this one will be even more so.”
This story was translated with assistance from AI and reviewed by Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera.