Security Will Return to the Center of Colombian Politics Under De la Espriella
Insecurity is one of the issues about which Colombians complain the most. The proliferation of armed groups and criminals conspires against notions of order, authority, and justice. The promise to confront this complex scourge, which presents itself as a thousand-headed monster, was one of the reasons behind Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory in the presidential elections. Now, everything indicates that, from the very day of his inauguration, next August 7, Colombia’s new president will begin working to combat it.
That commitment was recalled in recent hours by former senator Mauricio Gomez Amin, who served as the campaign manager for De la Espriella’s presidential campaign and was one of the most important political figures in his movement. Although he did not go into details, he said in general terms that “Colombia’s security will once again become a priority. From Abelardo de la Espriella’s very first day,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
He later added a comment outlining what the next government will do, from the international arena to the country’s interior. “Under Colombia’s government, our country will join a major continental alliance to combat crime with determination and results. Greater international cooperation, greater protection for citizens, and more tools to confront those who threaten the peace of Colombians,” he assured.
De la Espriella’s strategy for Colombia’s interior
This indicates that, within the country, De la Espriella will put into motion his promise that the recovery of security in Colombia will begin where citizens are demanding it most today: neighborhoods, communes, districts, and urban sectors battered by crime, extortion, micro-trafficking, and the absence of authority.
The new president’s idea is to implement a first security ring in neighborhoods across the country, with an increase in police personnel, surveillance and response technology, permanent territorial presence, and institutional support from reserve members and public force veterans. For De la Espriella, the experience of those who served Colombia will once again be placed at the service of the nation.
According to his proposal, veterans and reservists will be incorporated under legal frameworks, coordinated with the competent authorities, and assigned to prevention tasks, territorial accompaniment, risk identification, community surveillance, and the strengthening of citizen security. He warns that this proposal does not create parallel structures or forms of private justice, thereby dispelling the notion that these are paramilitary or parapolice groups.
On the contrary, it strengthens the State’s presence, supports the public force, and organizes the participation of men and women with experience, discipline, and a vocation for service within the framework of the Constitution and the law. Thus, in the new president’s vision, security will no longer be treated as merely a speech.
“To recover neighborhoods, authority, budget, technology, intelligence, coordination, and political will are needed,” his proposal states. “The same principle will apply in rural areas, where territory will be reclaimed with a strengthened, equipped, and supported public force.”
De la Espriella has stated it clearly: without security there is no freedom, no commerce, no employment, no protected schools, and no peaceful families. Therefore, the recovery of neighborhoods will be a national priority from the first day of government. Colombia will once again have a State in the streets, police in neighborhoods, technology at the service of security, and veterans contributing their experience to the protection of communities.
Colombia will join the Shield of the Americas
“A new stage begins for our nation. The miracle of the homeland is underway!” Gomez Amin concluded in his message, all in response to a post by the president-elect in which he replied to the congratulations on his victory sent by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We invite your upcoming administration to work with the Department of War and the Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas (A3C) to revitalize the military alliance between our two countries,” Rubio told De la Espriella.
De la Espriella responded that, beginning on August 7, “Colombia will join the Shield of the Americas. Our nation will no longer be governed by an administration complacent toward narco-terrorism. We will confront it with the resolve and determination it demands.”
The Shield of the Americas is a group of nations promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump, bringing together more than a dozen countries in the region to cooperate on security matters. Its members include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
This association of countries was created in March 2026 by the Republican administration to combat drug trafficking cartels operating throughout the continent. Peru also joined the initiative. In fact, the presidents of Argentina (Javier Milei), El Salvador (Nayib Bukele), Ecuador (Daniel Noboa), and Chile (Jose Antonio Kast), among others, traveled to Miami to participate in the signing of the group’s founding charter.
But the Shield of the Americas also has a geopolitical dimension. The State Department presented it as a partnership that will work jointly not only to “promote strategies that put an end to criminal and narco-terrorist gangs and cartels, and to illegal and mass immigration,” but also to counter “foreign interference in our hemisphere.” Trump described it as a mechanism to promote freedom, security, and prosperity throughout the continent through an anti-cartel coalition of the Americas, a military agreement aimed at confronting drug trafficking.