Colombia has inaugurated its new right-leaning president, Abelardo de la Espreya, marking a significant shift from the previous left-leaning administration of Gustavo Petro. This transition signals a rekindling of the partnership between Colombia and the United States, focusing on security cooperation and countering foreign influence in the region.
And Colombia's new right-leaning president taking office today, replacing his left-leaning
predecessor.
An American delegation is at the inauguration.
And today's South American correspondent, Arian Pasdar, has how this new president plans
to work with the U.S.
Have a look.
The inauguration of Colombia's new president, Abelardo de la Espreya, being held in Cali
on Friday.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch is leading a U.S. delegation to Colombia to attend the
inauguration.
We're also excited for what we expect to be a great rekindling of a great partnership
between the United States and Colombia.
Now the relation between the U.S. and Colombia suffered in recent years.
The previous left-leaning president, Gustavo Petro, often criticized the U.S. taking an
anti-America stance.
For example, just one week ago, he took his last international trip as president, visiting
Cuba and praising the communist regime there.
Now, with the new administration in Colombia, they're getting unfair, so I think they'll
be coordinating against the cartels.
Marcus Schottges is the editor-in-chief of The Epoch Times Brazil.
He says U.S. forces might support Colombia in the fight against organized crime.
In the same kind of way we saw with Ecuador, with President Daniel Nobuo, where they had
coordinated operations being done simultaneously by the U.S. alongside the Ecuadorian armed
forces.
After De la Espreya won the election, a delegation of his traveled to Washington, announcing
a new strategy called Plan Patriot 2.0.
The two countries discussed plans to provide U.S. intelligence and support to Colombia's
military for counter-narcotics missions, to extradite captured traffickers, and to restart
the aerial eradication of coca plants used to produce cocaine.
De la Espreya's election victory is part of a wider trend across South America, which
favors Washington's ambitions in the Western Hemisphere, countering its adversaries.
Espreya's victory is essential to counter China in the Americas for the United States.
This is part of a broader trend which we have seen.
So Argentina is now leading right.
It's the same for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, and all of that is deeply intertwined
with the U.S.'s attempts to lessen Chinese influence and make its position clear down
south.
China has long been trying to infiltrate the Western Hemisphere, but this right-leaning
trend here in South America counters that.
We will now keep an eye on Brazil, which is by far the largest country in South America,
and presidential elections here will be held in two months.
Arijn Pasdar, NTD News.
