Abelardo de la Espriella Elected in Colombian Electoral Farce
Featured image: Lackey Abelardo de la Espriella. Source: AND
The second round of the Colombian elections were held on the 21st of June, in which Abelardo de la Espriella from the “Defenders of the Fatherland” Party defeated “false left Iván Cepeda by a margin of only 1%”, A Nova Democracia (AND) reports.
The election, marked by allegations of electoral crimes and a deep political crisis, placed the country under a new administration that promises an open return to a “security policy” even more aligned with the interests of Yankee imperialism in the region, as AND explains.
After his victory, Espriella took on a tone of moderation, appealing to the “unity of the nation”, and that now the “supreme hour of service to the nation begins”, what AND defines as “a facade preparing for the implementations of a reactionarizacion agenda against the rights of the Colombian masses”.
Despite his rhetoric of austerity, a full reimbursement for his campaign will be issued, based on law 996 of 2005, where any candidate receiving more than 4% of the total valid votes will have its campaign reimbursed, totaling the reimbursement at 2,916,371 USD worth of public funds. This reimbursement will be received by his opponent as well, totaling at 3,019,989 USD. This mechanism exposes the high cost of the electoral farce, justified with “supporting democracy.”
Espriella’s campaign was marked by an appeal of opposing the “establishment”, a tactic observed in the campaigns of “other far-right candidates” throughout Latin America, such as in Argentina or Chile. The construction of mega-prisons and the extreme militarization of security, was the central axis of his communication, along with the use of the Colombian national team jersey and the slogan “Firm for the Fatherland” in order to construct a patriotic image, and “to conceal his background as a criminal lawyer within oligarchic circles”.
During the “fascist government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010)”, Espriella made a lot of money working with so-called “para-politicians”, or parliamentarians financed by paramilitaries, through his lawfirm De La Espriella Lawyers, one of which was the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary group created to protect the interests of latifundium, demonstrating that his defense of reactionary sectors served as an engine to his fortune.
Additionally he has defended narcoparamilitaries, taking exorbitant amounts of money to “secure benefits in the transitional justice system”, as well as high-profile clients like David Murcia Guzmán, mastermind of the DMG financial scheme, a Ponzi scheme that left 200,000 people ruined.
AND concludes on the election results as follows: “The results of the second round offered no structural solution to land concentration, rural poverty, or the violence plaguing the Colombian countryside. The first round had already demonstrated the existing gap between the electoral farce and the masses: of the more than 41.4 million eligible Colombians, only 23.9 million went to the polls. Meanwhile, more than 17.4 million, or 42.12% of the electorate, simply did not vote”.
