CALI, Colombia—Most elected officials enter office with an agenda for a better future, and most want to get to work implementing it immediately. Sooner or later, however, that agenda must compete with the urgent, unexpected demands of the present. For newly minted Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, the time between being sworn in and facing his first major emergency was barely a weekend.
On Monday, Colombians awoke to a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in San José del Palmar in southeastern Chocó. The extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed, with at least 240 reported dead as of Wednesday morning. Videos of rescue workers combing through flattened buildings and collapsed houses shows the extent of the relief efforts already underway. The epicenter was less than sixty miles from Pereira, where de la Espriella has said he will personally oversee these efforts. His focus will naturally be on marshaling state resources to help Colombians affected across the country. Colombia will also need all the help it can get from the international community, with offers of support already pouring in.
Three days earlier, the picture was entirely different. On Friday, de la Espriella assumed office in an inauguration ceremony, which I attended, at the Arena USC on the campus of Universidad Santiago de Cali. Many of the Colombians I spoke with in the 2,200-person-capacity venue shared high hopes about what this next chapter could deliver.
The stakes are even higher now. How de la Espriella handles the coming weeks, in which he must respond to the natural disaster while also setting a foundation for the larger agenda he outlined in Cali, could well define the rest of his presidency.
What the new president pledged
Cali—the capital of Colombia’s southwest, the economic center of the country’s south, and the city known around the world as the capital of salsa—took on a new distinction as the site of Colombia’s first presidential inauguration outside Bogotá. Moving the inauguration from the capital was no small feat. De la Espriella had wanted the ceremony to take place at a military installation as a way of reaffirming his support for the armed forces. After resistance from the outgoing administration during the transition, the Senate eventually approved a ceremony in Popayán, which was later moved to Cali after a tense debate in Congress and several logistical hurdles.
The new location also required Congress to travel to Cali for the legislative session. Notably, the venue is just a five-minute ride from Cantón Militar Pichincha. After being sworn in, de la Espriella slipped away mid-ceremony to deliver his inaugural speech there—securing his wish to hold his inauguration (or at least part of it) at a military base.
The setting reflected one of de la Espriella’s campaign pledges: to give Colombia’s regions a greater role in shaping the country’s future. Cali is the capital of Valle del Cauca, a center for industry and agriculture. It is roughly three hours by road from Buenaventura, Colombia’s main Pacific port, which handles approximately 45 percent of the country’s international cargo. To the south, the regions of Cauca and Nariño offer enormous economic potential, but like Valle del Cauca, they have been hit hard by armed groups competing over illegal economies and routes to the Pacific. These regions will now also require critical state assistance in the wake of the earthquake.
De la Espriella’s inaugural address was piped into the auditorium, where visiting heads of state, several former Colombian heads of state, and Vice President José Manuel Restrepo listened from the stage to the seventy-five-minute speech. The president delivered a message that ranged from fiscal responsibility and investment to democratic principles and security. And his vow to go after corrupt actors was reinforced by the Colombian soldiers who stood in formation facing his podium.
Much has already been written about the new administration’s differences from the Petro administration. De la Espriella further emphasized that distinction by pledging to reject any notion of a constituent assembly during his term—a reminder of Gustavo Petro’s contentious attempt to convene one during his presidency. The speech also emphasized zero tolerance for corruption and a promise to “put the house in order” through fiscal discipline while seeking to restore growth, investment, exports, and job creation.
The speech echoed much of what de la Espriella said on the campaign trail. But what stood out to me was the range of subjects covered, the message of unity, and the clean break the new president sought to make from his predecessor.
The earthquake and the state
As the speech concluded and the guests walked out of the Arena USC, many Colombians I spoke with expressed confidence that this new government has an opportunity to deliver. Investors are likely to find much they like in the president’s speech, since he explicitly described his government as an ally of large, medium, and small businesses. He also spoke about making investment in Colombia “a safe and profitable decision.” Several foreign guests in attendance told me that they expected their countries’ relationships with Colombia, which they said had stalled over the past four years, to move forward now.
With Monday morning’s earthquake, the new president now has an early chance to demonstrate firm leadership and a commitment to making the state work. People across the country will depend on the government response for immediate aid and to get the rebuilding process started. That response has mobilized, and de la Espriella has clearly reprioritized the opening days of his presidency around the earthquake response.