With less than two weeks remaining before Colombia’s presidential election, whose first round is scheduled for May 31, three candidates are concentrating most voter support and competing for access to the presidential palace, Casa de Nariño: ruling coalition senator Iván Cepeda, candidate of the left-wing Pacto Histórico party; senator Paloma Valencia, representing the right-wing Centro Democrático party; and lawyer and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella, a figure of Colombia’s far right.

Although 13 candidates will appear on the ballot, two contenders: Clara López and Luis Gilberto Murillo, withdrew their campaigns to support Cepeda, while the remaining candidates have failed to surpass 3.5% voter support in pre-elections polls, a figure close to the statistical margin of error.

If polling trends hold, no candidate is expected to secure the 50% plus one vote needed to win outright in the first round, making a runoff election on June 21, 2026, highly likely.

Cepeda has remained relatively stable in polls, with voter support ranging between 35% and 43%, effectively securing his place in a second round if trends continue.

The key question: Who will face Cepeda in a runoff?

The main electoral uncertainty centers on who will finish second and challenge the ruling coalition in a likely runoff.

Under Colombia’s electoral system, only the two candidates receiving the highest vote totals advance to the second round. The fragmentation of the political right has complicated efforts to consolidate support behind either Valencia or De la Espriella.

Polls suggest a competitive scenario. Valencia has registered between 14% and 21% voter support, while De la Espriella fluctuates between 16% and 24%, depending on the poll and methodology used.

The lack of unity between the two camps stems from both ideological differences and their political structures. Valencia is a member of the political party founded by former President Álvaro Uribe, while De la Espriella entered the race through an independent signature campaign, marking the first time Colombia’s far right has emerged as a viable contender for the presidency.

A campaign shaped by the absence of public debates

The presidential campaign has been marked by an unusual lack of debates among the leading candidates.

Cepeda has refused to participate in events organized by media outlets, arguing that proposed formats do not offer guarantees of neutrality or what he describes as “fair rules” established by news organizations.

As a result, part of the political confrontation has shifted to Congress, where both Cepeda and Valencia currently serve in the Senate.

Critics, however, have challenged Cepeda’s decision. Former Bogotá Mayor and presidential candidate Claudia López argued that his absence from debates reflects that “Cepeda does not want to take responsibility for the failures of Total Peace (Paz Total),” the negotiation policy with armed groups promoted by President Gustavo Petro, in which Cepeda played a key role as a lawmaker.

Instead of regular debates, the campaign has been dominated by disputes over media formats, digital presence, social media strategies and public controversies aimed at amplifying candidates’ visibility.

De la Espriella embraces confrontation

One of the candidates who has most effectively capitalized on the digital environment is Abelardo de la Espriella, whose political strategy has been compared to right-wing populist leadership styles such as those of Argentine President Javier Milei and US President Donald Trump.

In recent weeks, De la Espriella has faced several media controversies, including an incident involving journalist Laura Rodríguez of Piso 8 FM, for which he later apologized after accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct. He also clashed live on air with television presenter María Lucía Fernández of Caracol Noticias, whom he called “ignorant.”

Questions also emerged following reports by digital outlet La Silla Vacía regarding donations linked to the US Republican Party.

Despite the controversies, the strategy appears to be strengthening his electoral standing. An Atlas Intel poll for Semana magazine, published May 15, showed De la Espriella surpassing Valencia by a two-to-one margin for the first time, with 32.9% support compared with 16.7%.

However, the polling firm is currently under investigation by Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) amid concerns over whether its methodology complies with national standards. If irregularities are confirmed, the firm could face suspension of its operations in Colombia.

Valencia seeks to broaden support toward the political center

Meanwhile, Valencia has sought to expand her electoral base by shifting strategically toward the political center.

As part of that effort, on May 17 she officially introduced her proposal “Mámá No Está Sola (Mom Is Not Alone),” aimed at female heads of household and focused on access to credit, employment and housing property. The proposal also includes a promise to deliver 1 million homes prioritized for women community leaders.

Valencia’s candidacy also marks a historic first for Colombia’s political right: it is the first time a major conservative party has nominated a woman for president.

Her vice presidential running mate, former Bogotá councilman Juan Daniel Oviedo, has openly identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a move that represents a significant shift for the Centro Democrático traditionally conservative electorate.

Colombia appears headed for a runoff

With a highly fragmented field and no signs of consolidation among right-wing candidates, Colombia appears increasingly likely to hold a presidential runoff on June 21, 2026.

Barring a major shift in polling trends, the contest seems set to come down to Iván Cepeda and whichever opposition candidate manages to emerge from an increasingly competitive battle within Colombia’s political right.

On April 10, former Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva Durán released a formal statement responding to his indictment by the Fiscalía General de la Nación. Leyva faces charges related to his 2023 decision to declare a passport procurement tender void, a process that involved the private security printing firm Thomas Greg & Sons. The former official characterized the legal proceedings as a politically motivated maneuver orchestrated from the Casa de Nariño.

The indictment for prevarication centers on Leyva’s intervention in the bidding process, which the Fiscalía interprets as a deliberate breach of administrative law. In his defense, Leyva maintained that his actions were necessary to address irregularities and ensure the application of the Constitución Política de Colombia. He argued that the prosecuting body’s thesis would criminalize the conduct of any public servant who identifies unconstitutional terms in a government contract.

“If that argument is accepted, then any official who declares a bidding process void because they find the terms and conditions unconstitutional or illegal should go to jail.” — Álvaro Leyva Durán, former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Leyva also directed accusations toward his successor at the Cancillería, Luis Gilberto Murillo. According to the statement, Murillo suspended a subsequent legal bidding process to justify a state of emergency, which Leyva claims led to an unnecessary markup of approximately $30 billion COP. Furthermore, Leyva alleged that software contracts exceeding $10 billion COP were improperly managed and that the funds remain unaccounted for under the current administration.

The former minister’s statement included severe personal and political criticisms of President Gustavo Petro. Leyva alleged a lack of moral conduct by the head of state during international state visits and questioned the president’s sobriety in public settings. The letter further asserted that US authorities are currently investigating potential links between the executive branch and narcotics trafficking organizations.

Regarding the domestic political landscape, Leyva warned of perceived risks to the Colombian electoral process. He alleged that the administration has engaged in the illegal interception of political candidates and intends to undermine the integrity of future vote counts. Leyva concluded by affirming his intention to defend his record and his legal decisions before the Corte Suprema de Justicia.

COMUNICADO pic.twitter.com/7YYhoHJD4B

— Álvaro Leyva Durán (@AlvaroLeyva) April 10, 2026

Finance Colombia translation of Leyva’s recent open letter dated April 10th

Some time ago, I denounced in a public communiqué that Gustavo Petro had woven against me an atrocious persecution, as retaliation for my denunciations of his closeness to the world of drugs—denunciations that have led to the United States having him cornered today. There I warned that, from within the government, intrigues were being made to throw me in prison and that attempts would be made against my life.

Now, months later, the Attorney General’s Office accuses me of malfeasance (prevaricato) because I declared void a passport tender that, according to that same institution, was based on a “catch-all specifications document” (pliego sastre). For the accusing entity, I should not have fulfilled the obligation of applying the Constitution that I myself helped draft and, by seeking equality, I acted with malicious intent. The world turned upside down.

Understand the gravity: if that thesis is accepted, any official who declares a tender void because they find unconstitutional or illegal specifications must go to prison. So, faced with such a thing, the trial is welcome. I will give the battle in the Supreme Court with all my strength. Because I trust its magistrates, because my life has been a permanent struggle for Colombia, and because justice, reason, and the law are with me.

The acquittal will be the logical consequence of the process in which I will prove, with official documents and among other things, the following: that I left in motion a new, clean, and legal tender, which Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo suspended. That he thus justified another manifest urgency, completely unnecessary, and added an overcharge of nearly 30 billion pesos to it. And that he contracted software for more than 10 billion additional pesos, which was pocketed. All by hand-picking. All murky. All without control. Thus, by brute force, the door was opened to the passport debacle of today. I warned Petro of what was coming down on the country. But he kept silent.

Today I feel the pride of having helped unmask the boss of the mafia that has plunged Colombia into its darkest hours. I took office as his Foreign Minister with the hope of change. But then I came to know his life of vice and decadence. I was slow to understand his vileness and, surely, also slow to denounce it. But from my father Jorge Leyva Urdaneta, exiled for opposing the dictatorship, I inherited courage and respect for institutions; from Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, I learned the necessity of a just order; and from Misael Pastrana Borrero, I learned to think about social peace. So, faithful to myself and to the spirit of my mentors, I denounced in various letters the moral, political, and personal degeneration that I came to know in Gustavo Petro. And time has proven me right.

The President is an infamous being: international human trafficking is a scourge of the poor girls of Colombia, and he, in the middle of a state visit, ends up as a customer of a brothel in Lisbon; he claims to be a champion of peace, but full of hatred he violently divides society with his stale, classist, and racist rhetoric; he claims to fight drug trafficking, but he goes out into the public square drugged, drunk on alcohol and sectarianism, to mistreat and insult those who contradict him, while in the United States his ties to narcos are being investigated. And so, from scandal to scandal, the horrible night does not cease: the homeland trampled by its own President is today the object of all the mockery abroad.

Petro knows that the upcoming electoral process resembles the one recently lived in Chile. And, to avoid the same result, he illegally intercepts candidates, seeks to destroy them, and is already trying to cast a mantle of doubt over the vote count. But Colombia deserves a new dawn. And the radical left, which—turned into the President’s hooligan squad—forgives him everything, seems condemned to the desert. We shall see whether, in the future, they also forgive him for being responsible for their possible defeat. For my part, I remain ready for all battles: always embracing justice against oppression, and with the law as my spear, shield, and banner.

The Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil of Colombia (RNEC), the entity responsible for organizing elections in the country, reported that a total of 14 candidates have officially registered to run in the country’s presidential elections, scheduled for May 31, 2026. In this vote, citizens will elect the President and Vice President of the Republic for the 2026–2030 term.

According to the electoral authority, the candidates represent a wide range of political perspectives, from left to right, including independent candidacies running through political movements. Here the list and brief profile of the candidates:

1. Clara Eugenia López Obregón, currently a senator for the Esperanza Democrática She has served as Minister of Labor (2016–2017), acting mayor of Bogotá (2011–2012), and Bogotá’s secretary of government (2008–2010). She has been affiliated with left-wing parties and was Gustavo Petro’s vice presidential running mate in the 2010 election.
2. Óscar Mauricio Lizcano, from the FAMILIA coalition. He served as Minister of Information Technologies (2023–2025), was a senator (2010–2018), and a member of the House of Representatives (2006–2010).
3. Raúl Santiago Botero, candidate of the “Romper el Sistema” movement (Break the Establishment). An agronomist engineer and businessman from Medellín, he presents himself as an independent candidate with no prior political experience.
4. Miguel Uribe Londoño, father of the slain presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay. He is running under the Colombian Democratic Party and previously served as president of the Centro Democrático party founded by Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
5. Sondra Macollins Garvin, from the movement “La Abogada de Hierro” (The Iron Lawyer) A criminal lawyer and psychologist, she presents herself as an independent candidate without political affiliations. She ran for the House of Representatives in 2022 and is known for her work in narcotrafficking and corruption cases.
6. Iván Cepeda Castro, a senator since 2014 and the official candidate of the Pacto Histórico, the same party as President Gustavo Petro. Polls project he will receive the highest vote share in the first election round. He is aligned with left-wing political ideas.
7. Abelardo de la Espriella, a lawyer with far-right positions, running for the first time under the Defensores de la Patria movement. Recent polls place him as a likely second or third contender in voter preference.
8. Claudia López Hernández, former mayor of Bogotá (2020–2023) and former senator (2014–2018), running under the centrist movement “Imparables con Claudia.” She is known for her anti-corruption agenda and secured her candidacy with more than 570,000 votes (about 9%) in recent interparty primaries.
9. Paloma Valencia Laserna, current senator and candidate of the Centro Democrático party led by Álvaro Uribe Vélez. She won the right-wing interparty primary on March 8 with more than 3 million votes. Polls place her among the top three contenders, and if she reaches a runoff, she would become the first woman in Colombia’s history to do so.

• Sergio Fajardo Valderrama, an academic and mathematician running for the Dignidad y Compromiso He served as mayor of Medellín and governor of Antioquia and is running for president for the third time.
• Roy Barreras, from the political party La Fuerza (The Force). He won the left-wing coalition primary on March 8 with the lowest vote total (257,000 votes, about 3.6%). Although currently aligned with left-wing movements and part of the Petro administration, he has previously been affiliated with right- and center-leaning parties.
• Gustavo Matamoros Camacho, of the Colombian Ecologist Party. He served in the Colombian Army for 43 years. With no prior political experience, his campaign focuses on public security.
• Luis Gilberto Murillo, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2024–2025) and Colombia’s ambassador to the United States (2022–2024). A human rights advocate and Afro-Colombian leader from Chocó, he presents himself as an independent, moderate, centrist candidate.
• Carlos Eduardo Caicedo, running under the independent movement “Con Caicedo.” He was mayor of Santa Marta (2012–2015) and governor of Magdalena (2020–2023), where he built a strong base as a left-wing political leader.

The RNEC also reported that “the draw to determine the position of presidential candidates on the ballot will take place on March 25 at the Ágora Bogotá Convention Center.”

This process marks the formal start of the final phase of the presidential campaign, during which candidates will seek to consolidate support ahead of the first round on May 31. If no candidate secures an absolute majority, a runoff between the two leading candidates will be held on June 21.

List of registered candidates for Colombia’s presidency. Photo courtesy of the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil.

Headline photo: Polling station in Colombia during last Congress elections in March 8, 2026. Photo courtesy of the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil.

President Petro called for a criminal investigation against President Donald Trump, which stunned many observers. The demand stemmed from a US military operation in the Caribbean, where missiles were fired at vessels suspected of illicit activities. Petro asserted that the occupants were not traffickers but “simply poor young people from Latin America who have no other option.” The US delegation reportedly exited the assembly hall during Petro’s speech.

“With the forgiveness of those who dominate the United Nations, criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials from the United States, including the senior official who gave the order: President Trump,” Petro declared. He also framed his speech from the position of a leader wronged by US policy, stating, “I speak to you as a president decertified by the same President Trump, without him having the right to do so.”

Gustavo Petro at the UN. Photo credit: Juan Diego Cano -Presidency.

The Colombian president’s remarks extended to broad condemnations, labeling the United States a “white and racist” country leading humanity toward “destruction.” His confrontational rhetoric was not limited to the US, as he also defended Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and controversially downplayed the nature of the transnational criminal organization, Tren de Aragua.

Petro seemed to call for an armed invasion of Palestine and against Israel:

“I invite the nations of the world and their peoples above all, as part of humanity, to unite their armies and weapons.

Palestine must be liberated. I invite the armies of Asia, of the Slavic peoples who so heroically defeated Hitler, the Latin American armies of Bolívar, of Garibaldi, who also had one in Italy, of Martí, of Artigas, of Santa Cruz. Words are no longer necessary in Bolívar’s hour of the sword of freedom or death, because they will not only bomb Gaza, not only the Caribbean, as they already do, but also humanity that cries out for freedom, because from Washington and NATO, they are killing democracy and reviving tyranny and totalitarianism on a global level.

We must raise the red and black flag of freedom or death that Bolívar raised, without forgetting the white color he raised alongside the red and black, the color of peace as hope for life on earth and in the heart of humanity. The United States no longer teaches democracy; instead, it kills it with its migrants and its greed. The United States teaches tyranny.

The UN must begin its change by stopping the genocide in Gaza with the effectiveness of a world-saving army, voted on by the United Nations General Assembly without veto. After saving Gaza, we will move on to the plan to decarbonize the planet’s economy, so that it becomes a democratically constructed global project and establishes global democracy.”

Widespread Condemnation from Colombian Opposition

The reaction from Colombia’s political opposition was swift and severe. Lawmakers from various parties accused Petro of embarrassing the nation on the world stage and irresponsibly damaging crucial diplomatic ties.

Lina María Garrido, a representative from the Cambio Radical party, offered a direct rebuke: “In the name of the majority of Colombians, I offer an apology to the world for the shameful spectacle that Gustavo Petro is putting on at the UN.”

En nombre de la mayoría de los colombianos, le ofrezco disculpas al mundo por el bochornoso espectáculo que está dando @petrogustavo en la ONU. De entrada, les quiero informar que Petro está dispuesto a todo por unos cuantos "me gusta" en sus redes y por tener un reconocimiento,…

— Lina Maria Garrido (@linamariagarri1) September 23, 2025

Representative Katherine Miranda from the Alianza Verde party described the speech as “Ideologized, erratic, and highly confrontational against the US and Europe. He said nothing about Colombia, about the increase in homicides of public forces, recruitment of minors, kidnappings, and extortions.”

“President Petro didn’t speak like a head of state. He didn’t even wear the Colombian flag on his shirt. He’s only interested in the presidency as a podium, a platform to repeat his apocalyptic rhetoric, denounce universal greed, and launch a vapid call for a global revolution. He doesn’t care about his country. ‘Global leader,’ every state office repeats, while the president speaks to an empty audience,” said Petro’s own former education minister, Alejandro Gaviria.

Senator Carlos Fernando Motoa of Cambio Radical suggested Petro was acting as a defender for criminal syndicates. “Now he goes to the United Nations to act as a defender of the Cartel de los Soles, or organizations like Tren de Aragua,” Motoa stated. “This is unprecedented conduct that threatens to destroy our international image and put us on the side of the worst regimes on the continent.”

¡Lo de @PetroGustavo ya es patológico! No sólo defiende criminales con tarimazos en Medellín o mediante políticas infructuosas como la #PazTotal en el resto del territorio colombiano. Ahora acude a las Naciones Unidas para hacer las veces de defensor del Cártel de los Soles u… https://t.co/Qc4hkx1aqc

— Carlos Fernando Motoa (@senadormotoa) September 23, 2025

The criticism continued from Daniel Briceño, a Bogotá councilman for the Centro Democrático party, who posted on X, formerly Twitter, “Fortunately, this is the last time Petro will embarrass Colombia before the UN.”

Petro es un activista de micrófono cobarde y mediocre.

Mientras viaja por el mundo tratando de “solucionar” los problemas de la humanidad, en Colombia se arrodilla ante los peores criminales, los nombra gestores de paz y se acobarda ante la delincuencia.

Apátrida

— Daniel F. Briceño (@Danielbricen) September 26, 2025

Governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julián Rendón, sharply criticized Petro’s assessment of Tren de Aragua. Petro had claimed, “It’s a lie that the Tren de Aragua is a terrorist. They are just common criminals in the form of a gang, enlarged by the stupid idea of blockading Venezuela and keeping its oil.” Rendón retorted that Petro acted “more like an ambassador and spokesman for the narco-dictatorship of his ally Maduro and its criminal structures, than as the representative of millions of Colombians.”

Qué irresponsabilidad la suya Presidente @petrogustavo. Es sabido que le quedó grande gobernar, pero disimule y preocúpese por combatir a Mordisco, Calarcá, Clan de Golfo y cuanto bandido con el que está negociando. Son criminales peligrosos para el pueblo colombiano: desplazan,… pic.twitter.com/X2YvuMd55P

— Andrés Julián (@AndresJRendonC) September 26, 2025

Math professor and former mayor of Medellín and governor of Antioquia, Sergio Fajardo, called Petro’s words “lamentable.”

“President Petro’s performance at the United Nations General Assembly was, once again, lamentable. Trapped in his personal demons and delusions, instead of acting rationally in the country’s interests, the president reiterated his childish confrontation with Trump. Petro stopped governing a while ago and dedicated himself to campaigning, faithful to his anything-goes philosophy. The chaos grows day by day. He will leave, and we will all pay the bill. And what’s missing,” Fajardo tweeted on X.

El espectáculo del presidente Petro en la asamblea general de las naciones unidas fue, de nuevo, lamentable. Atrapado en sus demonios y delirios personales, en lugar de actuar racionalmente en función de los intereses del país, el presidente reiteró su infantil enfrentamiento con…

— Sergio Fajardo (@sergio_fajardo) September 24, 2025

Current senator and aspirant to the 2026 presidential elections, Paloma Valencia, said that Gustavo Petro has surrendered Colombia to violent actors. He has done nothing against drugs. Under him, Colombia has seen its lowest seizures in 12 years, homicides have increased by 8%, kidnappings have doubled, and extortion has skyrocketed. He has handed over the territory to the violent.”

Administration Defends “Disruptive” Speech

Members of Petro’s cabinet staunchly defended his address. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti praised the president’s words as a “courageous and historic intervention with a lot of dignity,” arguing that few leaders have the moral authority to speak so candidly.

Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio stated that Petro’s speech was “disruptive in the sense that he has said what many people think but do not dare to say.” She highlighted his critiques of migration policies that criminalize migrants and his call for a new approach to the global drug problem that addresses consumer countries’ roles.

Ex-Diplomat Warns of “Explosive” Consequences

Providing a more measured analysis, former Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo described Petro’s declarations as “quite explosive” in an interview with BLU Radio. While acknowledging the president’s apparent frustration near the end of his term, Murillo warned that such a stance “strains the relationship with the United States a great deal.”

Murillo emphasized the need for pragmatism in a volatile global environment, noting that a country’s capacity for maneuver is more critical than being right. “Colombia has to be very pragmatic in managing its relations with the United States,” he urged, pointing to the deep historical, economic, and social ties between the two nations. He suggested the speech could have been an opportunity to evaluate progress on his administration’s established foreign policy goals rather than seeking to assign blame.

The former chancellor also found the public discussion on the nature of Tren de Aragua unhelpful, arguing that such matters are best handled through technical and intelligence channels. The fallout from the speech continues to unfold, leaving Colombia’s political landscape deeply divided and its foreign policy at a critical juncture.

Petro’s full, translated UN speeches follow:

New York, September 23, 2025

Mr. Speaker, this is my last speech as President here. It’s already my fourth. In my first, I announced to the Assembly that a conflict could very well break out alongside Ukraine in Palestine. I called for a peace conference.

Those of us without bombs or big budgets are not heard here, but four years later, today, the horrific situation in Palestine led me to think that the same thing, or almost the same thing, could happen in the Colombian Caribbean, when they throw missiles at unarmed young people in the sea.

So now we are facing a different situation, perhaps more global. The barbarism today is global; today it falls upon all of humanity. The missiles targeted 17 unarmed young people in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, perhaps some Colombians. The persecution, imprisonment, chaining, and expulsion of millions of migrants. The missiles that fall on the 70,000 people in Gaza and kill them.

The lack of action on the climate crisis, whose words are being erased at Trump’s orders, is linked to and responds to the same cause. Migration is an excuse for a rich, white, racist society to believe itself a superior race and ignore the fact that its leaders are leading it, along with all of humanity, to the abyss of its own extinction.

They say the missiles in the Caribbean were to stop drugs. That’s a lie. Said here, on this very spot, in 2023 and 2024, were the years in which the most cocaine was seized, and more than 700 drug lords were extradited to the United States and Europe. I extradited them, and my government seized the cocaine.

And we didn’t fire a single missile or kill any young people. These were years in which I proved that voluntary substitution with coca leaf crops is more effective than forcibly eradicating them with glyphosate and using force on Colombia’s poor farmers. I replaced the failed and violent war on drugs with an effective anti-drug policy, which is different from confusing the dead substance with the greedy person.

But they need violence to dominate Colombia and Latin America. They need to destroy dialogue and impose and launch deadly missiles on poor young people in the Caribbean. Anti-drug policy is not about stopping cocaine from reaching the United States.

Anti-drug policy is intended to dominate the people of the South in general. It doesn’t focus on drugs; it focuses on power and domination. That’s why I speak before you as a president deserted by President Trump himself, without any right to do so, neither human nor divine, and without any mental reason.

They want to violate and coerce tens of thousands of farmers from the United States government, which is influenced by powerful Colombian mafia politicians.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombian peasants have been massacred, just as children are massacred in Gaza.

The massacres in Colombia were carried out by politicians who were senators, presidents, and ministers, linked to and bribed by the Colombian drug mafia.

At once allied with the far right in Florida, in the United States, and now allied with the Trump administration, allies for decades with the cocaine drug lords in Colombia—true scumbags, as the Italians say.

Anti-drug policy is made in Washington, United States, by allies of the cocaine mafia. I don’t know if Trump knows that his foreign policy toward Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean is advised by Colombians who are political allies of the cocaine mafia.

I myself denounced these drug-trafficking paramilitary politicians personally, and for a decade in Congress as a senator. They tried to kill me many times for it. They wanted me not to be president and to keep me quiet, and now they want to prevent a new progressive government from continuing. And because of that, they almost denigrate me personally and slander Colombia.

The largest amount of cocaine in the history of the world has been seized in Colombia, and this government did it, and they’re making me a desert.

In Colombia, we have managed to stop the growth rate, the growth rate of coca leaf crops, which was 43% annually during the government of (President Iván) Duque, and I have lowered it this year to 3%, and they did not desertify Duque, who had a drug trafficker financier in his campaign, but they did desertify Petro, because he says things and says the truth.

Therefore, anti-drug policy is not for the public health of society but for the politics of power. They don’t want light to shine in Latin America and for the time of the people to come again. The young people killed by missiles in the Caribbean were not from the Aragua train—perhaps no one here knows its name—or from Hamas; they were Caribbean, possibly Colombian.

And if they were Colombians, with the apologies of those who dominate the United Nations, criminal proceedings should be opened against those officials who are from the United States, even if the highest-ranking official who gave the order, President Trump, who allowed the missiles to be fired at young people who simply wanted to escape poverty, is included. Young people on a boat, if they had an illicit cargo, weren’t drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option.

Drug traffickers live somewhere else, not in Latin America. Trump launches missiles at unarmed boats of immigrants and accuses them of being drug traffickers and terrorists, even though they don’t have a single weapon to defend themselves. Drug traffickers live in New York, right here, just a few blocks away, and in Miami.

And they make agreements with the (Drug Enforcement Administration) DEA, which allows them to traffic in Africa, Europe, Russia or China but not in the United States, a country that stops the growth of cocaine consumption without reducing it, only because its sick drug addicts went –and are sick– to consume the deadly drug of humanity’s counterculture in times of extinction due to the climate crisis, fentanyl.

This fentanyl is produced in the United States’ industrial apparatus, here, near here, and for consumers, it’s American self-consumption, resulting in the worst understanding of drugs in human history since we first knew wine, alcohol, or beer.

Fentanyl and gasoline addicts: the total poisons of life in the world. Gasoline is worse than fentanyl.

Only the Black people here, ancestral here, more than 20,000 years old, the youth, the women who don’t want to see their children die en masse; white, Black, of all colors who still think, people who still think, who don’t sleep under fentanyl or under lying television, and who can stop the tyranny within the United States itself.

And around the world, citizens are taking to the streets in California, in New York, in Philadelphia, where the bell of liberty was rung despite the armies Trump sends against his own people to intimidate them, in the states of free citizens, in the same states that are no longer united today in the face of the tyranny of evil, of the worst kind, the president of the United States.

Don’t they see that a million Latin Americans have been murdered among themselves, the majority of them Colombians? And another million Americans will die from fentanyl.

Ten years ago, cocaine killed 3,000 people a year in this country, due to poisons mixed with it. Today, fentanyl kills 100,033 times more. The United States has improved—or worsened—with 50 years of absurd policies, and is leading its society to the Dantesque death of the drug that kills the brain and lungs in this death of humanity.

Genocide in Gaza

Trump not only lets missiles fall on young people in the Caribbean, but also imprisons and chains migrants, and allows missiles to be launched at young children, women, and the elderly in Gaza. He makes himself complicit in genocide because it is genocide, and we must shout it out again and again.

This building is a silent witness, and an accomplice, to a genocide in today’s world. When we thought it was Hitler’s sole property, Trump doesn’t talk about democracy, he doesn’t talk about the climate crisis, he doesn’t talk about life; he only threatens and kills, and allows tens of thousands to be killed.

However, during my administration in Colombia, we haven’t increased the homicide rate. We have the lowest unemployment rate of the century in the country, we have the lowest poverty rate of the century according to our statistics, and we boosted our agriculture to 10% annual growth, and our industry to 5% annually, and tourists came like never before, by the millions, to admire our immense beauty.

In a land of beauty and natural, human, and cultural diversity, we seek peace by talking with drug traffickers and rebels. I’m not ashamed to talk, always talking to save lives, putting as a principle the total eradication of illicit economies and the eradication of coca leaf crops by the very will of the peasants who are tired of the violence.

We don’t allow ourselves to be bribed by drug traffickers, as happened under previous Colombian governments, and we’ve already voluntarily eradicated 25,000 hectares. We’re successful in our new policy, which isn’t about drugs, but rather about drug trafficking, which is different.

We are grateful to the countries that have helped us sow peace: Qatar, Cuba, Mexico, the Vatican City, Norway, Brazil, and Venezuela. We are not grateful to those who want to lead us to war among ourselves.

Listen, ladies and gentlemen of the world, Latin America is not just about cocaine, terrorists, or drug traffickers. Latin America potentially has 1,400 gigabytes of clean electric energy capacity annually based on water, wind, and the sun. The United States, in the north, demands 1,200 gigabytes of energy every year, which today is 70% fossil fuels, that is, based on coal, gas, and oil.

If Latin America develops its clean energy potential, it could clean up the entire United States’ fossil energy mix. Listen, all that’s missing is the money, and it would make the greatest contribution to overcoming the climate crisis.

Today, with almost no progress between the potential for clean energy and the enormous absorbent sponge of the Amazon rainforest, Latin America is the vanguard of humanity that could take the first decisive step toward saving the planet and all humanity. It only takes $600 billion to develop its potential.

Africa can do the same with Europe. The sum of this fundamental decarbonization aspect would give us $1 trillion 200 billion—or $1.2 trillion USD, as they say in English. This money is already in the coffers of the United States, Europe, and China, but not a single dollar is moving profitably.

Or worse, it may still be very profitable in terms of human life, including life in the United States, Europe, and China, but they don’t want to become interdependent with Latin America and Africa. They know that linking clean energy from Latin America and Africa to the fossil fuel economies of the North not only decarbonizes the planet and saves it from climate collapse, but also shifts global power.

The one who speaks here sometimes, but speaks every day, is doing so with bombs and not with words. Decarbonization is returning, a global democracy is returning to power, and the relations of production are changing, because life and humanity come first, taking priority over greed.

Greed is the poison of life; it is an antagonistic contradiction, as Mao Zedong (Chinese politician, philosopher, intellectual, military strategist, founder of the Communist Party and the Republic of China) once said, but not thinking about bosses and workers, but between greed and the very life of planet Earth.

According to science, we have 10 years to reach the point of no return. 10 years, and once we reach that point, nothing can be done. We will only observe the catastrophes and feel them, even in our own families, because it will be, because it will be, if you can tell me, irreversible, the extinction of life, including human life.

Irreversibility of the process, no technology, no political or social force, no human mind will be able to do anything to stop the collapse and we have 10 years left, says science, but here they don’t believe in science, said one of the most powerful in the world, they don’t believe in science and that is called irrationalism and Germany, the country of great philosophers, of Feuerbach, of Hegel, of Kant, was philosophically filled with irrationalism.

And today, the United States is being filled with irrationalism, and it was the prelude to Hitler in 1933.

The solution is to stop consuming coal, oil, gas, hydrocarbons, and quickly move to water, sun, green hydrogen, wind, but the word decarbonization now sounds subversive at the conferences of powerful groups of countries, the G7, the G20, and in Davos (Switzerland), the mega-rich, just as the word democracy sounded subversive five centuries ago.

Investing in decarbonization

Even here, in New York, Cartagena, Bogotá, or Paris, and even more so in Madrid, the sums I’m talking about here—$600 billion, $1 trillion, $200 billion—are one or two zeros higher than the amount promised by developed countries.

Giving and it’s alms and they haven’t complied since the COP in Paris, because they’re not interested in decarbonization and the excessive figure on the meager loans from multilateral banks is between zeros, which are just that, pure innocuous alms, pure ideology thinking that the profitability of capital cleans the atmosphere and saves lives, lies, ideological, phantasmagorical, fetishes so that we don’t look up and don’t act as humanity.

The climate crisis requires prioritizing investment in decarbonization and adaptation in all public budgets. It requires a completely different global financial policy and the abolition of the debt risk premium.

Whoever said that countries that emit the most greenhouse gases, like this one, the second or first on Earth, are risky rather than not risky, and that countries that absorb CO2 and have jungles and lots of water and absorb CO2 from the north in the south are risky, because the market says otherwise, if not, it is because it is wrong and is heading towards the abyss of life.

We need to forgive debt in the poorest countries and exchange foreign debt payments for investment in climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. Gentlemen of China, Germany, the United States, Wall Street, Paris, and the London Stock Exchange, if you want to collect the interest on our countries’ foreign debt, you will find cemeteries and dead bodies, and when you go to collect it, you too will find cemeteries and dead bodies. That money is of no use amidst corpses.

Here is another subversive word: plan, global plan. The word was forgotten by the market. Planning was not necessary, they said. When planning is for human beings, it is anathema. So much religious and false belief was unleashed on the market, a fundamentalist belief that the market led to happiness, said Walras, the Swiss economist, and the abyss.

But what the market leads to is not happiness, but death and the abyss, as we see it today. Walras was wrong, neoliberalism was wrong from the start, and we’ve been guiding our countries for 50 years under completely erratic and unscientific formulas, and we haven’t changed them.

The plan must be binding on nation states, carried out in a global democracy, supervised in its compliance by the Security Council, without veto, because let us know that the market does not solve the climate crisis, let us know it once and for all, because it was capital itself that produced it – which is an unequal human relationship between those who are the owners of the coal and oil-hungry machine and the salaried worker, man or woman, who has to produce more and more things for the boss to sell – those things made with the boss’s machine that needs more and more oil, which produced the climate crisis.

Make more, sell more, earn more, more and more, and use more and more, then, coal and oil until today, but not until eternity, because oil and coal have reached their end, which, perhaps, is the end of capital. If not of capital, then of humanity and life.

So, the owner of capital is a powerful human being, and he’s not a thing, he’s not a fetish. That human being, with his greed, with his total enslavement to greed, is the one who will seek approval here, the search for ever more oil, the search for ever more oil in every country, regardless of the poisoning of the atmosphere with CO2, which is the poisoning of all life on the planet.

Drill, drill, and drill, they say, without mercy. So, capital or life, my friends, or greed or life, or barbarism or local and global democracy, or freedom or death, as Bolívar said, and raised this red, black, and also white flag: freedom, red, death, black, white, peace.

World Revolution

A global revolution of the people is possible. What is needed to positively overcome the climate crisis and prevent it from spiraling from crisis to global collapse is a revolution of united peoples, of civilizations, who must engage in dialogue more than the states themselves. It is a revolution of humanity to remain alive on the planet and free, perhaps, allied with some governments that want to defend life today.

The United Nations sees its crisis and the need for its transformation. Here, nation-states that no longer have power gather, and no matter how much they vote, they are ignored, because the nation-state has also reached its decline, perhaps its final one.

It was invented some centuries ago and it no longer works, and it no longer works because capital itself became global, not state-based. The socialism of (Joseph) Stalin (Soviet politician, military man, revolutionary, and dictator) should have become global and not state-based, but Stalin did not have the understanding for it and believed more in the tribe and condemned in Yalta a world revolution in Spain, in Italy, in Greece, and perhaps it would have been Latin America and others.

Humanity is the new political subject that appears, not the nation-state, and therefore, the United Nations must return and transform into a united, although diverse, humanity. A new political subject is appearing in human history, and it is important, and it seems spectacular to me, and it is that we are overcoming the idea of ​​the nation-state to become humanity.

But for humanity to be united and united in action, it must have democracy throughout the world; it must have permanent dialogue amidst diversity. It is the difference that drives us to the possibility of effective coordination of action on a global scale—humanity in dialogue.

Yes, civil humanity, yes, profoundly democratic humanity, yes, hopefully, a humanity of free people, which is its definition, its synonym, because there can be no such thing as enslaved humanity. Enslaved humanity is not humanity; it is beastly. Beastly is the one who enslaves, chains migrants, launches missiles at young people, and riddles children with missiles in a town very close to where Jesus was born.

This can no longer be resolved by states that talk but don’t act; it can’t be resolved by rulers bribed by oil and ready to launch missiles at the peoples of the South. A new political entity then emerges: humanity united and diverse in its cultures. While collapse approaches, and while the old, white societies of Europe and the United States continue to applaud their new, fashionable Hitlers, they listen neither to their youth, nor to their children, nor to humanity, nor to the stars, nor to their grandparents who died as heroes in the fields of Europe, truly fighting against Hitler and his criminal idea of ​​a superior race.

Today, they do the same thing Hitler did: they build concentration camps for migrants and applaud electoral majorities, saying migrants are an inferior race, collectivizing blame on them, as they did with the Jews, calling them terrorists, inferior, and thieves—all drug traffickers, they say. When most drug traffickers are blond and blue-eyed, and keep their enormous fortunes in the world’s largest banks, they don’t live in Bogotá, Caracas, the Caribbean, or Gaza, but in Miami, they are neighbors of the President of the United States, and they live in New York, Paris, Madrid, and Dubai. They live where there is luxury, not poverty, yet they fire missiles where there is poverty, not where there is luxury. It’s a lie that the Aragua train is a terrorist organization; they’re just common criminals in the form of a gang, swelled by the stupid idea of ​​blockading Venezuela and seizing its heavy, already poisonous oil.

Migrants are not criminals; they don’t need to be taken to concentration camps and expelled in chains. Migration is merely a product of the blockade against poorer countries like Iraq, Iran, Cuba, or Venezuela. The economic blockade is nothing less than genocide.

Migration is nothing more than the product of the impoverishment of the poorest countries due to unpayable and greedy debt. Migration is nothing more than the consequence of the wars and oil-fueled invasions unleashed by the United States and the European continent. Migration is nothing more than the consequence of the climate crisis, which is heading toward collapse and leaving tropical lands without water because the vital liquid evaporates as the heat increases.

The migration solution is nothing other than, or very different from, chains, prisons, or missiles. There is no superior race, gentlemen. There is no God’s chosen people.

Neither the United States nor Israel. Ignorant far-right fundamentalists think this way. God’s chosen people are all of humanity.

They use migration as an excuse to do nothing about the climate crisis that wipes out life every day. They leverage migration to win votes from whites and older men and women, but they hide the need to end coal and oil consumption from power, and they incentivize drilling and drilling and drilling. The UN needs to change now.

A different, humane UN must first and foremost stop the genocide in Gaza. Humanity cannot allow another day of genocide, nor can it allow Netanyahu’s genocidaires and his allies in the United States and Europe to go free. The United Nations must uphold international courts of justice, international law, which is the foundation of civilization and the wisdom of humanity encapsulated in history, and must enforce the judgment of its justice.

Diplomacy has already played its part, gentlemen, in the case of Gaza. It couldn’t solve it. It’s not true, and I apologize, Macron, that we can insist and insist on talking and talking when every second a missile falls and destroys the bodies of innocent babies, baby boys and baby girls, in the Arab country of Palestine.

Every day, emotions are vetoed in the UN Security Council; every day that passes, more children are bombed, every time you take bombs, every time you take dead people. The one who vetoes what he thinks is not a mother, is not a father, is not alive, perhaps comes from dark forces, is a robot because he has no heart to veto. The genocide must stop with what follows diplomacy.

It’s like a vote of the United Nations Assembly, not a vote of the Security Council, which vetoes. It’s like a United for Peace for Palestine, forming an armed force to defend the lives of the Palestinian people. It’s about words and weapons today.

They are not blue helmets, untrained and sometimes unwilling to do what they need. They are a powerful army of countries that do not accept genocide. Therefore, I invite the nations of the world and their peoples above all, as part of humanity, to unite their armies and weapons.

Palestine must be liberated. I invite the armies of Asia, of the Slavic peoples who so heroically defeated Hitler, the Latin American armies of Bolívar, of Garibaldi, who also had one in Italy, of Martí, of Artigas, of Santa Cruz. Words are no longer necessary in Bolívar’s hour of the sword of freedom or death, because they will not only bomb Gaza, not only the Caribbean, as they already do, but also humanity that cries out for freedom, because from Washington and NATO, they are killing democracy and reviving tyranny and totalitarianism on a global level.

We must raise the red and black flag of freedom or death that Bolívar raised, without forgetting the white color he raised alongside the red and black, the color of peace as hope for life on earth and in the heart of humanity. The United States no longer teaches democracy; instead, it kills it with its migrants and its greed. The United States teaches tyranny.

The UN must begin its change by stopping the genocide in Gaza with the effectiveness of a world-saving army, voted on by the United Nations General Assembly without veto. After saving Gaza, we will move on to the plan to decarbonize the planet’s economy, so that it becomes a democratically constructed global project and establishes global democracy. The body overseeing its rapid implementation will be the Security Council, but without vetoes. It will be binding on the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private financial system, given the enormous capacity of the national and global financial system to centralize capital. It is from there that humanity can regulate capital to subordinate it to life and humanity—a capital regulated and subordinated to life and people.

Along this path, the United Nations will transition from an alliance of states to an alliance of diverse peoples and cultures that make up humanity. If we overcome the climate crisis, and we will only do so united as humanity, we will also achieve the United Nations’ transition toward an assembly of peoples, seeking to ensure that every person on the planet is free, seeking to ensure that the minds of every person reach their full potential and interconnect on the planet, because that great mind of humanity, as a powerful intelligence, illuminated by ever-deepening science, will be able not only to save life on the planet but also to fulfill humanity’s mission, expanding life to the stars. A united and free humanity can look to the stars and reach them, just as the Roman legionaries once thought, back when they invented the Latin words ad astra, ad astra to the stars, always in the hour of freedom or death. And death in missiles is real, but so is freedom in the human heart and its capacity for unity, rebellion, and existence.

Thank you very much.

New York (United States), September 24, 2025

Let’s say that, listening to (US President Donald) Trump’s speech yesterday, I remembered an old writer, from the 20th century, who died in 1971, his name was Gyorgy Lukács. Gyorgy was Hungarian and had been involved in the Hungarian revolution back in the 1920s. And he went through, like all intellectuals of that time, Nazi persecution.

And in 1954, he wrote a book called ‘The Assault on Reason.’ I was just talking about it with economist Jeffrey Sachs, who’s here too. Greetings to Joseph Stiglitz.

‘The assault on reason’ is the intellectual idea of ​​writing about how a social thought evolves in society and in these Nazi configurations that existed before 1933, which gives way to the emergence of (Adolf) Hitler in 1933, how some liberals of the Weimar Republic (a German city) decide to hand over power to him, because Hitler was never a majority or was not an electoral majority at that time, the electoral majority was social democrat and communist, divided and killing each other.

The Social Democrats of that time also shot Rosa Luxemburg in the 1920s; later, that division led to the rise of Hitler, but in addition to the political circumstances, there was also a mental circumstance in society, a kind of impotence in allowing irrationalism to take over the intellectual space in a country like Germany, which boasted of having the best philosophers in the world.

Last night, well yesterday, what I saw was that very thing.

In Trump’s speech, and I’ve asked many American citizens I’ve met here, what is the state of American society? Well, we know ours, but here, in a relatively libertarian city like New York, the center of enormous struggles in the past and still today, or California, etc., because if American society moves toward irrationalism, which is what Trump called for, not science, not reason, the assault on reason, then we are in circumstances predating widespread barbarism.

And in light of that, let’s say, if one goes back and looks at these totalitarian proposals throughout history, they have almost always been based on two axes: people’s fear and lies.

(Joseph) Goebbels is a lie. Today, the media is in the hands of big capital, a lie about the possibility of a much more brutal, much more brutal Artificial Intelligence, in terms of information manipulation. If knowledge, which they call the cloud, which is the general intellect of humanity throughout history accumulated here in the present, is privatized—and there’s a reason Trump was on his inauguration day alongside Mr. Elon Musk and the owner of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), Microsoft (Bill Gates), etc.—then there’s a pending discussion here, which is global: Will there be private owners of the cloud, that is, of humanity’s accumulated intellect, digitized? Or will it be a global public domain? And that’s a first point of discussion that, I think, Europe can help us a lot with, more than we ourselves, who haven’t developed this topic much.

But this issue of lies and truth is a battlefield today, and we must give truth its weapons, and this means putting science on the side, reason on the side of unreason, and the battle has concrete instruments, debates, concrete spaces, and concrete forces.

The other part is fear.

The fears of humanity

What are you afraid of today? I’m going to finish, I’m already here finishing. Chileans are more disciplined than Colombians, aren’t they? We dance better, so we’re wasting time. We’re going to invite (former Chilean President Michelle) Bachelet to dance here at the United Nations, hopefully at the General Secretariat, wherever they invite us.

We have to go in strong, or else… That’s why I proposed an army to save the world, but so far, Indonesia has responded with a significant yes. We also need to talk about that. Because I learned in my youth that human beings aren’t understood through words alone, and especially now.

So, what fears?

I summarize the fears in three major fears, and they are not the only ones: fear of the climate crisis, it is evident, it is seen every day, even if you deny it, it appears.

There’s no need to explain it much, and it’s only going to get worse. From what we know from science, we’re approaching collapse, and that’s scary, scary to die, scary that your children will die.

Any woman in New York with children will be afraid. Overcoming the crisis allows us to avoid generating fear, and then we would have an alliance within humanity, but if humanity allows itself to be overcome by fear of the climate crisis and, above all, by what we propose to solve it. I’ll conclude.

We propose, in a way, as it’s read or as it can be manipulated, to put an end to comfort, and these are comfort societies. Europe, the Latin American middle classes, and the United States, comfort.

We’re going to get rid of the car, we’re going to get rid of the sooty house, we’re going to get rid of gasoline-powered transportation, etc. We’re going to get rid of everything made with oil, and almost everything is made with oil.

So, the world of wellness is carbonized. When we talk about decarbonization, it’s equivalent to taking away the world of wellness, and obviously, this implies a different discourse, because how comfort can be created with decarbonization, how art can be comfort, and so on—well, I won’t go into that further due to time.

The other fear is the fear of women. And the third fear is the fear of migrants. Fear of free women.

Oh, yes! The men I’ve seen around Colombia are, many of them, terrified of seeing a woman, per se, beautiful and intelligent; they’re overwhelmed. They like to see her beautiful, but not intelligent enough to dominate her.

But when beauty—and I’m not referring to the beauty imposed on us, but to the beauty that each human being has in their own spirit when they express it—combines intelligence, then the loss of power, which they have had for millennia, frightens man.

And that loss of power drives man to the extreme right. And that’s another of humanity’s fears.

And the third is the migrant.

A major current debate. The discussion about migrants has overshadowed the discussion of the climate crisis and has been premeditated, because the discussion about migrants brings in votes in racist societies, and many and majorities. And so, the left, progressivism, has clung to the need to win a majority.

It makes sense, but in racist societies, it sometimes involves bending the principles that say we are equal, free, and united.

So, a progressive discourse in Europe, especially—Pedro (Sánchez, President of the Spanish Government)—has to be very careful, right? It has to confront racism, not coexist with it, that is, an anti-immigrant policy, the same in the United States, the same in Colombia, because we have strong migrations, the same as (Chilean President Gabriel) Boric in Chile, excuse the discussion, and everywhere that grants rights to migrants.

He’s a human being, and every human being is subject to rights everywhere in the world, regardless of their skin color, and regardless of the racist reaction, even the majority of a society, progressivism must be there. Boric, excuse me.

Perhaps power is discussed in Europe not only with the ballot boxes, where only whites, Aryans, go, because the others don’t have the right to go to the polls, but also on the street.

That’s why we see massive European mobilizations and progressive defeats at the ballot box. If we combine the two: the streets and the ballot boxes in a political strategy, we unite the majority of the diverse European people, or the diverse people here in New York, or people everywhere in the world, and progressivism once again becomes the majority and, therefore, powerful.

I’ll leave these thoughts here. I went a little too far, Boric, but excuse me.

Video of the Colombian President’s speech. Video credit Colombian Presidency.

Though Petro has cycled through ministers, Francia Marquez was popularly elected and cannot be removed from office by the President, though he can, and has removed her responsibilities, such as her appointment to the newly created “Ministry of Equality.”

“We are wanted in the photo but not in decision making. We are wanted as a symbol, but not as a people with a voice.”

In an emotional speech on July 25^th, Marquez “canto la tabla” as is said in Spanish, in other words, give someone a “severe talking to” as she denounced what she says is the mendacity, hypocrisy, and bigotry of Petro and his administration.

“We are wanted in the photo but not in decision making. We are wanted as a symbol, but not as a people with a voice. We are wanted to be obedient and if we do not obey, then comes punishment, political violence, cancellation and public dehumanization,” said Marquez, in Spanish, giving a speech in Cali, near her home turf of the Colombian Cauca department.

The vice president spoke at an international women’s event called “Juntas por la Restauración de Nuestra Dignidad” (Together for the Restoration of Our Dignity) held at the Universidad Libre, or Free University of Cali. Marquez stated that she has held her tongue for a long time, but she had to speak in her defense after political rivals close to Petro have called her arrogant and a traitor.

“…But I soon went from being the political phenomenon, the heroine, to being the traitor. Because in this country, when a woman rises, suspicion follows her. The system does not ask about her abilities, but rather whether she is in the place she deserves. If she steps outside the assigned margin, then she is arrogant, disloyal, clumsy, incapable and dangerous.”

Marques also referred to the controversy surrounding her time leading the Ministry of Equality, where she has been denounced for a perceived lack of execution in setting up the new ministry or executing against its mandate.

“From the campaign until today, I have experienced many episodes of delegitimization, sabotage and exclusion. I will tell you just a few. I was given the mission of creating an institution with no structure, no resources, no support. They told me ‘do it yourself.’ And when I argued that three vice ministries were too many, they demanded [I appoint] five. And I did it despite the systematic blockade. They accuse me of not executing, when they never gave me the instrument to do so.” In this case, Marquez is referring to the President’s inner circle wanting her to appoint vice ministers of their choice as sinecures, irrespective of need or capability.

Gustavo Petro, with the appointment of Francia Marquez as his running mate, tried to position himself as a racial progressive in Colombia, a country with a complex social fabric that struggles to overcome classism, regionalism, and political polarization, along with ethnicity. However, his treatment of Marquez along with many bigoted statements he has made during his term, arguably have exposed him as disingenuous at best, and one could make the case, racist.

“No one who is black can tell me!”

President Petro insisted upon the appointment of porn stars Alejandra Umaña (Amaranta Hank) and Juan Carlos Florián to political positions, which Marquez opposed on the grounds of their lack of qualification. Petro angrily responded in a televised ministerial meeting saying “No one who is black can tell me that a porn actor who created the sex workers’ union should be excluded,” not explaining why a black person would be excluded from having an opinion on the topic, as opposed to anyone else.

Then Foreign Minister Murillo (left) with Petro in better days between the two, earlier this year.

Petro’s former foreign minister says comments are “unacceptable”

The bigoted statement drew a rebuke from Petro’s former foreign minister, former ambassador to the US, and former governor of Chocó, Luís Gilberto Murillo, who said: “Do not say that ‘I don’t accept that a black tells me such and such a thing,’ because that racializes the discourse in Colombia, and even worse when it comes from the presidency of Colombia. It’s unacceptable, because we need to advance this inclusive nation.”

Petro, along with his penchant for calling people who disagree with him “neonazis,” has also made racist comments against people with a white phenotype such as US President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macrón. Facing Macrón in a conference earlier this month, Petro said “It’s easier to win votes with a lie and a fetish, saying that life will be better if we expel those who don’t have the same skin color, language, or religion…”to which Macrón shot back: “I never lecture someone from the South, and it’s a little strange to be lectured by someone from the South, just because they come from the South!”

French President Emmanuel Macrón Rebukes Petro in Spain

Petro seems to fancy himself an orator and leader of what some call the “Global South” but no one seems willing to follow him. In his own country, support hovers around 26-30% according to recent polls, and his frequent verbal gaffes are constant fodder for jokes and internet memes. Winning his election by a tight mandate against an ailing outsider candidate who died a few months later, Petro constantly refers to his “popular mandate” as if he has the support of the Colombian populace.

By appointing Francia Marquez, an Afrocolombian lawyer and community activist as his running mate, Petro, a leftist ex-guerilla, sought to define himself as progressive and inclusive. However, three years into his presidency, he and his political clique openly despise Marquez, excluding her from public events and important meetings. During the opening of this summer’s congressional session, she was excluded from the presidential entourage and had to make her own arrangements, as is her constitutional right, to attend the legislative session. Marquez is a nationally elected official, and as such, she does not owe fealty to the president and has the right to dissent. Still, Petro’s attitude towards her and others destroys whatever credibility he claims as a feminist and inclusive crusader for human rights.

As Yeison Mesa, leader of OSEMCO, told Bogota television channel CityTv, the protest stems from months of unfulfilled commitments and the lack of government response. The demands include the redesign of the agency’s organizational structure and the implementation of a decree allocating a budget for bonuses for workers.

The actions are in response to the government’s failure to implement measures promised last winter, such as hiring additional staff to meet the rise in air traffic.

Just before the current protest, workers carried out symbolic demonstrations, such as covering Migración Colombia offices and border posts with protest posters. While the unions insist that they are open to dialogue, they are pushing for long-overdue improvements to working conditions and the proper functioning of Colombia’s migration services and will keep the “plan tortuga” until the implementation of the agreements made with former Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.

The protest does not involve a full work stoppage. Instead, migration officers will continue their duties, such as stamping passports and verifying documents, but will strictly adhere to all formal protocols, significantly slowing the process. This tactic, commonly referred to in Colombia as a “plan tortuga,” is expected to generate long lines and extended wait times at international entry and exit points.

Airports expected to be most affected include El Dorado in Bogotá, José María Córdova in Rionegro (serving Medellín), and Alfonso Bonilla Aragón in Cali — Colombia’s busiest international terminals. The unions have urged travelers to arrive at least four hours early for their flights to account for the slowdowns. Meanwhile, Migración Colombia, the government agency overseeing migration procedures, echoed the advice through their social media platforms and website and encouraged passengers to remain informed through official channels.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also raised concerns, warning that the slowdown could harm airport efficiency and airline punctuality. In a statement, the organization urged passengers to use the BioMig system — an automated migration checkpoint for registered travelers — and to stay informed on flight status. The IATA also emphasized that airlines should not be held accountable for delays caused by labor disputes outside their control.

Headline photo: El Dorado Airport. (Photo: Carolina Cuervo)

She was released from her duties at DAPRE on January 20, when the government announced Jorge Rojas, previously deputy foreign minister, would be the new head of this office. The office of the Presidency announced her appointment as the new Foreign Minister the next day. Her responsibilities will officially begin on February 1st, but she is already working with the outgoing Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo to facilitate a smooth transition.

Murillo resigned in time to meet the legal requirements to run for political office in the next presidential election.

Murillo who has been dealing with exigencies like the passport printing contract scandal that removed former Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva, the tense relations with Israel after the Gaza Strip conflict began, and the decisions of the UK and Germany to reimpose visa obligations for Colombians due to abuses of the asylum process, resigned and will leave office next Friday—ostensibly to return to academia. It should be noted however, that Murillo, a former presidential candidate who ran against Petro, resigned in time to meet the legal requirements to run for political office in the next presidential election.

Sarabia has been an important figure in Petro’s government for the last two years serving as a key communication link between ministers and the president. Her position as Petro’s right hand of the President put her into the public eye in May 2023 when a bag with a large amount of money disappeared from her residence. She accused her domestic employee, Merelbys Meza, of taking the money and allegedly forced her to take a polygraph test, This is an open investigation that precipitated her removal from government for seven months, until she returned as the head of the DAPRE.

Her new position will come with some challenges. One of the first tasks she will have is to address the situation created the past Sunday between Petro and the United States President Donald Trump, after Petro denied the entry of two flights bringing back deportees from the US. The initial response from Washington was a package of sanctions against Colombian officials and increasing the tariffs to 50% for Colombian exports, Later the same day, the sanctions were reversed after Petro agreed to Trump’s demands, however, Sarabia will have to carefully manage the diplomatic fallout from the crisis.

Sarabia will also focus her attention on the relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, as President Petro proposes a unified position from the region against the political decisions made by Washington.

Headline photo: DAPRE Director Laura Sarabia is appointed as new Colombian Chancellor (Source: DAPRE official website)

The United Kingdom issued an order to implement the visa requisite for all Colombian travelers starting from November 26. This decision was taken by the UK government due to the “significant and sustained increase in Colombian nationals who have traveled to the UK for purposes that are not permitted under the Immigration Rules for Visitors, such as to live, work or claim asylum in the UK.”

As of mid-January, no visa measures have actually been imposed on British subjects.

The embassy revealed the latest statistics showing the trend related to the asylum requests “rising from 2, 4 and 7 in the first 3 quarters in 2022, to 105 in quarter 4 of 2022. There were 211, 176, 173 and 294 asylum claims in the 4 quarters of 2023, and there have been 227 and 241 asylum claims in the first 2 quarters of 2024. This compares to 19 asylum claims in 2019, 11 in 2020 and 6 in 2021. There have been more asylum claims per quarter in 2023 and 2024 than in the entire 10 years preceding the visa lift.”

Roy Barreras, Colombian ambassador for the UK recognized, in interview with El Tiempo, the problem created for those who abuse the asylum requests and create this unpleasant situation. “A minority of compatriots, as we have warned for months, abused the ease of visa-free travel and have harmed the majority with the irregular practice of applying for false asylum with false documents that have skyrocketed by thousands the applications for these irregular asylums in the United Kingdom.”

Si el Reino Unido ha restablecido la necesidad de visas para el pueblo colombiano, tengo que decir que por el principio de la reciprocidad, el gobierno colombiano pedirá visas a los y las ciudadanas británicas que quieran venir a Colombia https://t.co/btr4exz8ND

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 26, 2024

The move would likely hurt Colombia more than the UK

The announcement by Petro didn’t fit well with opposition senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, senator and presidential candidate for the Centro Democrático Party, criticizing the attitude of the government. According to him, the decision to request a visa from UK citizens will affect tourism activity and the investments in the country: “This will close the door to investors and hit hard the tourism industry.”

Another senator from the opposition party, Maria Fernanda Cabal, also criticized the decision to implement a visa for UK visitors. As Uribe Turbay, she blames Petro for his lack of capacity to govern. “He doesn’t build anything; he fights and isolates Colombia. How many fewer investors and tourists   due to this absurd measure?”

As of mid-January, no visa measures have actually been imposed on British subjects, according to both Colombia’s Foreign Relations Ministry and the British Embassy. Travelers are advised to contact appropriate government agencies for updated advice.

Headline photo: Colombian foreign minister Gilberto Murillo (left) discusses with the Colombian President Gustavo Petro (right). (Source: Chancellery web page)

Esto sucede a esta hora en el @BOG_ELDORADO en Migracion
Inaudito pic.twitter.com/Z6DQ0P2BRq

— JQ (@drjairoquintana) August 15, 2023

Over the past few years travelers entering Colombia have faced wait times of three to four hours at key airports, including Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport and José María Córdova Airport in Rionegro. These delays were the result of a critical shortage of personnel, leaving migration officers unable to process the increasing flow of passengers efficiently.

The problem escalated during peak travel seasons, exposing vulnerabilities in Colombia’s ability to manage its growing role as a tourist and business destination. The surge in tourism, celebrated as a sign of Colombia’s economic and cultural growth, placed additional pressure on already understaffed migration offices.

On December 3, 2024, the two main unions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs —the Union Nacional Sindical de Empleados de Migración Colombia y Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (UNASEMIG) and the Organización Sindical de Empleados de Migración Colombia (OSEMCO)— declared a strike. This protest, described as a “plan tortuga” or work slowdown, led to chaos at major airports and sparked widespread criticism. Travelers faced hours-long delays, prompting urgent intervention by government officials.

The unions cited unfulfilled promises made in 2023, when a decree added 123 new jobs to the migration workforce, leaving over 500 positions unaddressed. The unions also demanded better working conditions and technical training for employees, arguing that the current staffing levels were insufficient to handle the nation’s migration demands.

“Immigration officers are not even able to eat, they cannot go to the bathroom,” said Yeison Mesa, president of OSEMCO, to Blu Radio.

A Swift Response from the Foreign Ministry

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo acted quickly, meeting with union representatives to negotiate a resolution. During the discussions, they addressed the staffing shortage, technical capacity-building measures, and improvements in employee working conditions.

“The dialogue always will be the way forward,” said Murillo. In a X/Twitter post, he praised the role of migration officers, noting their contributions to controlling migratory flows and promoting tourism. “The growth of tourism has been significant in recent months, and it is thanks to the collective effort of everyone involved,” he added.

On December 5, 2024, the government issued a decree modifying previous legislation regarding Migration Colombia’s workforce. This decree officially created 544 new positions that are expected to avoid delays and improve the experience for both domestic and international travelers.

“The leaders of the two unions agreed to stop the protests after the meeting” expressed Martha Hernandez, Director of Migration Colombia, via Twitter/X.

The newly created jobs will begin integrating into the migration workforce in 2025. Officials anticipate that the added personnel will significantly reduce wait times at airports, improving operational efficiency and enhancing Colombia’s reputation as a welcoming travel destination.

Headline photo: El Dorado Airport. (Photo: Carolina Cuervo)

Never fall for scammers who try to charge you to apply for jobs. Applying for jobs in the US is always FREE.

As first announced by our colleagues at EmpleoBilingue.com, Interested workers must hurry, because the application window has already opened! 20,000 visas are reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica for the entirety of FY 2024. Citizens of other eligible countries may also apply under different allocations, see the table below for eligibility.

We reached out to our friends at the US State Department, and a US Embassy Bogotá spokesperson told us the following:

Every year, the United States welcomes thousands of foreign workers through the H-2B visa program to fill temporary, nonagricultural jobs in the United States.  This year, in line with the Biden Administration’s commitment to expand lawful pathways as an alternative to irregular migration, the H-2B visa program includes a special allotment of 20,000 visas for workers from seven countries, including Colombia.  H-2B visas are nonimmigrant visas that allow U.S. employers or agencies to temporarily employ foreign workers in the United States to fill urgent workforce demands.  U.S. businesses in industries such as hospitality, tourism, landscaping, seafood processing, and more rely on seasonal and temporary workers in the H2-B program to help them meet demand.  In order to apply for an H2-B visa, a U.S. employer or agency must petition for the workers they want to bring to the United States.  Only foreign workers whose petitions have been approved by the Department of Homeland Security can apply for an H-2B visa.  Because of this, anyone interested in applying for an H-2B visa must first search for U.S. companies seeking H-2B workers and contact the company to secure a job.  One useful database of seasonal and temporary job openings is https://seasonaljobs.dol.gov/

In addition to the H2-B program, thousands of Colombian university students visit the United States every summer as part of the Summer Work Travel and Camp Counselor programs.  Through these special exchanges, young Colombians work  at U.S. summer camps all over the country or as seasonal or temporary employees for U.S.-based companies.  On May 4, the U.S.  Embassy opened its doors to 1,000 Colombian university students applying for J-1 visas to participate.  For more information on how to apply for the summer work and travel program, please visit: https://j1visa.state.gov/programs/summer-work-travel#participants

Be sure to sign up to receive job alerts for bilingual opportunities at EmpleoBilingue.com

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, effective Nov. 9, 2023, nationals from the following countries are eligible to participate in the H-2B program:

Above photo: Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (Photo: Loren Moss)