Colombia's newly inaugurated president, Abelardo de la Espriella, was confronted with a violent wake-up call on his very first day in office on Saturday, as two separate bombing attacks struck the country — leaving at least one police officer dead and several others wounded — forcing the hard-right leader to immediately test his campaign pledge to wage relentless war on armed groups.
Two bombings, hundreds of kilometres apart
In the early hours of Saturday, FARC guerrilla dissidents used explosives to destroy a highway tollbooth that was under construction on the Pan-American highway in the Santander de Quilichao municipality, near the southwestern city of Cali — where De la Espriella had just been inaugurated. Two security guards suffered minor injuries in the blast. Residents in the surrounding neighbourhood described widespread fear in the aftermath, with shattered windows and shards of glass left strewn across homes.
A local firefighter who lives near the site said the community was "on edge, very tense and nervous." A 68-year-old housewife whose bedroom windows were shattered by the force of the explosion said she felt "very nervous, very afraid."
The guerrillas responsible operate under the command of Ivan Morodisco, described as Colombia's most wanted guerrilla commander. Morodisco leads dissident fighters who broke away from the historic 2016 peace agreement between the FARC and the Colombian government — an accord that was meant to end decades of armed conflict.
Roughly 1,000 kilometres to the north, in the department of Cesar, a far more deadly attack unfolded in the early hours of Sunday when an explosive-equipped drone struck a police station, killing one officer. Authorities had not yet identified suspects as of the time of reporting.
De la Espriella's vow: no refuge, no leniency
The new president moved quickly to condemn both attacks, using social media to declare that "attacking the country's infrastructure is attacking progress." He issued a stark warning to those responsible: "There will be no refuge, no leniency and no impunity." On the Cesar drone strike, he pledged those behind it "will not go unpunished."
De la Espriella — a first-time political leader who openly admires US President Donald Trump and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele — campaigned on a platform of confronting what he called "narcoterrorism without truce" and scrapping peace negotiations with armed groups. He has promised to build mega-prisons modelled on Bukele's approach and to intensify aerial bombing campaigns against guerrilla factions and drug traffickers, with support from the United States and Israel.
US backing and a new regional alliance
Washington wasted no time in signalling its support. The US State Department announced on Saturday that President Trump intends to provide US $1 billion (approximately A$1.4 billion) in security assistance to De la Espriella's government, describing the funding as a "cornerstone of this renewed partnership" aimed at achieving "shared goals."
Trump had endorsed De la Espriella during the election campaign and has welcomed Colombia into the "Shield of the Americas" — a Trump-created military alliance of right-wing leaders committed to fighting drug trafficking. The alliance forms a central part of the Trump administration's broader strategy to expand US influence across Latin America.
A country still gripped by violence
De la Espriella takes office during what is described as the worst wave of violence Colombia has experienced in a decade. Despite the landmark 2016 peace accords, significant parts of the country remain under the effective control of dissident armed groups that continue to dominate global cocaine production.
The new president's confrontational style and zero-tolerance rhetoric will now be tested against deeply entrenched criminal and guerrilla networks that have proven resistant to both negotiation and military force for generations. The twin bombings on his inauguration day served as an early and brutal signal of the challenges ahead.
