Colombia's President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella speaks during a press conference in Bogota, Colombia, July 30, 2026.
John Vizcaino/AP
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia's new president will be sworn into office Friday amid tight security measures aimed at preventing protests and potential attacks by rebel groups.
Abelardo de la Espriella, an outspoken conservative who has been praised by President Trump, has promised to confront rebel groups in Colombia with greater military force while cutting government spending to reduce a budget deficit that doubled under outgoing President Gustavo Petro.
De la Espriella, a former criminal defense lawyer who ran as a political outsider, is breaking with tradition by holding his inauguration ceremony in Cali rather than the capital, Bogotá. The 48-year-old chose the southwestern city, which has been hit hard by drug violence and attacks from rebel groups, as the site of his swearing-in.
Some 11,000 troops have been deployed to the city to ensure the safety of the new president and the roughly dozen heads of state attending the inauguration.
Those expected to attend include Argentina's Javier Milei, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa and Chile's José Antonio Kast, alongside U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and King Felipe VI of Spain.
Drones have been banned, and privately owned vehicles will not be allowed on city roads during Inauguration Day.
"One of the fundamental priorities of my government will be to exert control of our territory," de la Espriella said in a speech earlier this week. "If we don't control our cities and our rural areas, this nation will lose its sovereignty."
Over the past four years, drug gangs and rebel groups linked to decades of political conflict in Colombia have become increasingly powerful in rural areas, where they extort local businesses and profit from activities such as illegal mining and the drug trade.
Petro, a progressive, attempted to negotiate peace agreements with many of these groups under a strategy known as "Total Peace". But critics say the strategy failed, with some armed groups using ceasefires granted by the government to rearm, regroup and expand their control over rural communities.
De la Espriella has said he will end peace talks with Colombia's rebel groups and confront them with greater military force.
The wealthy lawyer, who has never held elected office, supports a tougher approach to crime that includes building large prisons and using aerial spraying and drones to destroy illegal coca crops, a practice Colombia halted more than a decade ago because of environmental concerns.
Elizabeth Dickinson, a Colombia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that with de la Espriella, "the pendulum swings back to the right" after four years of a left-leaning administration that struggled to achieve results in negotiations with armed groups.
She said increased military pressure could help weaken rebel groups and encourage some fighters to demobilize, but completely ending the possibility of future talks could be counterproductive.
"We're talking about a conflict that has an estimated 27,000 individuals involved in different armed and criminal groups," Dickinson said. "These individuals will need a route back into normal life."