President Gustavo Petro challenges elected leader Abelardo de la Espriella after he ordered the suspension of the transition process. “Are you scared?”, Petro asked on his social media.
The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, responded on Tuesday with a direct and challenging message to Abelardo de la Espriella's decision to suspend the government transition process. “Fear was shown by those who abandoned the transition because they had nothing to say and were going to be televised. Are you scared?”, the president wrote on his X account.
A truncated transition
Hours earlier, De la Espriella had ordered the halt of the transition, the formal process of power transfer between the outgoing and incoming government. The elected president justified the measure by stating that his priority is to “protect the interests of the Nation” and ensure a “serious and transparent” transition. In a statement, he accused Petro's administration of being “corrupt” and seeking to “destroy the country”.
The breakdown of the transition dialogue is unprecedented in Colombia's recent history and raises uncertainty about how the planned change of command in August will be carried out. De la Espriella's team had participated in technical meetings for weeks, but tensions escalated following mutual accusations.
The cross threats
Petro did not limit himself to questioning the suspension. In his message, he also issued a warning: “Touch a hair on me and you will meet the jaguars in Colombia and around the world.” The phrase refers to De la Espriella's claim that the current government is preparing a supposed coup d'état and his call for the security forces to disobey unconstitutional orders.
The outgoing president denied committing any crime and described his successor's intention to act as a judge as “dictatorial”. “What they want is to initiate a persecution against a group of civilians with political identity, and that is a crime against humanity,” Petro stated.
The international factor
The president also questioned the support that, according to him, De la Espriella has received from the United States. “An enemy of the Fatherland is one who was elected with foreign support and surrendered national sovereignty,” he concluded. This reference points to accusations of external interference in the Colombian electoral process, a recurring theme in Petro's rhetoric.
De la Espriella, for his part, has insisted that his duty is to “never legitimize the disaster or the disregard for constitutional order”. The verbal confrontation between the two leaders is unprecedented and worries political analysts, who warn of the risk of an institutional crisis.
For now, the transition remains suspended and there is no date to resume it. Meanwhile, Colombians are closely watching a duel that promises to shape the country's direction in the coming months.
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