Opinion piece by María Fernanda Cabal

Beyond the narrow results, Abelardo De La Espriella’s triumph restores our breath. Our democracy held firm. We closed this final stage of the campaign shaken by two opposing emotions: the anguish of an election violated by the Government, which kept the country in suspense, and the euphoria of a movement that found in “The Tiger” the leadership capable of restoring hope to Colombia.

The time has come to show our claws. The Tiger must put on his overalls, for the country Petro leaves behind is a field of ruins where complacency suffocated authority, institutions were dismantled, healthcare collapsed, investment fled in the face of overflowing public spending and improvisation, and the countryside was left at the mercy of crime.

In the meantime, Petrista leaders threaten to set the country ablaze. They, who preemptively refused to recognize the verdict of the ballot box, show clearly how little they value democracy and confirm that their vocation lies not in government offices, but in radical and vandalistic agitation. Petro did the same after Duque’s triumph.

We will not accept this new attempt to destabilize the country, much less ignore the popular will. The established institutions will be our definitive barrier. General Hugo López stated it well: Article 217 of our Constitution is imperative. The Military Forces have the non-negotiable mission of defending the constitutional order and sovereignty, above the whims of those currently in power, and even more so those who will have to relinquish it.

Faced with this landscape, the proposal of the now president-elect is pertinent: the country demands an accounting with a detailed inventory. Colombia requires a rigorous and implacable audit, given the latent fear that official records may be altered or destroyed before the current leader’s departure.

And with good reason. The chaos we inherit is a reality felt in every Colombian household. In healthcare, unable to impose his reform in Congress, Petro intervened in the largest health entities (EPS) and took control of the lives of 25 million Colombians. The result is clear: debts exceeding 32.5 trillion pesos, appointments that never arrive, scarce medications, suspended surgeries, and citizens condemned to filing legal petitions (tutelas) just to survive.

On the labor front, uncertainty and reforms imposed by force have scared off investment and destroyed the confidence of those who generate jobs. And in pensions—another of the ongoing reforms—the savings of a lifetime have been put at risk by a vision that prioritizes political control over the financial security of our elderly.

Undoubtedly, the worst was the so-called “total peace.” A great and costly lie to fulfill the commitment to those who signed the “La Picota Pact.”

Today, we count more than 300 massacres, 1,447 victims, 196 uniformed officers murdered, and more than 1,000 wounded. The ELN, the dissident groups of alias “Iván Mordisco,” and other criminal structures expanded their control over more than 370 municipalities. Extortion—that cursed “vaccine”—suffocates merchants, farmers, and entrepreneurs. And drug trafficking and illegal mining, strengthened by permissiveness, now finance new horrors: drones with explosives, rural terrorism, and armed social control.

And in the end, another bomb appears: the economic one. Petro leaves the country in the worst state of debt in its history, with overflowing public spending and empty coffers.

Think tanks like Anif have sounded the alarm by confirming that the central government’s net debt is around 58 to 60 percent of GDP, a level of debt not seen in the country since the end of the 19th century, following successive civil wars and with a nascent state.

The irrefutable proof that the State spends more than it collects is the primary deficit of the central national government, which multiplied almost 20 times in two years, going from 3.2 trillion pesos in 2023 to 63 trillion. The Treasury had to adjust the fiscal deficit to 5.3 percent of GDP. Total spending reached 431 trillion pesos, with 90 percent budgetary inflexibility due to spending being tied primarily to recurring expenditures such as salaries or service contracts (OPS).

In short: Abelardo inherits a State with no room to maneuver, no savings, and no oxygen.

This disaster is the result of an ideological delirium that preferred blatant theft, propaganda, speeches, and scandals over management.

That is why every entity, every ministry, and every fund must be audited, because we cannot build the future on the rubble of an administration that, until the very last minute, insisted on putting spokes in the wheels of progress.

Given the predictable obstruction during the transition, the campaign team must act immediately and use the petitions that, by law, our parliamentarians are entitled to. If there is no response within five days, proceedings for contempt will be initiated; let the country know who is trying to bypass justice to hide their ruins.

The Tiger’s first task will be to clean house to begin the reconstruction of Colombia. To this end, he has proposed an ambitious plan of 90 decrees that will take effect from the first day of his government as the cornerstone of his “Miracle Homeland” project. His commitment is to replace improvisation with efficiency, dismantle the ideological obstacles that paralyzed the State, and lay the foundations for a country where authority, security, and prosperity once again become the pillars of national development.

The era of improvisation has ended. Colombians have already done their part; now it is up to The Tiger to build the “Miracle Homeland.”