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Silicon Valley eschatology — 1: Awaiting the end times

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“It saddened me to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchwords, had attained its hopes, to come to this at last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the labourer of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed.

It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal in perfect harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals which must meet a vast variety of needs and dangers have a share of intelligence.”
H. G. Wells – The Time Machine

Last November, Peter Robinson, host of the Uncommon Knowledge program at the libertarian Hoover Institution, hosted Peter Thiel under the headline, “Apocalypse Now.”

In the broadcast, subtitled “Peter Thiel on ancient prophecies and modern technology,” the founder of Palantir is introduced as a “leading technology entrepreneur and thinker” and shares his “views on the end times, technology, and societal progress.”

Robinson, who once served as a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, asks Thiel, in a manner that feels like he is teeing him up, to explain why universities lack this “knowledge” as we head toward the “end times.”

Thiel responds:

“…I’ve put this in a number of other contexts, but my intuition is that there’s been a relative stagnation in many places. The over-specialization, the narrow experts telling you how great they are, it’s hiding a sort of decay where the cancer cell salesmen, the cancer researchers say they’re going to cure cancer in the next five years. And the string [theory] physicists say they’re the smartest physicists and they know everything. But maybe it’s this weird academic power game that’s blocking everybody else. Before you even get to the big question of history, there’s a question about the history of science and technology: Science and technology have progressed a lot. Maybe it’s progressing more slowly. Why did it change? What’s going on there?”

The conversation also turns to rationalism, and Thiel laments that scientists like Bacon no longer emerge, that hyper-specialization and rationalism do not produce “heroic” types. Stagnation, in his view, defines our era. Moreover, this is linked to the apocalypse, to Armageddon, to the “end times”: it might be possible to see signs like the emergence of the Antichrist, not in their literal sense, but in their secondary meanings. Perhaps the Antichrist is not a person but a system; communism, the “United States of Europe,” a one-world government… They could all be signs.¹

Thiel points out that when faced with a binary choice like the Antichrist versus Armageddon, everyone would naturally defend the “one world/one-world government against the Antichrist.” Nevertheless, he implies that both paths are bad and seems to propose, or appears to have proposed, a “third way.” What we see, however, is a rejection of the Enlightenment idea that is fond of hyper-rational masses/crowds:

“(…) I’m much more of the Lord Acton view that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And this would be a power that would be subject to no checks. There’d be nobody on the outside. It would be, in some sense, the biggest crowd, the biggest bubble.

This is probably a place where the Bible is different from enlightened rationality. Enlightened rationality believes in the wisdom of the crowd. The Bible believes in the madness of the crowd. And if you have a one-world state, which is in some sense the biggest crowd of all, it’s all of humanity turned in on itself.”

The host, Robinson, immediately retorts: “The global mob.” Thiel agrees.

Thiel wonders what would happen to, for instance, marginal tax rates in the event of the Antichrist’s appearance as a one-world state and global governance, and he answers his own question: “I think they’d be quite high. It would be something like East Germany with no escape.” He worries that people, frightened by destruction and the apocalypse, will be content with the Antichrist’s deception of peace and security. The promise of peace and security from a one-world state means high taxes.

Osama bin Laden vs. Locke

In fact, Thiel presents us, in his own subtle way, with a theme that repeatedly appears in the history of bourgeois civilization: the rational economic man of Adam Smith (and Karl Marx!) actually signifies the destruction of humanity through indolence, mediocrity, moderation, and lack of ambition. Progress has slowed because we have stopped asking questions about “human nature.” Yet, there is also an “old” tradition that views humans as uncanny, prone to violence, or at least dangerous creatures. Thiel proposes reviving this tradition. The Westphalian order, Hobbes’s preaching of escape from the state of nature where every man is a wolf to every other man; a cowardly life had become preferable to a heroic but meaningless death. The Enlightenment was a “strategic retreat”: to prevent people from killing each other, asking questions about human nature was now forbidden.

Clearly, we are faced with a secondhand Nietzsche (and perhaps Heidegger and Schmitt). The old traditions did not promise a right to life or freedom; man was to aim for virtue instead of happiness. He was drawing a connection between Locke and Hobbes’s escape from nature (the natural) and their praise of the pursuit of happiness, and capitalist accumulation. Locke, Hobbes, and Smith, with all their optimism, believed we would live in the tranquility of the capitalist paradise we built for ourselves.

Yet, despite all this talk of brotherhood, according to Thiel, Western civilization woke up to the 9/11 attacks at the beginning of the 21st century. September 11 was the moment peace was shattered. The non-Western world had not yet transitioned to the Westphalian order; the Enlightenment had reached these places unevenly; the American continent, free of religious wars, was shaken by them, and so on. What could the comfort-accustomed Westerner do against the fanatics from geographies where the afterlife is a blessing, who thirst for martyrdom? Osama bin Laden, however, was aware of the limits that liberal thinkers like Locke ignored:²

“Today, the instinct for self-preservation alone should compel us to look at the world anew, to think strange new thoughts, and thereby to awaken from that very long and profitable period of intellectual slumber and amnesia that we have misleadingly called the Enlightenment.”

Dr. Thiel or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the apocalypse

The idea of embracing the apocalypse is not unique to Thiel; it can also be optimistic or pessimistic. We can say that both Silicon Valley’s techno-optimists and those who argue that the welfare state dulls human nature eagerly await Armageddon.

However, for Thiel, the real apocalypse lies in the naivety of the genteel classes who believe that life is heading toward the good and the beautiful, and that the rabble are, in fact, valuable creatures. He is essentially saying, “If you continue with this mindset, the rabble will rule.” It is likely with this pessimism that he quotes Schmitt:

“In Russia, before the Revolution, the doomed classes romanticized the Russian peasant as the good, brave, and Christian mujik. … The French aristocratic society before the Revolution of 1789 sentimentalized ‘the man who is good by nature’ and the virtues of the masses. … Nobody scented the revolution; it is incredible to see the security and the lack of suspicion with which this privileged group in 1793 spoke of the goodness, the gentleness, and the innocence of the people—a spectacle ridicule et terrible [a ridiculous and terrible spectacle].”

Schmitt’s “insistence on the political” and the rejection of universalism he found in the eschatological “you are either with Christ or against him” dichotomy of medieval Christianity should be counted among the 20th-century sources of Thiel’s love for the apocalypse. If Osama bin Laden is forcing the apocalypse with a Schmittian total enemy-making, then Western civilization must respond in the same tone. Therefore, 9/11 as an invitation to the apocalypse is a turning point for Thiel.

Thiel, who eagerly cites Schmitt—who envisioned an age where the representation of truth replaces truth itself—embraces the prophecy that this artificial world will require a “technical religion,” and that the brief harmony created by this “Babylonian unity” is the penultimate stop before the Apocalypse. The Antichrist, inspired by Schmitt, once again appears with the promise of security and peace and destroys humanity.

But Thiel still believes in a third way. The balance of terror created by technologies that could lead to unlimited destruction also opens a narrow path for humanity, caught between the Apocalypse and the Antichrist:³

“But I would always come back to the apocalyptic scenarios, the Antichrist or Armageddon. And I think there’s a lot in this runaway science technology that pushes us towards something like Armageddon. And then there’s a natural reaction against that, which is we’re going to escape Armageddon by having a single world state that has real power and real teeth. The biblical name for that is the Antichrist. And my Christian intuition is I don’t want the Antichrist, I don’t want Armageddon. I’d like to find this narrow path between the two where we can avoid both. And there are ways, of course, to put it off, to try new things, if possible.”

Thiel’s train of thought is as follows: The West has lost faith in itself. But thanks to this loss of faith, immense commercial and creative forces were unleashed; and because of this same loss of faith, the West has left itself defenseless. The question, then, is this: Is there a way to strengthen the modern West without completely destroying it, to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

The answers to this are varied. In this series of articles, we will touch upon some of the reactions of property owners to the terror created by the idea of the end times. But Thiel does not hide his admiration for the “freedom” of the American founding fathers. Americans before the U.S. Constitution seem much freer than those after it. He recalls Leo Strauss: “Even the most just society cannot survive without ‘intelligence, i.e., espionage,’” but “espionage is impossible without a suspension of certain rules of natural right.” Thiel seems to approve:

“Instead of the United Nations, with its endless and inconclusive parliamentary debates that resemble Shakespearean tales told by idiots, we should consider Echelon, the secret coordination body of the world’s intelligence services, as the way toward a truly global pax Americana.”

The moment of truth created by Trump and Apokálypsis

When Donald Trump first took the presidential office in 2016, Barack Obama, referring to the apocalypse, said, “It’s not the end of the world…”

According to Thiel, Obama was right in the literal sense of the word. But if we look at its meaning in ancient Greek, apokálypsis (unveiling, revelation), the same could not be said for a second Trump term:

“Apokálypsis is the most peaceful way to decide the war the old guard waged against the internet, which the internet won. My friend and colleague Eric Weinstein calls the guardians of pre-internet secret knowledge the Distributed Idea Suppression Complex (DISC)—the media organisations, bureaucracies, universities and government-funded NGOs that traditionally limited public discourse. In retrospect, the internet had already begun our liberation from the DISC prison in 2019 with the death in custody of the financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Almost half of Americans polled that year did not trust the official story that Epstein had committed suicide, which showed that the DISC had lost its total control over the narrative.”

Let’s set aside the irony symbolized by the great fiasco Trump, whom Thiel supported, caused his own base in the Epstein case. After conflating a range of issues from the Kennedy assassination to COVID-19 conspiracies, he believed they had finally and irreversibly consigned their own ancien régime to the dustbin of history. There would be no “reactionary restoration” of the “pre-internet past.”

The future required “fresh and unusual ideas.” New ideas could have saved the old regime, which, far from answering our deepest questions, “barely even considered them,” but this is no longer possible. Among these questions were the reasons for the 50-year slowdown in scientific and technological progress in the U.S., rising real estate prices, and the explosion of public debt. Thiel believed they had captured a moment of truth with the apokálypsis created by Trump. Therefore, it was more meaningful to deal with Epstein than with the American founding fathers and their slavery and colonialism. It was more correct to focus on COVID-19 than to cast stones at the year 1619, when the first African slave set foot on the American continent. One doesn’t need to be a genius to understand that what is implied here is the rehabilitation of slavery, colonialism, and the American exceptionalism embodied in manifest destiny. How else can the comfort-accustomed, indolent Westerners deal with the non-Westerners who seem like a sacrificial generation?

The fear of dispossession in humans, especially property-owning humans, and the hatred for bourgeois civilization, which can be summarized as “You unleashed this mob/rabble upon us!”, finds its expression in a roughly Nietzschean-inspired aristocratic rebellion.

Here, cultural fear mixes with biological fear. The Social Darwinist and Malthusian pessimistic omens of apocalypse, which we will lay out in the next part of the series, are resurrected once again.

The Time Traveller, the protagonist of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine, describes the people he sees in the year 802,701, where he travels with his invention. On the surface, there is the Eloi race, living in apparent joy and carelessness; on the other hand, there are the Morlocks, living underground without seeing the light of day, working in filthy jobs, and at some point in history, turning to cannibalism. It is such a dystopia that the propertied and the propertyless have, at some future moment, become two separate races, but contrary to the initial harmony, they are trapped in a decline where the numerically superior underground race now eats the genteel inhabitants of the surface. The propertied have become so accustomed to comfort that the paradise they live in is actually summoning the apocalypse. Humanity has progressed so much that the human race has biologically regressed.

The Silicon Valley elites, including Thiel, consider these apocalyptic scenarios a warning and are seeking an economic, geographic, and—what amounts to the same thing for them—biological escape for themselves (that is, for those like them, the property owners).

¹ So much so that at one point in the dialogue, Thiel, referring to an old novel by the English Catholic priest Robert Hugh Benson, Lord of the World, which Robinson brings up, says, “The Antichrist is a Jewish socialist senator from Vermont.” Bernie Sanders is the senator from Vermont.

² I must also say that Thiel resorts to various clever tricks to prove our “irrational” nature. Our Silicon Valley philosopher, reminding us that bin Laden became rich with the 20th-century oil boom, puts forward a strange thesis: “Since most of the value of oil is simply in the ground, the ‘labor’ that people add to it by extracting and refining it is proportionally small. And yet, at the same time, economies rise and fall on the price of crude oil, so much so that it constitutes a significant fraction of the world’s wealth.” Extracting oil, transporting it, refining it, using it in energy production, transportation, or financial assets… All of this supposedly requires “proportionally small” labor.

³ Thiel, who is fond of biblical language, is likely alluding to Luke 13:24: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

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Israel looks to Latin America as Isaac Accords seek to expand regional partnerships

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23/06/2026

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As ties between Israel and Latin American countries continue to deepen, the newly launched Isaac Accords are emerging as a framework for expanding cooperation across the region.

The initiative formed the backdrop to a panel discussion on opportunities for Israel in the Western Hemisphere at the 2026 JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Monday.

The panel, titled “The Coming Isaac Accords: Israel and Latin America,” brought together diplomats and regional experts to discuss developments that could encourage participation in the Isaac Accords, the strategic framework announced in April by Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Milei’s visit to Israel.

Moderated by JNS correspondent Etgar Lefkovits, the discussion featured Panama’s Ambassador to Israel Ezra Cohen, former US Ambassador to Costa Rica Fitzgerald Haney, and Leah Soibel, founder and CEO of Fuente Latina, which provides Middle East news coverage to Spanish-language media outlets.

Soibel said:

“What we need to understand is that the Isaac Accords have an impact that extends far beyond diplomacy. Twenty percent of the US population is Hispanic. By 2050, that figure is expected to reach 30% of the population. This is the demographic group with the lowest levels of antisemitic sentiment.”

The panel also celebrated the victory of pro-US and pro-Israel candidate Abelardo De La Espriella, who defeated his left-wing rival in Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday.

De La Espriella had made the restoration of relations with Israel and the relocation of his country’s embassy to Jerusalem central elements of his campaign platform.

Cohen said that when he looks at a map of Latin America, only four countries are currently governed by left-wing, anti-Israel administrations.

Referring to an earlier panel discussing what participants described as a bleak future for Jews in Europe, Cohen remarked: “When one window closes, another opens. Come to Latin America.”

Haney argued that “Israel’s friends keep winning” and predicted that “we are going to see a lot more positive developments coming out of Latin America.”

He said a colleague in Colombia had sent him a text message promising: “On August 7 at 5 p.m., we will restore relations with Israel.”

Haney noted that this was the date and time when Colombia’s new president is scheduled to take office and predicted that another announcement regarding the relocation of Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem would follow.

He described Colombia as the latest in a series of Latin American countries turning toward Israel in pursuit of “shared values, shared prosperity and shared security.”

Haney also said that the Israel Allies Foundation, a pro-Israel advocacy group that works with lawmakers, would bring together representatives from 11 legislative bodies across Latin America in Buenos Aires over the weekend to sign a joint declaration of principles.

He noted that the organisation had successfully worked with Brazil’s legislature despite the position of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he described as anti-Israel.

According to Haney, Brazil’s legislature has developed a plan to deepen relations with Israel over the next nine months.

Soibel said that 12 Latin American countries had renewed or strengthened their friendships with Israel and that interest in Israel among Spanish-language content creators, influencers and journalists continues to grow. Her organisation has brought 300 non-Jewish Hispanic journalists to Israel.

The panel also highlighted the launch of a Panama-based Spanish-language edition of JNS. Soibel said the work of pro-Israel organisations remains vital because so few such groups operate in the region, while, in her words, “Iran, Qatar and Hezbollah are conducting propaganda campaigns in Spanish throughout Latin America.”

She continued:

“You could probably count on one hand, perhaps two, the number of organisations and leaders operating across the Spanish-speaking world. That makes this work extraordinarily strategic. Its impact is enormous. Israel and the Jewish people should invest more. There is a large Hispanic-Israeli population in Israel, and many of them were victims of the October 7 attacks. We have stories to tell. What we need now is investment and distribution channels to spread those messages and information.”

The panel concluded on an optimistic note, with participants expressing confidence that Latin America will become an increasingly important pillar of Israel’s global diplomatic strategy in the years ahead.

Milei and Netanyahu launch new accord

Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the launch of the Isaac Accords last Saturday.

The initiative establishes a new strategic framework aimed at strengthening cooperation among Argentina, Israel and like-minded partners across the Western Hemisphere, described as “the descendants of Isaac and nations rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition,” in defence of freedom and democracy and in the fight against terrorism, antisemitism and drug trafficking.

Participating countries will seek to strengthen coordination against what the agreement describes as terrorist organisations, with particular emphasis on “Iran’s efforts to expand terrorist networks and operational presence throughout the Western Hemisphere.”

The initiative also seeks to promote coordination and alignment in international forums while creating a framework for expanded cooperation in innovation, technology, trade and economic openness.

Speaking alongside Netanyahu at a joint press conference, Milei said:

“We expressed our unwavering support for the United States and Israel in their struggle against terrorism and the Iranian regime, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because our countries are united through shared suffering.”

Milei referred to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre.

Although Argentine courts have attributed both attacks to Iran, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement.

Netanyahu praised the Argentine leader for demonstrating what he called “moral clarity” by standing with Israel and said he hoped other Latin American governments would join the Isaac Accords, which both leaders described as being inspired by the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords, brokered by Washington in 2020, triggered a wave of normalisation in Arab-Israeli diplomatic relations.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended the signing ceremony and described Milei and Netanyahu as “President Trump’s two closest friends.”

Huckabee added: “I do not think there are two other world leaders whom our president respects as much and with whom he has such a personal relationship.”

During the visit, the two sides also announced the launch of the first direct commercial flights between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv, scheduled to begin in November.

Milei said the new route would create an “unbreakable bond” between the two countries and reiterated his intention to relocate Argentina’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“As soon as circumstances permit, we once again reaffirm our commitment to moving the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem,” he said.

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Iran team leaves thank-you message in Los Angeles locker room after World Cup draw

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22/06/2026

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Iran’s national football team left a message in its locker room at SoFi Stadium, thanking Los Angeles for its hospitality during the World Cup.

The players said they were leaving the city with honor after keeping their hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive with a 0-0 draw against Belgium.

In the handwritten note, published by the Iran Football Federation, the team wrote:

“From the ancient land of Persia thousands of years ago to the civilized Iran of today, the spirit of Iran remains alive and unshaken. Los Angeles, thank you for your hospitality. We arrived in Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor and leave with dignity.”

The note also thanked Iranian supporters who gave their “hearts, voices and souls” to the team throughout its two matches and concluded with a call for peace, respect and friendship among all nations.

Los Angeles hosted both of Iran’s Group G matches, while the team returned to its training base in Tijuana between games.

Iran has been based in Tijuana throughout the tournament and has had to travel back and forth to the United States for matches because of restrictions related to its stay in the country. Entry bans were also imposed on some members of the national team’s coaching staff and officials.

US authorities said the team’s travel arrangements remain under review, while discussions continue over the possible easing of some restrictions.

Iran head coach Emir Ghalenoei has repeatedly criticized the travel restrictions, saying his squad has faced challenges that no other team in the tournament has been required to endure.

After drawing 2-2 with New Zealand in its opening match at SoFi Stadium, Iran will play its final Group G match against Egypt in Seattle.

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Colombia’s de la Espriella claims narrow presidential victory in runoff election

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22/06/2026

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The first results from Colombia’s presidential runoff election showed that right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, backed by Donald Trump, had narrowly won the vote.

The victory of de la Espriella, who has no prior political experience, signals a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to tackling the country’s long-running internal armed conflict and rising violence.

Throughout the campaign, de la Espriella pledged to intensify military pressure on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking networks and criminal organizations. He succeeded in defeating left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, a close ally of incumbent President Gustavo Petro.

Speaking after the initial results were released, de la Espriella said: “Today marks the beginning of a new era for our country. This era is built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who chose to believe in a great, secure, prosperous Colombia full of opportunities.”

Cepeda says he will await official results

According to the preliminary count, with more than 99% of ballots tallied in the runoff election, de la Espriella secured approximately 49.7% of the vote, while Cepeda received 48.7%.

Cepeda, who has not yet conceded defeat, said the preliminary results were neither official nor binding.

“When the official count is completed, the final results are known and the necessary verification procedures are finished, we will recognize the official outcome produced by that process,” Cepeda said.

Reuters reported that the verification process showed very little variation from the preliminary counts recorded during the first round of voting on May 31.

De la Espriella, who grew up in Colombia’s Caribbean region, drew particularly strong support from that part of the country. Addressing a large crowd gathered in the coastal city of Barranquilla after the first results emerged, de la Espriella, who has adopted the nickname “El Tigre” (The Tiger), declared: “Tonight is the beginning of a new story for the nation. Tonight a new era begins, a change of order begins.”

He said he would govern for all Colombians, including those who voted for his opponent, and pledged loyalty to and protection of Colombia’s 1991 constitution.

At celebrations in Barranquilla, supporters wore Colombia’s yellow national football jersey and waved Colombian flags.

With images of de la Espriella projected behind the stage, supporters chanted “Stand firm for the homeland” and “Petro out!” as fireworks lit the sky. Some supporters wore hats bearing the slogan “Make Colombia Great Again,” echoing those worn by supporters of US President Donald Trump.

Trump reacted to the results in a Truth Social post, writing: “BIG won!”

One supporter, Patricia, told reporters: “We are tired of the murders in this country and of this government’s bureaucracy. Now we finally have a president from the coastal region.”

Another supporter said: “We are proud of the Tiger. We hope he transforms the country and, above all, creates a new nation where we will have jobs and greater security.”

Supporters of Cepeda, who narrowly lost the election, also voiced concerns on the streets of Barranquilla.

Catalina La Grande, a student and activist who supports Cepeda, told the BBC: “There is a visible sense of unease in the air. Such a narrow margin worries us because it reflects how divided the country is and the enormous challenges we face in defending democracy, peace and human rights.”

Another young voter backing Cepeda, Maria, said the results showed a divided country but noted that the public had remained peaceful.

“Given the level of polarization we are experiencing, the absence of violence in the streets is a positive development,” she said.

The sharp divisions between the candidates have fueled concerns that unrest could emerge if some opposition groups refuse to accept the outcome.

Late on Sunday night, clashes were reported between protesters and police in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city. Demonstrators reportedly burned US flags, while police used tear gas to disperse large crowds angered by de la Espriella’s victory.

President Gustavo Petro is also reported to be considering challenging the result. In a post on X, Petro said that based on the preliminary count, “no one can be declared president” and alleged that the security of some polling stations had been compromised. He called for an audit of the voting software but provided no evidence to support the claims.

Who is Abelardo de la Espriella?

De la Espriella, who has no political background, is a lawyer and businessman. During his legal career, he represented clients including Alex Saab, an ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who has faced money laundering charges in the US, and David Murcia Guzman, one of Colombia’s most notorious fraudsters.

De la Espriella says he handled those cases in his capacity as a defense attorney.

Often compared to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele because of his security policies and distinctive beard, de la Espriella and his supporters frequently wear Colombia’s national football jersey at rallies and on social media. Critics accuse him of politicizing the national team shirt.

He is also known for regularly addressing campaign crowds from behind bulletproof glass panels.

Colombia’s internal armed conflict has persisted for decades, but violence has intensified in recent years. Armed groups and criminal organizations, including dissident factions of the FARC, the ELN and the Clan del Golfo, have doubled their membership over the past five years.

Competition for control of lucrative cocaine trafficking routes and illegal mining operations has further escalated the violence. Fighting along the Colombia-Venezuela border last year displaced tens of thousands of people. Cocaine production in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country has reached record levels.

Critics of President Petro argue that his “total peace” strategy, which prioritizes negotiations with armed groups, has failed, claiming that such groups have used ceasefire arrangements to expand their territorial control and influence.

De la Espriella has pledged to cancel all negotiations with illegal armed groups and increase military pressure to restore order.

As part of that agenda, he has promised closer cooperation with the US, the construction of massive prisons in Colombia’s forests, a smaller state apparatus and reforms to the healthcare system.

Having lived and worked in Miami for many years, de la Espriella has held US citizenship since 2023. During the election campaign, he received support from Donald Trump, who said de la Espriella would “stop illegal migration, fight crime and drugs, and restore law and order.”

Before the election, Trump also said de la Espriella would feel “the full support and strength of the United States” behind him.

Although Colombia has historically been one of Washington’s closest allies in the region, relations have become strained in recent years due to sharp disagreements between President Trump and President Petro over migration policy, tariffs and military intervention in Latin America.

De la Espriella’s election also aligns with a broader trend across Latin America, where security concerns have pushed politics to the right. His victory was welcomed by other conservative leaders across the region.

Argentine President Javier Milei said Colombians had “chosen the path of economic freedom, prosperity and uncompromising security” and had declared that enough was enough to transnational organized crime and drug trafficking.

Chile’s José Antonio Kast said: “A new era of freedom is beginning for Colombia, one that will allow the country to regain security and prosperity.”

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