Eduardo González
King Felipe VI will attend the presidential handover ceremony to the president-elect of the Republic of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, on August 7, as announced this Friday by the Royal Household and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The monarch will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
The King usually represents Spain at the inaugurations of Latin American presidents, a task that King Felipe has been undertaking since 1996 when he was still Prince of Asturias. With Fujimori’s inauguration, Felipe VI will have attended the inauguration of a Latin American leader on 24 occasions since ascending the throne.
Specifically, the monarch attended the inauguration of Portugal’s Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in 2016; and the inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico in 2018. in 2019, in the election of Panama’s Laurentino Cortizo; in 2020, in the elections of Uruguay’s Luis Lacalle Pou and Bolivia’s Luis Arce; in 2021, in the elections of Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso Mendoza and Peru’s Pedro Castillo; in 2022, in the elections of Honduras’ Xiomara Castro, Chile’s Gabriel Boric, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro; in 2023, in the elections of Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Paraguay’s Santiago Peña Palacios, and Argentina’s Javier Milei; in 2024, in the elections of Guatemala’s César Bernardo Arévalo de León, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and the re-elected Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic; in 2025, in the election of Uruguay’s Yamandú Orsi; And in 2026, those of the presidents of Portugal, António José Seguro; Chile, José Antonio Kast; Costa Rica, Laura Fernández Delgado; and Peru, Keiko Fujimori.
Businessman and lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, an avowed admirer of US President Donald Trump and candidate for the far-right movement Defenders of the Homeland, won last October by a mere one percent margin over the leftist candidate, Iván Cepeda, of the Historical Pact, and will assume the Presidency of Colombia for a four-year term (2026-2030).
The Spanish government has not yet commented on De la Espriella’s victory, but the People’s Party (PP) and Vox have. “My congratulations, Abelardo de la Espriella, on your victory,” posted PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on social media. “Good news for Colombia and for all of Latin America,” he continued. “I wish him success in the challenges ahead and in his task of improving the lives of all Colombians,” he added. “Colombians have given Abelardo de la Espriella the victory and have said enough to the narco-socialism of Petro and his successors,” posted Vox leader Santiago Abascal. “Freedom, order, truth, and the sovereignty of nations are making their way forward with force in Latin America,” he continued. “Congratulations, dear Abelardo. Onward, Colombia!” he concluded.
For now, Abelardo de la Espriella has already appointed one of his main supporters in the presidential election campaign, Carlos Felipe Mejía, to the position of ambassador to Spain. Carlos Felipe Mejía, 63, a former Colombian senator for the Democratic Center party—led by former president Álvaro Uribe—and one of the founders of Defenders of the Homeland, will replace Eduardo Ávila Navarrete, ambassador since November 2022, who also played a very important role in the electoral campaign of outgoing president Gustavo Petro, a leftist.
