Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) described Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative candidate running for president in Colombia, as being “about law and order.”
De la Espriella is nicknamed “El Tigre” — The Tiger — because he wants to “throw all the drug traffickers in prison,” while the left in Colombia wants to be “lenient on drug traffickers and criminals,” Moreno told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle.
“He is absolutely about law and order. It’s very simple. You’re going to create a country where there’s safety, security, so there can be prosperity for their people, so they don’t come to the U.S. So, they don’t ship us drugs so that they don’t create an environment for international crime syndicates to come in.”
Moreno warned de la Espriella’s opponent is “a full-blown communist” who would destroy Colombia’s private sector and create a funding crisis — forcing the government to rely on criminal activity.
“What he would do is provide a safe haven for international crime syndicates, child trafficking, sex trafficking, and of course, drug trafficking, that would feed this monster government that would be a total takeover of the private sector,” Moreno said.
The Ohio senator added the left wants to “create a South America that is all about criminality, and transnational organizations, fueled by drug trafficking.”
“That course would be an existential threat to the United States. The Chinese would of course love nothing more than that to happen in our hemisphere.”
De la Espriella won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election in early June with 43.74 percent of the vote. His far-left opponent, Sen. Iván Cepeda, received roughly 40.90 percent. Neither candidate cleared the 50 percent threshold, triggering a runoff election set for June 21.
President Donald Trump endorsed de la Espriella ahead of the runoff, calling him a “Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader.”
“Abelardo fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “As President, Abelardo would be tremendously successful in leading Colombia to Grow the Economy, Create Jobs, Promote Trade, Stop Illegal Immigration, Crack Down on Crime and Drugs, and Restore LAW AND ORDER!”
