COLOMBIA’S hard-right government “represents something new” which threatens to derail the peace process and is aligning the country with the aggressive global agenda of Donald Trump, delegates to the 2026 TUC Congress heard today.

Justice for Colombia director Victor Figueroa-Clark said the Abelardo de la Espriella administration has “changed the rhetoric,” talking openly of “breaking” trade unions and “tearing the guts out” of Colombia’s progressive movements.

Colombian human rights lawyer Diego Martinez said President de la Espriella “is a lawyer who made his career defending narcos, criminals and those who have abused human rights from the paramilitary movement.”

An extremely narrow victory over his left-wing rival Ivan Cepeda — a lead of less than 1 per cent of over 25 million votes — has not deterred him from a destructive turn against all the gains of the previous Gustavo Petro government, he said.

Half the Colombian population had voted for peace — and half for militarism and war, following a campaign of “stigmatisation of various communities” and “digital and social media disinformation campaigns.”

The new government had “aligned itself to neoconservative interests in the world in alliance with Washington.” In the name of a war on drugs, peasant crops were being fumigated with new chemicals and “indiscriminate bombardments” were already killing civilians, including children.

GMB vice-president Sonya Davis pointed to the electoral irregularities in the count, and said the new government was “very worrying for trade unionists and social activists,” noting a rise in assassinations since the start of the year.

And TUC president Steve Gillan tied the aggressive new government to “that man, Trump — who is interfering everywhere, whether it’s South America, Iran or anywhere else.”