Senator Iván Cepeda Questions President-Elect's Security Measures

Senator Iván Cepeda has sharply criticized the security and public order measures announced by the incoming administration of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella. Cepeda, a leftist senator and former presidential candidate, stated that the proposed structural reforms pose a direct threat to the rule of law.

He argued that these initiatives could lead to a dangerous institutional setup for managing public force. Cepeda's objections focus on three key areas of the president-elect's plan: urban search blocks, the reinstatement of the anti-riot squad (Esmad), and reforms to the penitentiary system.

Regarding urban search blocks, Cepeda expressed concern that integrating retired military personnel and reservists into civilian control tasks would delegate constitutional police functions to private individuals, reminiscent of illegal organizations from the past. He also criticized the planned reinstatement of the Esmad, which was transformed under the previous administration, and the "zero tolerance" approach to road blockades, viewing it as systematic criminalization of social protest.

Furthermore, Cepeda voiced strong opposition to the proposed reform of the prison system, which includes building ten mega-prisons financed by private capital and gradually replacing the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec) with a civilian surveillance corporation also composed of army reservists. Cepeda described this as a privatization of the prison system that violates constitutional guarantees, warning that Colombia's history with paramilitary groups has shown that such approaches lead to more violence, arbitrariness, and impunity, not greater security.

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The result of the history of paramilitarism in Colombia has never been more security, but more violence, more arbitrariness, and more impunity.