Colombia in the Eye of “El Tigre”
On Sunday, Colombia will decide between the left-wing Pacto Histórico and the Donald Trump–backed far-right candidate. The country is only the latest target of the “Donroe Doctrine,” the conviction that Latin America belongs to Washington to run or ruin.
The far-right front-runner in Colombia’s runoffs this Sunday, Abelardo de la Espriella, is a cartoonishly opprobrious character, a shady lawyer with one foot in Miami. Donald Trump didn’t hesitate to very publicly back him. (Manuel Pedraza / AFP via Getty Images)
On Monday, June 8, I received terrible news from my friend Rosa, a youth activist and the founder of three community gardens in the impoverished neighborhoods of northern Bogotá. Thugs had destroyed one of their spaces, the Pollinators’ Garden in Suba.
Emboldened angry men with machetes, shovels, and axes chopped down tomate de árbol and avocado trees, multiplying banana fronds and fruit, lavender, rue, kale, oregano, basil, and many other vegetables and herbs. I wept when I saw photos of the dry brown earth where once I had walked with her and her friends through the overflowing, tangled green.
“They weren’t afraid of anything,” said Rosa (whose name has been changed for anonymity). “They did it in broad daylight.” I commiserated. “It’s as if their guy has already won,” she added.
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