Exclusive — Bernie Moreno on ‘The Tiger’: Colombia’s Abelardo De La Espriella ‘About Law and Order’

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) described Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative candidate running for president in Colombia, as being “about law and order.”

Host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday mentioned Espriella is nicknamed “El Tigre” 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.”

“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 explained, adding:

The other guy is a full-blown communist. Now, to be a communist, you need a source of income. He hates and will destroy the private sector. So, the private sector will be destroyed, but now the question is, how does the government fund itself? And, 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.

That’s their fantasy. That’s the left’s fantasy. That’s what they want. They want 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.

At the beginning of June, Espriella won the first round in Colombia’s presidential election. Espriella received 43.74 percent of the vote, while Sen. Iván Cepeda, a far-left candidate for president in Colombia, received roughly 40.90 percent of the vote. Due to neither Espriella or Cepeda receiving more than 50 percent, the election move dto a runoff on June 21.

President Donald Trump has endorsed Espriella ahead of the runoff election, describing him as 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 in a post 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!”