President Abelardo De la Espriella used a nationally televised address on September 13 to tell Colombians they were left "at the edge of the abyss" financially, then pushed a 2027 budget of roughly 635 trillion pesos, or about US$204.2 billion, onto the public while his government blamed former President Gustavo Petro for the mess. The numbers are being fought over at the top, but the bill lands far below, where ordinary people will live with austerity, stalled projects and whatever Congress decides to approve.
Who Gets the Bill
De la Espriella has held office only since August 7, 2026, after winning that year’s presidential election. Petro’s term ended the same day. Now the two men are trading accusations in public over Colombia’s fiscal crisis, each trying to pin the deficit on the other while the state machinery keeps moving toward a budget fight in Congress.
De la Espriella’s government says the 2027 budget is tens of trillions of pesos higher than the one Petro’s team had presented, and officials say much of that increase covers gaps left by the outgoing administration. The president has also announced austerity measures alongside the new spending plan, calling them necessary corrections after what he describes as years of fiscal mismanagement. That’s the language of command. The consequences are something else.
Petro, for his part, said he would request formal airtime to reply to De la Espriella’s address, calling it an attempt to "deceive the nation." In social media posts, he defended his government’s record and said Colombia paid down debts tied to IMF loans, gasoline subsidies and COVID-era transfers to health insurers. He also said the debt-to-GDP ratio fell from 61% to 58% during his term. The fight is over accounting, but it’s also over who gets to define discipline, sacrifice and responsibility for a crisis ordinary people didn’t create.
What They Call Fiscal Discipline
Both camps have released figures meant to settle the argument, and neither side agrees on the baseline. De la Espriella’s government says it inherited a large fiscal hole in August. Petro’s team, led by former Finance Minister Germán Ávila, has pushed back with its own accounting, focusing on debt-service payments and structural obligations they say predate Petro’s own presidency. Colombian fiscal watchdogs have not yet issued a definitive ruling on whose numbers are more accurate.
Congress is expected to scrutinize both sets of figures as it debates the 2027 budget. That’s where the theater of representation meets the hard edge of state power. The public gets speeches. Lawmakers get spreadsheets. The people get the consequences.
Petro rejected accusations of corruption in his government outright and suggested De la Espriella’s own past dealings deserved more scrutiny than his fiscal record. Colombian outlets described Petro’s language as unusually sharp even by his own standards, and headlines quoted him branding his successor’s characterization of the deficit both dishonest and poorly informed. De la Espriella hasn’t backed off. Neither man shows any sign of surrendering the narrative.
Projects on Paper, Pressure in Practice
De la Espriella has also tried to sell a recovery story alongside the deficit fight. Vice President José Manuel Restrepo told a banking conference the government has identified 165 projects worth more than 290 trillion pesos, or roughly US$93.3 billion. Restrepo framed the tally as proof the new administration is moving quickly to reactivate investment. Critics counter that identifying projects on paper is easier than actually financing and building them.
The government has separately pledged to clear more than 500 bureaucratic bottlenecks slowing existing infrastructure work, and officials say roads, ports and energy projects have sat stalled for years awaiting permits. De la Espriella has also courted outside financing partners for the effort, including a push for the Inter-American Development Bank to back "strategic projects," which began even before his August inauguration. The apparatus keeps reaching outward for money while promising movement at home.
Alongside the budget fight, De la Espriella has leaned heavily on security results to bolster his standing. His government has ended peace talks with several armed groups it accuses of bad faith. Officials are also advancing a submission-law framework for criminal structures without political recognition, distinct from groups like the ELN. That approach offers reduced sentences in exchange for full confessions and asset forfeiture.
De la Espriella has repeatedly declared individual guerrilla and dissident commanders military targets. After a recent strike that killed a senior ELN commander, he warned remaining fighters they would be pursued relentlessly. He has used similarly blunt language before, once vowing to "hunt" armed-group leaders who refuse to surrender. Supporters call it necessary resolve; critics call it needlessly inflammatory rhetoric from a head of state.
Petro has criticized some of that rhetoric too, particularly public displays involving the bodies of slain fighters. He has accused the new government of turning battlefield deaths into political trophies rather than security milestones. De la Espriella’s allies reject that framing and argue that after years of stalled talks under Petro, visible results against armed groups are exactly what voters demanded.
The Petro-De la Espriella feud is likely to keep dominating headlines as the 2027 budget moves through Congress. For now, Colombians face competing narratives about how their country’s finances reached this point, while lawmakers decide how to vote on spending. Petro no longer governs, and De la Espriella now owns both the deficit and the response to it.