World news | The Guardian
· collected 2026-09-04 · by Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Colombia's President Abelardo De La Espriella sparked outrage by posting a video on social media showing him walking through rows of body bags containing 23 "neutralised" guerrillas, which he claims were killed in a military operation. The president, who took power last month vowing to fight illegal armed groups, declared that he is determined to destroy them and described their presence as a "cancer". Critics, including human rights activists and opposition politicians, condemned the video, calling it a "necropolitics" spectacle and accusing De La Espriella of lacking humanity. The incident has been compared to similar bellicose and performative videos from other right-wing populist leaders in the Americas, such as El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele and former US President Donald Trump.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas.
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he → provoke → guerrillas
De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge.
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he → take → pledge
“I promised to confront terrorism without hesitation and I’m keeping that promise,” the far-right politician wrote above the video.
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politician → promise → video
“I did not come to play nice with murderers, extortionists and child recruiters.
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I → come → murderers
I came to defeat them …
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I → come → them
Long live Christ the king!”
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Christ → live → ?
Celebrating the military operation in the Colombian Amazon during which the 23 alleged terrorists were killed, De La Espriella declared: “We are utterly determined to destroy you, who are a cancer.”
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who → celebrate → you
The body bag footage, set to a stirring Hollywood-style score, was condemned by human rights activists and the president’s political opponents.
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footage → set → activists
Iván Cepeda, the leftwing candidate beaten by De La Espriella in June’s election, wrote on X: “He strolls among the bags with the corpses.
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He → beat → corpses
He nearly treads on them with contempt.
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He → tread → contempt
He calls himself a Christian but in reality he’s an unscrupulous being lacking the slightest sense of humanity.”
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he → call → humanity
The leftwing lawmaker Daniel Monroy accused the president of “necropolitics”.
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lawmaker → accuse → necropolitics
He wrote: “This is one of the most bizarre things we’ve seen.
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we → write → things
De La Espriella’s predecessor Gustavo Petro tweeted: “This is called turning death into a trophy – something only soulless people can do …
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people → tweet → trophy
The soulless find it easy to kill for the sake of killing.
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it → find → killing
De La Espriella hit back at his critics, posting: “Forgiving terrorists is God’s business.
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Forgiving → hit → terrorists
Sending them to meet him – if that’s where they’re headed – is the president’s job.”
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they → send → him
De La Espriella’s post captured the bellicose and performative political zeitgeist sweeping the Americas, where a growing number of rightwing populists are seeking to woo voters with promises of ferocious, TikTokable crackdowns on crime.
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number → capture → crime
The genre has been pioneered by El Salvador’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, with slick videos of his notorious mega-prison, and Donald Trump, who has repeatedly published footage showing alleged drug boats being blitzed in the Caribbean and Pacific.
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boats → pioneer → Caribbean
Ahead of Brazil’s October elections, several candidates are promising lethal attacks on the drug traffickers who control Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.
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who → promise → favelas
“We’re going to stain the ground red with the blood of these lowlifes,” one candidate, Renan Santos, said recently, promising “a bloodbath” if he won power.
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he → go → power
Flávio Bolsonaro, the main challenger to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to wage war on “narco-terrorists”, although he and close allies have themselves been accused of having ties to organised crime.
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themselves → vow → crime
“Criminals will be taken out of circulation, either standing up or lying down,” Bolsonaro has said.
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Bolsonaro → take → circulation
In Rio, Felipe Curi, a former police chief running for congress, has posted AI-generated videos depicting him shooting armed men in the favelas.
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Curi → run → favelas
Campaign propaganda features his image superimposed on pictures of the corpses of some of the 122 people killed during the city’s deadliest ever police raids.
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propaganda → feature → raids
“I arrest crooks,” Curi boasts in one video, “and I neutralise them if they react.”
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they → arrest → them
