To support Colombia’s new right-wing president, the U.S. State Department recently announced $1 billion in assistance as part of “a security package” to dismantle “transnational narco-terrorism networks.”

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U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart released statements marking what he described as “the beginning of a new chapter for Colombia and its people” under Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella.

Diaz-Balart, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Terry Cole, the DEA administrator, were part of the U.S. delegation that attended De La Espriella’s inauguration on Friday in Cali.

“Yesterday was the start of a new friendship and partnership working as a team in the fight against drug trafficking and furthering our relationship in countering threats to our national security and public safety,” Blanche wrote in a statement released on X on Saturday.

Cole, a former Virginia secretary of public safety, also released a statement on Saturday saying that the U.S.-Colombia partnership had changed history before.

“DEA is ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with Colombia again. We will hunt down those who profit from cocaine, corruption, violence, and terror,” Cole wrote. “There will be no safe haven, no protected trafficking route, and no immunity for those who poison our communities.”

De La Espriella, 48, holds dual U.S. and Colombian citizenships.

The U.S. delegation also included Hugo Guevara, of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá; Sara Carter, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Cliff Sims, a national security advisor to the vice president; Viviana Bovo, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; Joseph M. Humire, deputy assistant Secretary of War for Americas Security Affairs; and Kris Jarvis, the chief of international operations of the Joint Task Force Vulcan.

The Colombian military reported that a faction of the leftist guerrillas blew up a car bomb at a toll booth and injured two guards, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Colombian Gen. Jorge Mora stepped in as the country’s new minister of defense. His promise: “Recovering security, order, and tranquility will be our priority,” he wrote in a statement. “Colombia will once again live without fear.”

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