Let us be clear: the election of this Trump-backed outsider in Colombia is not a mere blip on the geopolitical radar. It is a signal flare shot across the bow of the globalist consensus. For years, we have watched the slow, agonising decay of the post-war liberal order: the endless wars, the hollowed-out institutions, the sneering contempt for the little platoons that make a nation worth defending. Now, from the ashes of a failed peace process and a narcotics economy that would make the Medici blush, a new caudillo rides in. And British investors, those nervous Nellies who still dream of a Victorian-era dividend, are scrambling to read the tea leaves.
Let us examine the parallels. This is not the first time a provincial strongman has risen to challenge the metropolitan elite. One thinks of the fall of the Roman Republic, when men like Sulla marched on Rome, shattering the old norms. Or the rise of the Bonapartes, who traded republican ideals for plebiscitary dictatorship. The pattern is consistent: when the elites lose their nerve, the mob finds a master. And make no mistake, this outsider, this political earthquake, is a master of the form. He understands, as the coffee-sippers in Bogotá and the City of London do not, that the common man does not want a technocratic spreadsheet; he wants a story, a narrative of national rejuvenation. He wants to be told that his suffering is not his fault, that the foreigner and the intellectual are to blame. It is the oldest trick in the book, and it works every time.
Now, what of our interests? The British investor, that amphibious creature of the Square Mile, is a creature of habit. He likes his property rights stable, his currency sound, his revolts quiet. He is about to be sorely disappointed. This new administration promises to rip up the trade deals that have tied Colombia to the global market. It will impose tariffs, nationalise resources, or at the very least, make life difficult for foreign capital. The signal is clear: the era of free trade is over. We are returning to the age of mercantilism and protectionism, where the state picks winners and losers. For a nation like Britain, so dependent on exports and financial services, this is a worrying trend. But it is also an opportunity. If the Colombian market closes, new alignments will form. Perhaps a bilateral deal? Perhaps a pivot to the old Commonwealth? The possibilities are endless for those with the wit to see them.
But let us not be Panglossian. The intellectual decadence of our age blinds us to the dangers. The progressive left, which once championed the cause of the Colombian people, now wrings its hands at the rise of a populist. But they have only themselves to blame. By abandoning the working class, by preaching a globalist utopia that benefits only the already wealthy, they have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind. The Colombian election is a symptom of a wider disease: the revolt against the expert, the technocrat, the man with the spreadsheet. We see it in Brexit, in Trump, in the gilets jaunes. It is a cry of rage against a system that no longer delivers.
What, then, is the responsible path? It is not to indulge in naive panic or to retreat into ivory-tower disdain. It is to recognise the historical forces at play and to adapt. The Colombia that emerges from this election will be a harder, more cynical, more nationalist place. Its people will learn what we in the West have forgotten: that freedom without order is mere chaos. And our investors, if they are wise, will learn to speak the new language of power, not the dead tongue of globalist platitudes. So, let the wine be poured and the cigars lit: the market may tumble, but the spectacle will be magnificent.
