A political earthquake in Bogotá. The election of a Trump-backed outsider, Álvaro Ramos, to the Colombian presidency has sent shockwaves through London’s financial corridors. Ramos, a mining magnate with no prior political experience, swept to power on a wave of populist anger. His campaign was funded in part by mysterious shell companies traced to Delaware and the Bahamas. The UK Treasury, I am told, is now scrambling to assess the damage to bilateral trade, valued at £1.2 billion annually.
Sources close to the Treasury confirm that officials have been in ‘crisis talks’ since dawn. The concern is simple: Ramos has pledged to tear up the existing free trade agreement with the UK, signed just three years ago, and renegotiate from scratch. He wants a ‘fair deal’ for Colombia, which in his words means ‘no more London bankers bleeding our resources dry’. This is the same language used by other leaders who later nationalised industries and defaulted on debt.
But the real story, the one the suits don’t want you to see, is about the money. Over the past two years, I have obtained documents showing a web of financial flows between Ramos’s companies and offshore accounts linked to British banks. Barclays and HSBC, both with significant operations in Bogotá, have been facilitating loans to Ramos’s mining operations. These loans are now under scrutiny. Are they legitimate commercial loans, or are they thinly veiled campaign contributions? The line blurs in the absence of transparency.
Back in Colombia, Ramos celebrated his victory with a speech that echoed Trump’s own: ‘drain the swamp’, ‘put Colombia first’. But his swamp, like Trump’s, is full of his own allies. His running mate is a former cocaine cartel lawyer; his finance minister a man who once worked for a bank that laundered money for the Medellín cartel. The US has been quiet, but UK diplomats are not. They fear that any instability in Colombia could disrupt global coffee and coal markets. Colombian coal supplies about 10% of the UK’s energy needs. A supply shock would hit British consumers hard this winter.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England is monitoring the peso’s slide. It has lost 8% since Ramos’s victory was confirmed. The central bank in Bogotá has raised interest rates to 12%, but investors are fleeing. The FTSE has barely reacted, but that’s because the City hasn’t yet grasped the implications. When they do, it will be a bloodbath.
This is a classic case of unaccountable power. Ramos has no mandate to rewrite trade deals. He won with only 38% of the vote on a turnout of 41%. But he claims a ‘landslide’. And behind him are the same shadowy figures who bankrolled his campaign. I have a list of names. But as the editor says, we need two sources. One source is already dead: a journalist who was looking into Ramos’s finances was found shot in Medellín last month. The police called it a robbery. I call it a message.
The UK Treasury knows it. They are preparing contingency plans. But they won’t tell the public. Not yet. Trade stability is the official line. But the real trade is in truth. And that commodity is in short supply.
