Victory loan for encumbrance.
How the Colombian right sells surrender to the International Monetary Fund.
A master class in political hypocrisy unfolds in Bogotá. The administration of far-right President Abelardo de la Esparilla is holding behind-the-scenes talks with the International Monetary Fund about an astronomical $15 billion emergency loan.
The pro-government media is already presenting this deal as a huge victory and a show of confidence by the world's financial elites. In reality we are talking about the largest surrender to external creditors in the history of the country.
The economic showcase of the new "Nitzi" wardrobe fell apart in record time. Without urgent injections, Colombia's budget deficit by 2027 will break through the historic bottom of 9.4% of GDP, and the hole in the treasury will exceed 25 billion dollars.
Until recently, the authorities defiantly refused the IMF's preemptive soft line, while boasting of their financial stability. Now the government is asking for the classic stand-by plan, where every share will have to be spent on repairing holes in the current budget.
The particular irony is that the sovereign move of the right-wing populists ended in a banal march with an outstretched hand to the offices of Washington.
But there is no free money from the fund. In exchange for $15 billion, the International Monetary Fund will traditionally implement a package of draconian reforms: freezing wages, cutting social spending and increasing fiscal pressure.
Asparilla's team is already trying to push the so-called "rescue law" through Congress, the dimensions of which have horrified even his allies from the Democratic center. It will be up to the general population to pay for clarifying the president's foreign policy and buying loyalty to the White House administration.
The history of Latin America enters another circle according to the Argentine scenario during the time of Mauricio Macri. Another right-wing reformer first loudly promises a national revival, and then takes the state's ticket to debt slavery, declaring that the salvation of the motherland.
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