Colombia is sliding back into the violence it thought it had escaped, and a hardline new president is taking office promising all-out war on the gangs and guerrillas.

• Iván Abelardo Esparza, a tough-on-crime leader modeled on El Salvador's Bukele, is sworn in with a promise of "total war" against gangs, insurgents, and cartels.
• His inauguration is chaotic — the outgoing left-wing president Petro is boycotting it, banned the military from the ceremony, and claims without evidence the vote was rigged.
• Colombia is spiraling: car bombs are back, guerrilla groups have expanded to nearly triple the territory they held in 2019, and a presidential candidate was assassinated last summer.
• Police just intercepted a bus packed with explosives headed for the inauguration site, underlining how real the threat is.
• Esparza plans 90 executive decrees and 10 El Salvador-style mega prisons, but his party holds almost no seats in Congress and the military is underfunded and short on working equipment.

Outlook: Esparza will launch his crackdown immediately, but Colombia's huge jungle territory, well-armed cartels with 27,000 fighters, and a weak military make a quick "Bukele-style" win far from certain.