Earlier this month in Colombia, the Donroe Doctrine delivered again. But unlike in Venezuela, this time it was with soft power.

For the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on May 31, I joined the election observation mission conducted by the International Republican Institute, one of the core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy, where I serve as a board member. Our mission of 27 short-term observers joined the larger team of analysts who have been working in Colombia since February, together spreading out across the country to monitor polling stations for fraud or other irregularities.