Abelardo de la Espriella Will Face Strong Resistance
The far-right Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidency in the tightest race in decades. To carry out his extremist agenda, he'll have to go through a Colombian left that, in terms of congressional and people power, has never been stronger.
Abelardo de la Espriella, the far-right candidate, has been elected president of Colombia by the narrowest margin in recent decades. According to the preliminary count, he received 49.66 percent of the vote, compared to 48.70 percent for his rival, the left-wing Iván Cepeda — a difference of barely 250,000 votes.
The victory of the leader of Defensores de la Patria — a movement he created himself for the current electoral cycle — is disastrous news for Colombia, as de la Espriella threatens to roll back the social advances of Gustavo Petro's government (2022–2026) and renew a militarist strategy that could exacerbate the internal armed conflict the country has suffered under for decades.
From a regional standpoint, de la Espriella's arrival to the presidency extends Donald Trump's control over Latin America. The far-right candidate promised submission to Washington and received open support from Trump and other far-right presidents in the region, such as Argentina's Javier Milei and Ecuador's Daniel Noboa. Brazil and Mexico are now the only large countries still governed by the Left in the region, and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva faces uncertain elections in October.