Colombia’s presidential candidates concluded their campaigns this weekend in anticipation of the Sunday, May 31 election.
Colombian voters will head to the polls to choose who will succeed Gustavo Petro, the nation’s first leftist president ever, once his term ends in August. The election has been marred by violence for years, beginning with the assassination of conservative presidential frontrunner Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay. Sen. Uribe, 39 at the time of his death, was shot in the head twice and once in the leg by a child as he held a rally in Bogotá on June 7, 2025.
While 14 presidential candidates had signed up for the race by the time the registration period ended in March, Sunday’s ballot will feature 13 presidential and vice-presidential tickets. Leftist former Foreign Minister Luis Carillo, who withdrew from the race this month, will appear on the ballot despite withdrawing from the race as he did so after the government printed election ballots.
According to the final round of polls released ahead of the May 31 election, Sunday’s race will be a three-way contest between far-left Senator Iván Cepeda, right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, and conservative Senator Paloma Valencia. No candidate is expected to obtain the majority of votes required to win on Sunday, which will prompt a runoff on Sunday, June 19, between the two most-voted candidates. Colombia’s major polling firms have all reportedly projected that the prospective runoff will see Cepeda and de la Espriella face off in June.
De la Espriella, described as the “outsider” candidate in this year’s presidential race, ended his campaign in Medellín, Antioquia. Speaking to his followers, he reportedly reinforced his main campaign promises of tackling insecurity and fighting organized crime. De la Espriella also promised to “defeat communism” in Colombia and declared the “end” of the era of Gustavo Petro and his “heir,” referring to leftist Senator Cepeda.
According to the Colombian outlet La Silla Vacia, de la Espriella’s campaign promises call for a 40 percent reduction in the size of the Colombian state and public spending, similar to Argentine President Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” strategy. The candidate is also calling for the construction of “mega-prisons” similar to El Salvador’s CECOT, build by the administration of President Nayib Bukele. The candidate has also promised the eradication of coca crops, de-regularizing the Colombian economy, and imposing life sentences on convicted child rapists, among other policies.
Conservative Senator Paloma Valencia, who is representing the Democratic Center founded by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, closed her campaign in the capital city of Bogotá in the company of members of several local conservative and center-right parties. According to El Colombiano, Sen. Valencia reiterated that one of her main campaign promises is to dismantle the widely-failed “Total Peace” plan implemented by President Petro. If elected, she has promised to restore security by working alongside the nation’s armed forces and police.
Valencia has reportedly called for an increase in spending for security and adding 30,000 new police and military officers which would bring the total number of law enforcement officials in Colombia to about 530,000. The conservative senator has called for reactivating oil, gas, coal, and fracking projects suspended by the Petro administration, modernizing Colombian state bureaucracy, reforming the justice system, and changing the nation’s pensions. Additionally, Valencia has said that, if elected, she would formally request Colombia’s inclusion in President Donald Trump’s Shield of the Americas regional security initiative.
“I don’t want to be a president who is isolated and shut away in a bubble. I want to be a president who stands with the people, who embraces them, who connects with them, who has a team, and who governs to transform Colombia,” Valencia told her followers.
Sen. Cepeda, who will represent the ruling leftist Historic Pact coalition on Sunday’s elections, is widely known for his years-long campaign to imprison conservative former President Álvaro Uribe, who successfully appealed his conviction in October. The far-left senator closed his campaign in Barranquilla and reportedly reiterated that, should he become the next president of Colombia, his administration will prioritize “historically excluded” sectors.
Speaking to his followers, he called for a “deepening” of Petro’s far-left reforms in Colombia and vowed to uphold his leftist policies. Cepeda also vowed to fight against corruption and claimed that there would be no “untouchables” when it comes to corruption. According to the Colombian radio station La FM, Cepeda said that, should he win Sunday’s election, he will immediately begin a “transition” process with the Petro administration and hold a “national tribute” for Petro.
“At that juncture, one of the first decisions we will make is to hold a grand national tribute for President Petro to thank him for having kept his promises to the Colombian people,” Cepeda reportedly said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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