Outsider Colombian conservative candidate Abelardo De La Espriella was elected the next president of Colombia, defeating far-left Senator Iván Cepeda in Sunday’s presidential runoff election.
De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and businessman supportive of President Donald Trump and nicknamed “The Tiger,” will take office at the end of outgoing Marxist President Gustavo Petro’s four-year term on August 7.
Preliminary results published by Colombia’s National Civil Registry indicate that, with 99.99 percent of all votes counted as of Sunday night, de la Espriella obtained 49.66 percent of the votes cast while Cepeda obtained 48.70. Voter turnout was measured at 63.60 percent, with 26.45 million Colombians casting a vote on Sunday.
At press time, three voting tables out of 122,020 remain to be counted as of Monday morning — representing the last 0.01 percent of the votes according to the Colombian National Civil Registry.
“Nearly 13 million Colombians placed their trust in [Vice President-elect] José Manuel Restrepo, in the Tiger, and in this great dream called Homeland Miracle. This historic support fills us with gratitude, but also with an enormous responsibility,” de la Espriella wrote on a social media alongside a video thanking those who voted for him.
“Today begins a new stage for our country, a stage built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who decided to believe in a great, safe, prosperous Colombia full of opportunities,” he continued.
Speaking to thousands of his followers at the city of Barranquilla, the new president-elect of Colombia celebrated his electoral victory and affirmed that the presidential campaign is over — and with it “the slogans, the divisions end, the political confrontations end, and the supreme hour of service to the homeland begins.”
De la Espriella vowed that he will govern for all Colombians and that there will not be “victors or defeated,” stressing that in democracy there are only compatriots who think differently.
“This victory does not belong to one man; it does not belong to one party or one region. It belongs to all of Colombia. The will of a people to reclaim their destiny, their national dignity, the Republic, and hope has triumphed,” de la Espriella said on Sunday, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.
De la Espriella outlined some of his administration’s priorities in his speech and stated that his goal is to restore security and restore hope in the country, fight against corruption, and rebuild the Colombian healthcare system which has faced a years-long crisis throughout Petro’s now-ending administration.
Senator Iván Cepeda, who ran as the candidate of the outgoing Historic Pact far-left coalition led by President Petro, reportedly “recognized” the results of the vote count but announced that he will contest the results from 33,000 voting tables before issuing any official recognition of the results.
Per the Colombian newspaper El Colombiano, Cepeda claimed on Sunday that, while he and his campaign recognize the trend shown by the vote count, the results “are not yet official or binding.” El Colombiano noted that the far-left senator maintained a “more measured and respectful” tone on Sunday compared to the stance he adopted in the aftermath of the May 31 presidential first round.
“Once the final vote count is in and the definitive results are known, we will recognize the official result that emerges from that process,” Cepeda reportedly said.
De la Espriella’s victory in Sunday’s presidential runoff — the latest in a growing series of right-wing presidential victories across Latin America — places Colombia back under the rule of a conservative government after Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group, became elected as Colombia’s first leftist president ever in 2022.
President Donald Trump referred to de la Espriella’s victory in a brief Truth Social post that read, “He Won, BIG!” President Trump, who endorsed de la Espriella in the race, had previously stressed upon the importance of Sunday’s elections for the future of Colombia and its relationship with the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that he spoke over the phone with the new Colombian president-elect and congratulated de la Espriella on his victory.
Sec. Rubio said that the Trump administration looks forward to working closely with the incoming Colombian administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the U.S., and strengthen the economic ties between both nations.
“Colombia’s best days are ahead,” Rubio wrote.
Similarly, other heads of state and international politicians have publicly congratulated President-elect de la Espriella for his victory, including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, Chile’s José Antonio Kast, Paraguay’s Santiago Peña, and Venezuela’s anti-socialist opposition leader María Corina Machado.
“Today, the majority of Colombians chose the path of economic freedom, prosperity, and unwavering security, and said ‘ENOUGH’ to transnational organized crime and drug trafficking,” President Milei wrote on social media.
“Liberty advances throughout Latin America, and there is no turning back,” he continued, before exclaiming his famous catchphrase, “Long Live Freedom, Damn it.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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