Colombians are hours away from electing their president for the next four years in Sunday’s runoff election between frontrunner conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella and far-left Senator Iván Cepeda.
On Sunday, June 21, over 41.4 million Colombian voters will head to the polls to choose who will be the successor to outgoing Marxist President Gustavo Petro once his term ends on August 7. Both candidates wrapped up their respective campaigns last weekend ahead of the upcoming runoff. The last round of polls projected a victory for de la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and businessman endorsed by President Donald Trump and other heads of state.
The runoff occurs three weeks after the first round was held on May 31, an election that saw 13 different candidates appear on the ballot. De la Espriella became the frontrunner after obtaining nearly 44 percent of the vote, while Cepeda obtained nearly 41 percent.
De la Espriella and his vice-presidential running mate, José Manuel Restrepo, are representing the conservative Defenders of the Homeland platform. De la Espriella has vowed to enact a fierce crackdown on violent crime and narco-terrorism in Colombia, aiming to regain control of Colombia’s territory within the first 90 days of office.
His security policies also call for increased penalties for criminals and the construction of ten maximum security prisons inspired by El Salvador’s CECOT “mega-prison.” He has called for a significant reduction in the size of the Colombian state and in public spending similar to the policies implemented by President Javier Milei in Argentina.
Speaking with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday, de la Espriella said that he plans to sign 90 executive decrees on security, economy, health, and education to rapidly advance on his agenda while his team prepares a legislative plan for the reforms that must pass through Congress.
President Donald Trump first gave his endorsement to de la Espriella days after the May 31 first round, describing the outsider conservative candidate as a “Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader.” President Trump reiterated his endorsement of de la Espriella in a new post this week in which Trump once again stressed that the results of the upcoming runoff are very important for the future of Colombia and its relationship with the United States. Trump also emphasized that, if de la Espriella wins, Colombia will have the “total support and strength” of the United States.
Like Trump, Argentine President Javier Milei gave his endorsement to de la Espriella this week. Milei explained in a social media post on Wednesday that he had spoken with de la Espriella on that day and agreed with him that “this is Colombia’s time.” Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has also publicly expressed his support of de la Espriella ahead of the upcoming runoff.
“The path forward is clear: more economic freedom, more security, more trade, and zero tolerance for transnational organized crime and drug trafficking, Milei said.
De la Espriella published a video clip on social media of his phone conversation with Milei, in which the Argentine President is heard cheering de la Espriella and calling on him to “defeat that leftist son of a b*tch.”
Senator Iván Cepeda, and his vice-presidential running mate Aida Marina Quilcue, are running in representation of President Petro’s ruling Historic Pact coalition. Cepeda, President Petro’s protégé, is hoping to become Colombia’s second leftist president ever following Petro’s election in 2022. Petro is constitutionally barred from running for president, as the nation’s constitution explicitly states that no president may serve beyond a single four-year term.
If elected, Cepeda has vowed to build upon Petro’s leftist policies in what he recently described to Colombia’s Noticias RCN as “the Three Revolutions to Make Colombia a Global Power of Life.” Cepeda asserted that his proposals would see a fight against corruption, a “territorial democratization” across Colombia, and the expansion of Petro’s failed “total peace” plan with new negotiations between the Colombian state and criminal organizations. He emphatically rejected fracking and expanding exploration of resources in Colombia.
Other policies detailed by Cepeda this week call for the elimination of Colombia’s National Electoral Council to “democratize” Colombian institutions, as well as the legalization of the cannabis trade in the country. El Tiempo noted this week that although Cepeda removed calls for a Constituent National Assembly to rewrite the Colombian constitution from his campaign promises, the far-left Senator has maintained an “ambiguous” stance on the subject.
Speaking with Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle this month, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) described de la Espriella as being all about “law and order.” On the other hand, Moreno described Cepeda as a “full-blown communist.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.