Colombia heads to a presidential run-off between a leftist and a Trump-backed hardliner
Colombia holds a presidential run-off on June 22, with more than 41 million eligible voters choosing between two sharply opposed visions of how to govern a country facing rising violence. Leftist lawmaker Ivan Cepeda represents continuity with outgoing President Gustavo Petro, including dialogue with armed groups, while far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella — a political outsider endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump — campaigns on a tough-on-crime platform modeled on El Salvador’s mass-incarceration approach, including a pledge to build 10 large prisons.
In the May 31 first round, de la Espriella led with 44 percent to Cepeda’s 41 percent, setting up a close contest. Security dominates the race: last year recorded 14,780 homicides, the highest since at least 2015, and extortion cases roughly doubled over the past decade. The violence is driven less by ideology than by armed groups competing over drug-trafficking routes a decade after the 2016 FARC peace agreement.
The outcome will shape Colombia’s relationship with Washington and the future of Petro-era policies on health reform, public debt and negotiations with armed groups. A de la Espriella win would mark a sharp turn toward confrontation; a Cepeda win would extend an experiment in dialogue that critics blame for the security backslide.