Colombians return to the polls Sunday for a presidential runoff between a far-right firebrand who calls himself “the Tiger” and a left-wing senator from the ruling celebration, in a contest that displays sharply completely different visions for the nation and will redefine Bogotá’s relationship with the United States.
Sunday’s election comes after the strong showing by the far-right outsider, Abelardo de la Espriella, in the first spherical of voting in May, the place he gained 43.74% of the vote. The leftist candidate Iván Cepeda from ruling Historic Pact coalition, who’s backed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, got here in second place with just below 41% of the ballots.
Neither gained the majority wanted to win outright and are going through one another in the second-round vote.
Shortly after the election, Donald Trump gave his “complete and total” backing to de la Espriella, because of his “tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, personally,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.
The election comes at a second of mounting political pressure and polarization in the nation, hastened by the collapse of the political middle and an increase in political violence, specialists say.
Who are the candidates?
De la Espriella has run a marketing campaign constructed on spectacle. He has recorded music, marketed his personal rum model, and has relied on AI-generated content material to attach with audiences on social media. Political analyst Miguel Luján instructed NCS that de la Espriella’s showmanship was undoubtedly a consider his lead in the first-round vote.
A twin Colombian-US citizen, de la Espriella espouses an “iron fist” method to crime and corruption. He’s spoken favorably of Trump’s insurance policies and vowed to construct mega prisons for Colombia’s felony leaders in the same vein to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. His marketing campaign additionally advocates for a free-market economic agenda, casting a smaller state, decrease taxes and useful resource extraction as the path to restoring order and development.
Before coming into politics, he was a high-profile felony protection lawyer who constructed his profession defending a number of controversial shoppers, together with Alex Saab, the alleged financier and shut ally of Venezuela’s ousted strongman Nicolas Maduro.
The 47-year-old has never held elected office and certified for the poll by way of citizen signatures somewhat than a serious celebration.
De la Espriella has run on a tradition warfare platform, casting himself as a defender of the “traditional family,” whereas his marketing campaign has opposed abortion, adoption by same-sex {couples}, and “gender-ideology.” He has additionally stated he would govern by way of emergency decrees to behave quick in opposition to crime.
In an interview with NCS final month, the far-right candidate highlighted his ties to like-minded political circles in Washington and stated he was assured he might absolutely restore diplomatic relations with the United States to collectively confront Colombia’s safety disaster.
His rival, Iván Cepeda, goals to mobilize Petro’s existing following somewhat than courting voters past it. He is the son of an assassinated senator for Patriotic Union – a left-wing celebration fashioned in the Nineteen Eighties throughout a peace course of involving the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, identified by the acronym the FARC, and the Communist Party. Cepeda and his household spent years in exile in Europe, the place he constructed a profession as a human-rights advocate earlier than coming into the Senate.
The senator earned extra first spherical votes than Petro gained in 2022 – however fell in need of the decisive victory the authorities had hoped for. He has solid de la Espriella as a “return to the past,” saying that his counterpart’s base represents the “fascist far right.”
He has centered his campaign on combating inequality, deepening agrarian reform and tackling corruption. He has additionally criticized a long time of US-backed counternarcotics coverage and opposed army intervention in Latin America, reflecting a extra skeptical view of Washington’s regional safety agenda.
Cepeda defines himself as a humanist formed by a long time of human rights work. In an interview with NCS in late May, he dominated out perpetuating himself in energy, saying 4 years is sufficient and that he “firmly believes in democratic rotation.”
Cepeda additionally stated he would protect components of Petro’s social agenda, whereas signaling he would search to vary the authorities’s safety technique and renew struggles to fight corruption after a sequence of scandals marred the outgoing authorities. He stated Colombia confronted “immense challenges” and that any talks with armed teams should produce “clear results.”
What are the most important points?
Petro, who’s constitutionally barred from searching for reelection, launched his 2022 “Total Peace” coverage to deal with Colombia’s long-running inner armed battle which has seen dissident factions, guerrilla teams and felony organizations compete for territorial management.
Luis Villamarín, a retired Colombian Army colonel and safety analyst, stated almost 4 years into Petro’s presidency, Colombians are seeing little evidence that the technique has delivered the safety beneficial properties it promised — a failure that is now shaping the presidential race.
“What we see is not less war. It is the same war, divided among more groups,” he stated.
Since the landmark 2016 peace deal, Colombia’s battle has grown extra fragmented. The International Committee of the Red Cross stated 2025 was the worst 12 months for civilians in a decade, with greater than 900 folks killed or wounded by explosive units. The assassination of the center-right presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay final August whereas he was holding a rally in the capital Bogotá, despatched shivers by way of the nation, turning into a logo of Petro’s shortcoming in relation to combating crime.
For de la Espriella, the resurgence of violence is proof that Colombia must return to a harder military approach. Cepeda, on the different hand, has argued that negotiations stay vital in a battle too dispersed to unravel by drive alone, although he acknowledges that “Total Peace” has fallen brief.
De la Espriella has called for utilizing aggressive army techniques in opposition to armed teams, together with a controversial bombing marketing campaign in coordination with the United States, banning imports of precursor supplies used to make fentanyl — a part of what he calls a “Plan Colombia 2.0” — and making a specialised process drive to seize extortion gang leaders.
Cepeda says Colombia can not merely militarize its manner out of a battle and has supplied a center method of defending dialogue, calling for stronger enforcement and extra seen outcomes. He has pledged to attract a “red line” in opposition to any negotiations with teams that proceed assassinating social leaders, and told NCS that talks should produce “clear results” — although he has supplied few specifics on how he would implement that customary.
Security shouldn’t be the solely factor on voters’ minds. Analysts point out that Colombians’ anxieties have moved towards the state of the well being system after the Petro authorities did not implement a public well being reform.
Venezuela hangs over the race as properly. Political scientist Alejo Vargas, a professor at the National University of Colombia, told NCS that the disaster subsequent door has left many Colombians fearful {that a} second leftist authorities might push the nation towards its neighbor’s destiny — a fear sharpened by Petro’s outreach to Caracas, which the opposition has condemned.
The election has not been missing in drama. After initially elevating considerations about preliminary leads to the first spherical alongside Petro, Cepeda accepted the end result. Electoral authorities and worldwide observers have repeatedly defended the integrity of the course of.
Last week, a lawmaker triggered a firestorm with her legally unviable try to droop Petro till after the election. Petro has grow to be a central participant in the runoff, attacking de la Espriella marketing campaign whereas selling Cepeda, analysts say.
De la Espriella, nonetheless, heads into the second spherical with each momentum and arithmetic on his aspect. His first-round whole already sat inside attain of a majority, and the conservative bloc has moved shortly to consolidate behind him. Paloma Valencia, who completed a distant third with beneath 7%, threw her support to him inside hours of the outcome, as did former President Álvaro Uribe.
Cepeda’s path is steeper. Analysts broadly agree he has less room to grow than his rival, having run a marketing campaign constructed on mobilizing Petro’s current base somewhat than reaching past it.
Regardless of the outcome, the election has already redrawn Colombia’s political map. “More than polarization, what we’re seeing is a broadening of the political landscape,” Sandra Borda, a political scientist at the Universidad de los Andes, instructed NCS.
“The peace process opened a lot of ground for the left. To the same degree, it inevitably (opened) ground to the right.”