Far-right lawyer Espriella wins first round of Colombia presidential election, heads to runoff

Far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia's presidential election on Sunday (June 1) and will face Senator Iván Cepeda — the candidate backed by leftist President Gustavo Petro — in a runoff vote.

With 99.9% of ballots counted, independent candidate and Donald Trump admirer Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote (over 10.3 million votes), compared to 40.9% (about 9.6 million votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.

The two will compete in the decisive round on June 21.

Although recent polls had recorded Espriella's rapid rise, most still showed him trailing Cepeda, who for months appeared to hold a solid lead.

Espriella appears to have consolidated much of the vote that previously belonged to right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia — who at one point polled above 20% and ranked second, but finished the first round with 6.9%.

Espriella, who calls himself el Tigre (the Tiger), celebrated the result: “Countrymen, defenders of the homeland, more than 10 million Colombians have placed their trust in el Tigre and joined the herd... In the next 21 days, we will change Colombia's history forever,” he said in a video alongside his wife and children, all wearing Colombia national football team jerseys.

Following a wave of far-right victories in recent years in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras, Colombia remains one of the few Latin American countries under leftist leadership, along with Mexico and Brazil — which will hold presidential elections in October.

Espriella is an open admirer of several right-wing leaders in the region, including U.S. President Donald Trump, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, and Argentina's Javier Milei.

A criminal lawyer and millionaire businessman who has never held public office, Espriella built his campaign around a promise to return to a policy of full confrontation in response to Colombia's worsening security crisis, now considered the worst since the landmark 2016 peace deal between the government and most of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Espriella advocates ending President Petro's “total peace” policy — which negotiates the dismantling of criminal groups (and of which Cepeda is considered a key architect) — and replacing it with an “iron fist” (mano dura) strategy inspired by El Salvador's populist leader Bukele, who has jailed at least 2% of the country's adult population in a controversial gang crackdown. Even Espriella's neatly trimmed beard and habit of wearing a baseball cap have drawn comparisons to Bukele's style.

Espriella has woven the tiger image into much of his campaign. He has caused controversy by attacking journalists and once told a radio host that he was attracting female voters because of his genital size.

He first gained national prominence through years of legal work for figures such as Colombian businessman Álex Saab — considered a key financial figure for Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela and recently extradited by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez to the United States.

In a speech Sunday night, Senator Valencia acknowledged the result and declared her support for Espriella in the runoff.

On the eve of voting day, Espriella dominated media coverage after a Friday evening video call with Ecuador's far-right President Daniel Noboa — who cut ties with President Petro months earlier.

The conversation resembled a meeting between two heads of state, during which they discussed issues such as border security and extradition of criminals. Espriella asked Noboa to lift the additional 75% tariff Ecuador had imposed on Colombian imports; the Ecuadorian president agreed and said the measure would take effect on Monday, immediately after the vote.

Colombia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement describing Noboa's gesture as “deliberate interference in the electoral process,” adding: “This intervention by a foreign head of state in the democratic affairs of another country constitutes a flagrant violation of the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, a threat to national sovereignty, and an attack on the democratic system.”

Despite widespread security concerns, election day passed peacefully.

Recent months have seen an increase in guerrilla attacks, killings, kidnappings, forced displacement, and massacres. Last year, right-wing Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot at a campaign event by a dissident Farc group and later died.