Colombia’s presidential election heads to runoff between far-right firebrand and leftist heir to Petro

Millions of Colombians went to the polls Sunday in a high-stakes presidential election that is now set for a runoff between two starkly different candidates. With nearly all votes tallied, far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella held 44% support, while far-left Senator Iván Cepeda, President Gustavo Petro’s chosen successor, secured 41%.

The race, which initially featured 14 candidates, effectively narrowed to three names in the final weeks. Right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia, backed by former President Álvaro Uribe, finished a distant third with 7%. Despite a last-minute polling surge for Espriella — an AtlasIntel survey published last week had him trailing Cepeda by just over one percentage point — the outcome sets up a bitter June 21 runoff between two men who represent opposing visions for Colombia’s future.

Espriella has modeled his campaign after President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, using pyrotechnics at rallies and positioning himself as an anti-establishment outsider. He has called for bombing trafficker encampments, ending all negotiations with drug cartels, building ten maximum-security private megaprisons inspired by El Salvador’s CECOT, and resuming aerial fumigation of coca fields with glyphosate. His combative style — including public clashes with female journalists — has drawn both criticism and fervent support from voters weary of a security crisis that has left more than 50 massacres documented this year alone.

Cepeda, meanwhile, has campaigned on continuity with Petro’s policies: promoting negotiations with guerrilla groups and cartels, and maintaining a “soft hand” on coca cultivation while focusing on alternative development. His opponents accuse him of FARC ties, which he denies. Daniel Mejía, a drug policy professor at the Universidad de los Andes, described Cepeda’s approach as lenient toward both growers and the organized criminal groups that oversee cocaine production.

Security has dominated the campaign, second only to healthcare in voter concerns. The election cycle has been marred by the assassination of a presidential candidate, bombings, kidnappings, and the killing of dozens of local political leaders. In rural areas, observers have documented voter intimidation by armed groups. Last year, Colombia’s most powerful drug lord directly threatened violence ahead of the vote, warning against what he called “advancing warmongering sectors.” Cepeda last week flatly rejected any armed-group pressure on the electorate.

For the Trump administration, the outcome carries significant geopolitical implications. Colombia has long been the United States’ top ally in counternarcotics and a key trade partner, but relations soured under Petro. The State Department revoked Petro’s visa, the Treasury sanctioned him personally, and the U.S. Justice Department reportedly opened a probe into his alleged meetings with drug traffickers. In 2025, Trump formally determined Colombia had “failed demonstrably” in its counter-narcotics commitments, though tensions eased after the two leaders met in Washington in February.

“This is the election where the Colombian people are going to decide which way they’re going to go,” said Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who was born in Colombia. “If Colombia, heaven forbid, goes the wrong way, what you’re going to see is all the bad actors currently in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua flow through to Colombia. That would be an abject disaster for Latin America.”