President Donald Trump congratulated Conservative attorney and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella on becoming president of Colombia Monday at the White House.Yet while he holds a slim lead and is the favorite to win over left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda, authorities have yet to officially certify the result.With 99.9% of votes counted, de la Espriella led with 49.7% to Cepeda's 48.7%.
De la Espriella, known to his supporters as "El Tigre," dominated in the country's mountainous interior and the vote-rich state of Antioquia, while Cepeda won in the capital Bogotá and performed well in coastal regions, following trends of recent presidential elections.Cepeda has challenged the results, citing irregularities at thousands of polling stations.Nonetheless, overturning the election would be unprecedented in Colombian history.If de la Espriella does hold out and wins, it will mirror a continent-wide rightward shift seen in recent electoral results in Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, where conservative Keiko Fujimori appears poised to win the presidency.ANTI-CARTEL HARDLINER CHANNELS TRUMP IN BID TO END COLOMBIA'S LEFTIST ERA IN PIVOTAL ELECTIONColombia's right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, from the Defensores de la Patria movement, delivers a speech to supporters during a campaign rally in Palmira, near Cali, Colombia on May 14, 2026.
Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP via Getty Images)Donald Trump congratulated de la Espriella during a signing at the White House on Monday.Trump told reporters that, "He called me last night, and he thanked me for the endorsement.
He won.He won the election," Trump added in response to a question on relations between the U.S.
and Colombia that things would be "Much better.It'll be better.
He's going to be a great president."The election featured two candidates representing polar opposites of the Colombian political spectrum.De la Espriella, known as ‘El Tigre’ by ...