{"id":1419,"date":"2026-06-01T11:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2026-06-01T11:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:04:07","slug":"pro-trump-candidate-pulls-ahead-in-colombia-presidential-vote-as-ruling-party-sows-doubt-in-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1419","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Trump candidate pulls ahead in Colombia presidential vote as ruling party sows doubt in results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

BOGOT\u00c1, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Tough-on-crime outsider Aberaldo de la Espriella took the lead in Colombia\u2019s presidential race in the first round of voting Sunday night, setting up a runoff with Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, an ally of Colombia\u2019s outgoing President Gustavo Petro who questioned the results of the election.<\/p>\n

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With no candidate taking an outright majority of the vote, the election will head to a second round in June.<\/p>\n

But Cepeda and Petro sowed doubt in the results of the first round, claiming without evidence that hundreds of thousands of votes were manipulated and that foreign actors manipulated the results of the election.<\/p>\n

Cepeda said he was waiting for electoral authorities to scrutinize the results before accepting the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly when the vote-counting commissions have fully clarified what happened will we comment on tonight\u2019s results,\u201d Cepeda said, though he acknowledged the vote was likely going to a second round.<\/p>\n

Cepeda won 41% of the vote, while de la Espriella won 44% of the votes, with 99.98% of the results counted by electoral authorities.<\/p>\n

Cepeda is a progressive senator who has promised to carry on a fraught plan to achieve \u201ctotal peace\u201d by negotiating peace pacts with guerrillas and criminal gangs. He was consistently leading polls in the run up to the Sunday vote, but in the weeks leading up to the election de la Espriella rapidly gained support with a promise that he would crack down on armed groups.<\/p>\n

The neck-and-neck results likely spell trouble for Cepeda in the run-off election, as de la Espriella is expected to scoop up support from voters who threw their support behind another conservative candidate in the first round.<\/p>\n

De la Espriella \u2014 a newcomer known as El Tigre, or \u201cThe Tiger\u201d \u2014 has sought to portray himself as a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the United States of America and democratic parties monitor this runoff election. I will lead this battle; I will be Colombia\u2019s best warrior,\u201d de la Espriella said in an impassioned speech Sunday night, pounding his chest behind bullet-proof glass in front of supporters.<\/p>\n

Colombian voters are weighing peace deals or a crackdown<\/p>\n

Voters across Latin America are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies aimed at addressing the root issues of conflict, such as lack of opportunities for young people and corruption. Instead, voters have increasingly turned to candidates promising heavy-handed security crackdowns.<\/p>\n

The polarized vote comes as the Trump administration is playing a more aggressive role in Latin America than any U.S. government in decades, placing mounting pressure on countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador to crack down on crime.<\/p>\n

The election has also underscored two sharply diverging visions for the future of peace in a country marked by years of conflict.<\/p>\n

On one side, Cepeda has promised to continue Petro\u2019s progressive agenda and a largely failed effort to negotiate peace pacts with armed groups, following a plan that\u2019s likely to sharply contrast with Trump\u2019s vision for Latin America.<\/p>\n

On the other side, de la Espriella has promised to fiercely crack down on criminal groups and build 10 mega-prisons, echoing the war on gangs policy of El Salvador\u2019s President Nayib Bukele, which has driven down homicide rates but fueled accusations of human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

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\u201cToday\u2019s election isn\u2019t just important for us, it\u2019s important for all of Latin America,\u201d said Juan Acevedo, a 62-year-old sociologist walking out of a voting station in Colombia\u2019s capital on Sunday morning. \u201cWhoever wins here will suggest to the region if progressive policies will continue or if things are going to return to the right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vote is seen as a referendum on Petro<\/p>\n

The election \u2014 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC \u2014 as seen as a referendum on Petro\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

The deal a decade ago had offered hope to break the nation\u2019s vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government. But violence has since roared back, in part because armed groups have taken advantage of peace negotiations with Petro\u2019s government to make territorial gains.<\/p>\n

That came to a head in the lead-up to the election. Criminal groups have increasingly launched drone strikes, armed attacks have plagued the race and last June, 39-year-old politician and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was fatally shot at a political rally. Still, Cepeda and Petro have maintained strong support among many because of progressive policies pushed forward under Petro, such as boosting the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Both de la Espriella and Valencia have touted their affinity for Trump, though Valencia\u2019s electoral loss dealt another blow to a once powerful political current known as Uribismo.<\/p>\n

Colombians are divided on the way forward<\/p>\n

Maria Eugenia, a 57-year-old seamstress on Friday in downtown Bogot\u00e1, Colombia\u2019s capital, said she welcomed an all-out offensive on an expanding slate of criminal groups, regardless of the human cost.<\/p>\n

While she approved of Petro\u2019s pushes to improve the country\u2019s medical infrastructure, she said she was voting for de la Espriella because violence in rural areas of the country has gotten out of hand. She said negotiating peace pacts was effectively rewarding armed groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, whenever you come down with a heavy hand, there\u2019s always going to be debate,\u201d she said. \u201cBut some people are going to have to fall to clean up what needs to be cleaned up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, like Acevedo, the sociologist, said a security crackdown such as the one promoted by de la Espriella meant a return to past military campaigns that he said only reinforced Colombia\u2019s cycle of violence.<\/p>\n

He said he supports Cepeda, adding that while the government hasn\u2019t done a perfect job \u2014 failing to pass ambitious reforms and follow through on promises to reduce violence \u2014 it was better to continue pushing forward with their political coalition\u2019s efforts to take a different approach in addressing the country\u2019s violence.<\/p>\n

He added that his main critique of Petro\u2019s administration was the power grabs made by criminal groups as they negotiated with the government. He said he hoped that if Cepeda won, he would strike a better balance between negotiating peace and maintaining control over those groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a country that has lived through 60 years of conflict,\u201d Acevedo said. \u201cThe danger here is that we return to the times where everyone is saying that the only way to solve our problems is with bullets and more war.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/p>\n

Read more Colombia awaits results in highly polarized presidential election<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOGOT\u00c1, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Tough-on-crime outsider Aberaldo de la Espriella took the lead in Colombia’s presidential race in the first round of voting Sunday night, setting up a runoff with Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, an ally of Colombia\u2019s outgoing President Gustavo Petro who questioned the results of the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPro-Trump candidate pulls ahead in Colombia presidential vote as ruling party sows doubt in results - South Florida Moving Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1419\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-Trump candidate pulls ahead in Colombia presidential vote as ruling party sows doubt in results - 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