The far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella (Defenders of the Homeland) won this Sunday (21) the presidential elections in Colombia. The 47-year-old lawyer’s narrow victory imposed a defeat on President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist ruler in the country, who was unable to elect his political heir, senator Ivan Cepeda (Historical Pact).
With 99.58% of the ballot boxes counted, in a preliminary count, the National Electoral Council (CNE) reported that De la Espriella obtains 12,914,381 votesequivalent to 49.66%. Cepeda received 12,663,687 (48.69%).
Fan of the President of the United States, Donald Trumpand the representative of El Salvador, Nayib BukeleAbelardo de la Espriella Prometheus get closer to Washington and Tel-Aviv. Calling himself “El Tigre”, he told the agency AFP which also intends to launch a 90-day offensive against Colombian armed groups with Israeli and US support.
With dual nationality, Colombian and North American, De la Espriella opposes the peace policies with which Petro tried to negotiate with armed groups. The signing of the agreement with the FARC guerrillas in 2016 brought a few years of calm. However, a decade later, the presidential campaign was marked by violence by armed actors with bombs, explosive drones and assassination of a candidate. De la Espriella blames Petro, whom he calls “mafia boss”, and threatened to take the matter to the United States courts.
With information from AFP
