Here is your Monday Sociedad Media newsletter covering the latest developments in Colombia’s presidential election.
Colombia’s De la Espriella Wins First Round in Massive Upset — Runoff Set for June 21
BOGOTÁ — Right-wing outsider Abelardo de la Espriella stunned Colombia and the region Sunday by winning the presidential first round with 43.7% of the vote — a result that defied nearly every poll heading into election day.
The lawyer and political newcomer from Barranquilla, who has drawn comparisons to Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, now faces leftist Senator Iván Cepeda in a June 21 runoff after outgoing President Gustavo Petro and Cepeda immediately rejected the preliminary results, claiming without evidence that hundreds of thousands of votes were manipulated by foreign actors.
If De La Espriella Wins, Colombia Could Seal Latin America’s Right-Wing Revolution
LATIN AMERICA — A victory by Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia’s June 21 runoff would mark the potential capstone of the most significant political realignment Latin America has seen in a generation — one that has already swept five countries from left to right in less than a year.
For the first time in over two decades, the three largest South American economies — Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia — would simultaneously fall under right-wing governance, driven by a regional electorate exhausted by crime, economic frustration, and the governance failures of the post-Pink Tide left.
With Brazil’s own presidential election set for October, the dominoes are still falling.
Noboa Drops Colombia Tariffs After Meeting With De la Espriella — Petro Calls It Election Interference
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa spent five months escalating tariffs on Colombian imports — from 30% to 50% to 100% — framing the measures as a “security tax” tied to Bogotá’s failure to combat drug trafficking and illegal mining along their shared border.
Then, less than 48 hours before Colombia’s presidential first round, Noboa got on a ten-minute video call with opposition candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and announced he was eliminating the tariffs entirely — bypassing the Petro government and triggering accusations of deliberate foreign interference in a sovereign election.
