Up until 2022, Colombia had never had a left-wing president, at least not in modern history. But, for some reason, it tried to experiment with one between 2022 and 2026. Not only did they vote in a leftist, but they voted in a corrupt socialist clown. Four years of Gustavo Petro was, apparently, enough.
As I wrote on Friday, the Colombian presidential elections were held on Sunday, May 31, and it was down to three candidates:
On the left, you have Petro’s hand-picked candidate, senator, and human rights activist Iván Cepeda. He’ll be more of the same: heavy spending on social programs and pointless peace talks with gangs and guerrillas that go nowhere, instead of actually cracking down on crime. He’s leading in the polls right now, anywhere from 35 to 42%, depending on which poll you believe.
But don’t panic. One reason why he’s leading in the polls is that the right is split between Abelardo de la Espriella, aka “El Tigre,” and Paloma Valencia. El Tigre is the outsider, a bombastic lawyer who has a little Trump and a little Nayib Bukele in him. He’s promising mega-prisons to deal with the criminal groups that plague the country and a crackdown on drugs and crime. And he’s gaining a lot of enthusiasm right now. Most of the emails I receive from Colombians want him to win.
Valencia, a center-right senator, is more of an establishment conservative. She’s a big Petro critic and campaigns on stabilizing the country’s economy and restoring security.
Valencia actually won the nomination as the right-wing candidate in the country’s primaries earlier this year. Cepeda was the left-wing winner. El Tigre (“The Tiger”) had to kind of do things on his own. And boy, did he. Even as I wrote about the election on Friday, he was not projected to perform as well as he did on Sunday.
I should have know better — I’ve receive so many emails from Colombians over the last few months telling me that he was their guy.
Going into, it looked like Cepeda would receive the most votes, and that the rest would be split between de la Espriella and Valencia, but de la Espriella actually came out on top with about a 3%-ish lead.
Aquí hay un mensaje claro la izquierda está derrotada a pesar de los narco millones y del apoyo de grupos violentos. La izquierda fue aplastada en Colombia. Claro hay segunda vuelta, pero hoy el mensaje fue contundente. Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay y muy pronto Brasil 🇧🇷… pic.twitter.com/BipS7iOgUj
— Arturo McFields Yescas (@ArturoMcfields) May 31, 2026
Now, he didn’t get 50% of the vote, which was needed for an outright win. The vote will go to a runoff on June 21. Anything can happen in the next three weeks, especially when the current president is not to be trusted and pushing hard for his legacy candidate. But as I’m typing this, Valencia actually just threw her support behind de la Espriella, something I wasn’t 100% sure was going to happen, so if her voters follow her lead (and there is no funny business), he should win the runoff very easily.
I find it interesting that she did so this quickly after the results were announced. Common sense Colombians really want to take their country back.
It’s in Spanish, but I’ll share anyway.
ÚLTIMA HORA
Colombianos!
¡La gran Paloma Valencia acaba de dar un golpe histórico!
Acaba de anunciar su respaldo total a Abelardo de la Espriella de cara a la segunda vuelta presidencial.
Esto no es cualquier apoyo… ¡Esto es la derecha uniéndose con fuerza para barrer del… pic.twitter.com/cRV8qvUC19
— Jhonf Fonseca (@Jhonffonseca) May 31, 2026
De la Espriella also posted a celebratory video and said, “Let’s defeat tyranny and absolutism! We made it to the second round thanks to the over 10 million Colombians who responded to the roar. In 21 days, we’ll make history!”
¡Vamos a derrotar la tiranía y el absolutismo!
Pasamos a segunda vuelta gracias a los más de 10 millones de colombianos que respondieron al rugido.
¡En 21 días haremos historia!
Los espero en el cubo de cristal del Malecón del Río, para celebrar juntos esta victoria.
Hoy más… pic.twitter.com/wf7ANOusVZ
— Abelardo De La Espriella (@ABDELAESPRIELLA) May 31, 2026
A lot of members of the U.S. Congress are congratulating de la Espriella as well. Here’s one from Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who was born in Colombia:
What a day in Colombia!
Congratulations to @ABDELAESPRIELLA for receiving the most votes.
The beauty of democracy was on full display as the people of Colombia exercised their power to chart their future, in their own hands, with their own voices.
As an observer, I’m truly…
— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) May 31, 2026
So, who is exactly is this man politically? The three political leaders he admires are Donald Trump, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, and Javier Milei of Argentina, which tells you a lot of what you need to know about how he’ll lead Colombia. I just finished writing about Operation Southern Spear and how successful it has been and how it will continue full steam ahead. Imagine having a partner like this in Colombia of all places who is willing to combat organized crime and drug trafficking in a heavy-handed way. This could be huge for the security of our country and the entire Western Hemisphere.
Related: Operation Southern Spear Is Working, and It’s Not Coming to an End Anytime Soon
His main campaign promise was to be tough on crime, and he says he will build mega-prisons, like Bukele’s CECOT. He’s pro-United States and pro-Israel, and he has the support of some members of our Congress. He supports the right to bear arms, he’s pro-life, and in favor of a smaller government. And rather than “peace talks” with cartels and Colombia’s notorious armed groups, he wants to bomb the heck out of them.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, but it’s looking more and more that Colombia will be the next Latin American country to swing to the right. With any luck, we’ll see de la Espriella at the next Shield of the Americas summit.
By the way, look for MSM headlines to start calling him “far-right” and “authoritarian” and other little leftist dog whistle terms ASAP.
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