A flamboyant US-backed lawyer who has never held public office narrowly won Colombia’s polarizing presidential runoff Sunday.
With almost all the votes counted, Abelardo de la Espriella held 49.66 percent of the vote versus left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda’s 48.70 percent.
The 47-year-old’s slender win triggered demonstrations, but will ease ties with Washington and extend a regional right-wing wave centered on “iron fist” security policies.
“We are beginning a new era!” he told supporters in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla from behind thick bulletproof glass.
“For those who have sown violence, terror, drug trafficking, and corruption all these years, their time is up!” he said, echoing his vow to wage war against drug-running guerrilla groups.
He said Sunday that Donald Trump expressed “his support” and congratulated him for a runoff victory over a candidate from the ruling left. “I just spoke a few minutes ago with the president of the United States, President Donald Trump, and he has expressed his support, his recognition of our victory,” Abelardo de la Espriella said in a social media post.
US President Donald Trump cheered the result, exclaiming “He Won, BIG!” as a host of right-wing leaders from across the Americas clamored to offer congratulations and support.
But after a campaign marred by guerrilla bomb attacks and the murder of a leading conservative presidential candidate, there was a quick sign of how tough it will be for De la Espriella to unite this deeply divided nation.
De la Espriella supporters poured onto the streets of several cities wearing the canary-yellow national football jersey he had adopted as a campaign uniform. They waved flags, blew horns and expressed hope that “The Tiger,” as they call him, would bring security.
His win marks a return to power for Colombia’s right wing, which has ruled for all but four of the last 200 years. It is likely to test Colombia’s fragile decade-old peace process.
During the campaign, the dual US-Colombian national, told AFP that he would scrap peace talks with dissident groups and launch a 90-day campaign of US-backed airstrikes against them.
In the 10 years since a landmark peace accord was signed with FARC guerrillas, much of Colombia has prospered. AFP
