Far-right millionaire Abelardo de la Espriella wins Colombia runoff

Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer who styles himself an "outsider", has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.65% of ballots counted in the preliminary tally, de la Espriella had 12.91m votes (49.65%) to Cepeda’s 12.67m (48.7%), a margin of 248,310 votes; 1.6% of ballots were cast blank.

The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when de la Espriella led by 673,000 votes. His victory marks a swing back to the right after four years under Gustavo Petro, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election and backed Cepeda.

The result is being seen as part of a broader wave of rightwing wins across Latin America after recent victories by Nasry Asfura in Honduras and José Antonio Kast in Chile, while Keiko Fujimori currently leads the count in Peru. De la Espriella also received the endorsement of US president Donald Trump after the first round.

Colombia

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