More than 41 million eligible Colombian voters head to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff between lawmaker Iván Cepeda, the chosen successor of outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro, and Abelardo de la Espriella, a criminal-defense lawyer nicknamed "El Tigre" who has President Donald Trump's public endorsement. The two emerged on May 31 from a first-round field of 11 candidates, with de la Espriella finishing first on 44 percent and Cepeda second on 41 percent, according to official results.
The contest is the clearest referendum yet on Petro's six-year experiment in negotiating with Colombia's armed groups. Cepeda has campaigned on continuing that approach, although it has produced only one demobilization — an armed group of about 100 members that began turning in its weapons Thursday. De la Espriella has campaigned on the opposite: a Nayib Bukele-style program of mass incarceration, including a promise to build 10 mega-prisons, alongside U.S.-backed security operations against narco-terrorist camps and tighter bilateral cooperation with Washington.
What is at stake
Last year was Colombia's most violent in at least a decade. Authorities recorded 14,780 homicides — the highest since 2015 — driven by clashes among illegal armed groups that abandoned the FARC's old ideological framing for the financial benefits of drug trafficking. Among those killed last year was conservative presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe. Cases of extortion reached 13,417 in 2025, more than double the 2015 figure, Al Jazeera reported, citing official statistics. The runoff falls almost exactly 10 years after Colombia signed the historic peace accord with the FARC.
Trump's endorsement of de la Espriella, posted on social media, called him "a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader," Fox News reported. The Trump-endorsed candidate's campaign has leaned into the tiger imagery and merchandise to project a Bukele-style outsider posture. He has tied his campaign to U.S. operations against narco-trafficking and to stronger U.S.-Colombia relations.
The Petro shadow
Petro, who is barred from seeking re-election under Colombia's single-term rule, has publicly cast doubt on the first-round result without offering evidence, after Cepeda — who had led pre-vote polls — failed to win outright. A separate congressional investigation has proposed suspending Petro while examining allegations he improperly intervened in the campaign. Petro denies wrongdoing and remains in office.
Counterpoint
The two camps offer different readings of what Colombian voters are buying. Al Jazeera quoted John Manrique, a Bogota lawyer, framing the runoff as a test of national tolerance: "Right now, what worries me is the polarisation that exists between us: There are two very extreme sides, and the violence is concerning." Cepeda's coalition argues that Bukele's mass-incarceration model in El Salvador has lowered homicide rates only at the cost of documented human-rights abuses, and that an aggressive crackdown would re-energize the kind of cycle Colombia signed the FARC accord to break. De la Espriella's allies counter that the Petro dialogue strategy has produced almost no demobilization in three years and that the country can no longer wait. The result is expected Sunday night.