Free Republic

US President Donald Trump congratulates Abelardo De La Espriella, a nationalist lawyer who has been elected president of Colombia according to a near-complete but not yet official count. Trump adds that he looks forward to working together to build a powerful relationship between the two countries. The US leader had backed De La Espriella, who has also pledged to renew diplomatic ties with Israel and open an embassy in Jerusalem.

The right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has narrowly won Colombia's presidential election, according to the initial vote count, marking a dramatic shift in how the government will tackle the country's internal armed conflict and violence. Espriella, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, has pledged a military crackdown on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking and crime. He appeared to defeat the left-wing Iván Cepeda, a close ally of the president, Gustavo Petro. Reacting to the result, he said "today begins a new stage for our country, a stage built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who...

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.98% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, De la Espriella had secured 12.95m votes, or 49.66%, just 249,901 more than Cepeda, who received 12.7m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when De la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes. De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s...

In Colombia, they did it! After polls and media accounts had indicated that FARC-linked leftist Ivan Cepeda could win the first round of the election, voters went and handed the tough-talking conservative the victory. That was a stinging rebuke to Colombia's ruling leftist party and its odious president, Gustavo Petro, with voters giving them the boot and replacing them with a firmly, pro-Trump, pro-private sector, anti-crime conservative, who, worse (for them), seems to be on a mission to end the scourge of leftism forever. Abelardo De La Espellier, known as 'el tigre' won the first round of the presidential election...