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Abelardo De La Espriella, a criminal defense lawyer with no previous political experience, appeared headed for a razor-thin victory on Sunday in Colombia\u2019s presidential election, in a potential win for his fervent supporters, the global right and President Trump, who had endorsed him.<\/p>\n
Mr. De La Espriella \u2014 who transformed himself from sharply dressed Miami lawyer to populist in a soccer jersey and a straw hat \u2014 won 49.7 percent of the vote with more than 99 percent of the votes counted, according to preliminary official results. Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, a leftist senator and a longtime human rights advocate received 48.7 percent.<\/p>\n
Mr. De La Espriella\u2019s victory would return Colombia to conservative rule after four years under Gustavo Petro, the country\u2019s first leftist president. It would also advance Latin America\u2019s broader shift to the right in Mr. Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
As word of the results spread, Bogot\u00e1, the capital, exploded with the din of shouts, car horns and vuvuzelas. People rushed into the streets, whether to celebrate or to march in opposition. President Petro said online<\/a> that there would be \u201cno president\u201d until the votes had been scrutinized, which is the usual process \u2014 but cries of \u201cOut with Petro\u201d filled the air.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Barranquilla, on Colombia\u2019s Caribbean Coast, fireworks erupted and supporters of Mr. De La Espriella waved flares. When Mr. De La Espriella appeared, he shouted, \u201cColombia, here\u2019s your president!\u201d, and said, \u201cI\u2019m proud of you.\u201d <\/p>\n Mr. Cepeda told supporters in Bogot\u00e1 that he would await the full vote review but accepted the preliminary results. Remarking on the millions who voted for his leftist government, Mr. Cepeda said, \u201cWe stand before the Colombian people to tell you that we are an undeniable force.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On Sunday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that he had called Mr. De La Espriella to congratulate him. \u201cThe Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Mr. De La Espriella, 47, ran a high-voltage campaign complete with machine-generated flames; A.I. videos of tigers, his mascot; and pounding anti-Petro chants that made him somewhat of a celebrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He also vowed to \u201cdisembowel\u201d Colombia\u2019s left and asked the Trump administration to target his political opponents, leading critics to call him an autocrat in the making.<\/p>\n The results, which were announced by the agency overseeing the election, revealed the highest voter turnout<\/a> since Colombia installed a two-round voting system more than three decades ago, as well as the closest margin between two candidates. <\/p>\n Mr. De La Espriella ran on a platform now popular among right-wing leaders across the region: He vowed to restore security amid crime concerns<\/a>, rescue the country from what he portrayed as economic ruin created by the left, and crack down on corruption.<\/p>\n His campaign was stridently nationalistic, claiming the flag, the Colombian national soccer jersey<\/a> and the patriotic slogan \u201cFirme por la patria!\u201d \u2014 \u201cStanding firm for the homeland!\u201d<\/p>\n It nevertheless borrowed ideas, and a deft social media strategy, from the iron-fisted leader of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and from Argentina\u2019s president, Javier Milei, two hugely popular figures in Latin America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Like those leaders, Mr. De La Espriella adopted an aggressive tone. He promised to build megaprisons and to claw back the country from progressive politics and \u201cgender ideology,\u201d putting God and family first.<\/p>\n His vow to hunt down criminals and crush Colombia\u2019s \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d\u2014 Mr. Trump\u2019s favored term \u2014 resonated with supporters while alarming those who opposed him, raising the specter of more bloodshed and authoritarianism.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like a military regime,\u201d said Andro Giovanny Camelo, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many of Mr. De La Espriella\u2019s supporters come from cities, not from the rural areas where armed groups are fighting<\/a> over cocaine-trafficking routes and illegal gold mines. But the candidate seized on fears of a return to the acute violence of decades past, when rebels laid bombs and kidnapped people even on the busy streets of Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He also focused on widespread extortion by criminal groups, which has crippled small businesses.<\/p>\n Karlos Morales, a 28-year-old waiter who voted in Barranquilla on Sunday, said that greater security would lead to more jobs and foreign investment, which suffered under President Petro.<\/p>\n \u201cThe left asked for an opportunity,\u201d said Mr. Morales. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen very good results.\u201d<\/p>\n Underscoring his security message, Mr. De La Espriella campaigned in a bulletproof vest, gave rally speeches from behind bulletproof glass, and denounced the violence of the campaign \u2014 including the killings of another conservative presidential hopeful<\/a> and two of his own campaign workers. .<\/p>\n If he takes office, Mr. De La Espriella will face formidable challenges that could test his popularity, from subduing armed groups that have drones and other sophisticated arms<\/a> to tackling a major budget deficit after Mr. Petro\u2019s runaway spending. He also faces a state takeover of the health system that many Colombians say has made it harder for them to get medical care.<\/p>\n He has projected confidence by pointing to his vice president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While Mr. De La Espriella portrayed himself as an anti-establishment, iron-fisted outsider, he nevertheless chose a respected former commerce minister, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Restrepo, as his running mate, a move that many voters said had calmed their nerves about voting for the outsider.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat gives him credibility,\u201d said Brayan Emanuel Ariza, a 32-year-old business student in Bogot\u00e1. \u201cOtherwise he wouldn\u2019t have gotten so many votes.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that Mr. De La Espriella, who grew up near the Caribbean Coast, represented the energy and playful humor of \u201cEl Caribe,\u201d while Mr. Restrepo from Bogot\u00e1 was \u201cmore serious.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. De La Espriella has argued that he will bring prosperity to Colombia by working more fluidly with the United States, following a contentious relationship between Mr. Petro and Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n Playing up his patriotism, Mr. De La Espriella did not speak at rallies about his close ties to the United States, where he lived for more than a decade in Florida and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen<\/a> in 2023. There were no American flags or MAGA hats.<\/p>\n But he traveled to Florida to drum up support for his run with Republican lawmakers and the Colombian diaspora. And to meet his ambitious security goals, he has said he would enlist Colombia in a new U.S. military coalition<\/a> to combat drug trafficking cartels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After he was heartily endorsed by Mr. Trump<\/a> this month, and received the vocal backing of Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio and others, Mr. De La Espriella began to emphasize that the United States had his back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He ratcheted up his threats on opponents, promising that the U.S. government would come after anyone who obstructed the election by, for example, buying votes to benefit his rival.<\/p>\n Colombians began to take that rhetoric seriously this past week, when U.S. authorities detained a Colombian activist<\/a> in Arizona who had spoken out against Mr. De La Espriella. On the same day, Mr. Rubio issued a memo claiming that the activist, Beto Coral, was deportable because his advocacy interfered with U.S. foreign policy goals.<\/p>\n As Sunday\u2019s election approached, Mr. De La Espriella\u2019s threats turned feverish.<\/p>\n He said in an interview<\/a> that he was \u201csavoring\u201d the prospect of protests if Mr. Petro called for supporters to contest election results \u2014 and promised to bury anyone who challenged his win in prisons \u201c15 meters underground without light and without water.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. De La Espriella\u2019s career has been characterized by audacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Miami, he became known for representing high-profile clients back in Colombia, including many charged with drug trafficking and corruption or embroiled in scandals linked to right-wing paramilitaries. He has said he took only cases that gave him \u201cvertigo.\u201d<\/p>\n His client list included Alex Saab, who was later charged by the U.S. authorities with helping Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela\u2019s former leader, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars meant to help the poor. Mr. De La Espriella has downplayed his relationship with Mr. Saab, who is now in U.S. custody.<\/p>\n Before his run, Mr. De La Espriella was also known as a flamboyant bon vivant. He sang opera, wore tailored suits and self-produced an album of covers of hits by artists like Andrea Bocelli and Frank Sinatra. In the video<\/a> for his Spanish cover of \u201cMy Way,\u201d <\/span>he appears eating sushi on a private jet.<\/p>\n He also formed businesses, from a piano bar to a luxury goods line called De La Espriella Style, and went in on a rum company. His campaign sold pricey, limited-edition watches<\/a> to donors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many in Colombia recognized a familiar figure in the candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never seen two leaders more aligned than Donald Trump and Abelardo De La Espriella,\u201d said Manuel Jos\u00e9 Cepeda, a prominent political scientist and former president of Colombia\u2019s Constitutional Court, who is not related to the left-wing candidate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. De La Espriella created a groundswell by sidestepping the usual power brokers and going straight to the people \u2014 starting with their cellphones.<\/p>\n His online messages alternated between shouting attacks on the left, videos of sweaty workouts and A.I. videos that portrayed his rivals facing him in a soccer match.<\/p>\n He also showed off his wife and four children and talked about his daily routine, which he said started with prayer \u2014 a key plank of his campaign, which targeted the religious right.<\/p>\n Mr. De La Espriella, if elected, would take over an extremely polarized population.<\/p>\n On Sunday night, thousands converged on a convention center in Bogot\u00e1, where Mr. Petro told<\/a> supporters to go fight for the presidency. Some cried and hugged. A man shouted, \u201cwe all came to support Cepeda,\u201d and called for protests to stay peaceful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But in much of Colombia, people seemed to have dressed up in yellow jerseys and tiger costumes to support Mr. De La Espriella. A sense of passionate optimism prevailed, along with simple curiosity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe left didn\u2019t work,\u201d said Juan Manuel Viarte, a 32-year-old engineering student in Bogot\u00e1. \u201cI want to try something new.\u201d<\/p>\n Genevieve Glatsky and Federico Rios contributed reporting from Barranquilla, Colombia, Luc\u00eda Cholakian Herrera contributed reporting from Bogot\u00e1 and Jorge Valencia contributed reporting from Cartagena, Colombia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n