Trump-backed hardliner faces leftist in high-stakes Colombia vote

BOGOTÁ, June 21 — Colombians pick a new president today, a choice between a hard-right White House-backed lawyer and a leftist senator that will decide the fate of the country’s stumbling peace process and strained ties with Washington.

Up to 41 million voters will choose between frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella and his rival Ivan Cepeda—the latest in a series of Latin American elections hyper-polarized between left and right.

Security has dominated a campaign marred by bomb attacks and the murder of a leading conservative presidential candidate in broad daylight in Bogota.

De la Espriella, a dual US-Colombian national who calls himself “The Tiger,” won May’s first-round vote by promising to wage war on drug-running guerrilla groups who refused to sign a 2016 peace deal.

He told AFP that if elected, he wants US backing for a 90-day campaign of airstrikes against armed groups producing coca, the main ingredient in cocaine.

Cepeda is a 63-year-old senator and human rights defender and has been a key figure behind the policy of negotiating “total peace” with armed groups.

He is the son of a communist senator killed by right-wing paramilitaries and is the political heir to outgoing President Gustavo Petro—who is constitutionally barred from running.

Critics say Petro’s leftist government has allowed armed groups to grow richer from trafficking, expand their territory and gain power.

While Cepeda recently told AFP that he would “take stock” of peace talks and “make the necessary changes,” he has long favored dialogue over an iron fist security approach.

De la Espriella meanwhile hopes to replicate the right-wing wave that has swept rightist candidates to power in Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras.

He advocates the right to carry arms, the construction of mega-prisons, fracking, cutting the size of the state, and has said that it would be “ideal” to dollarise Colombia’s economy.

From behind bulletproof glass, with a military salute, he has rallied support with a cry of “stand firm for the homeland!”

During the campaign, he showed off his singing skills and the millionaire life he led in Italy before the campaign, while dismissing criticism that he has represented a string of shady figures in his legal career.

“He connects with an electorate that is already very tired of insecurity and needs shock solutions,” said Luisa Lozano, an expert at Universidad de La Sabana.

“He also embodies an ‘aspirational’ model of the ‘entrepreneur who built his own fortune’” she added.

No surprise, then, that US President Trump has offered his “complete and total endorsement.”

Uncle Sam 

Colombia has long been the United States’ closest partner in South America.

Over decades, Washington has poured billions of dollars into the country’s military and intelligence services.

But ties have atrophied since Trump returned to office and clashed with the equally combative Petro.

Trump has dubbed Cepeda a “radical left Marxist” and warned the election would be pivotal for future ties.

In Bogota, some in the military and foreign diplomats have expressed fears that a return to hardline security policies could provoke reprisal attacks and return the country to a spiral of violence.

The first round of voting showed a total collapse of Colombia’s political center and the traditional right, which has run the country for much of the last two centuries.

De la Espriella garnered 44 per cent of the vote, against Cepeda’s 41 per cent.

“Both sides have very fervent followers, but another part of the country is voting out of fear of the other,” said Julian Lopez, an analyst with Nalanda Analytica. — AFP