Donald Trump issued his most emphatic public endorsement yet of Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella ahead of the June 21 runoff election, casting the far-right lawyer and businessman as the right choice for preserving close ties between Bogotá and Washington.

Writing on Truth Social on June 17, the US president hailed De la Espriella as "smart, strong, and tough leader" and urged Colombians to turn out for "El Tigre", the nickname the candidate has cultivated as the centrepiece of his flamboyant political brand. Trump added the vote was important not only for Colombia's security but for economic growth, job creation, trade and the fight against drug trafficking.

The statement marks at least the third occasion on which Trump has publicly thrown his weight behind De la Espriella since the first round on May 31, each time deploying the signature formula of a “complete and total endorsement” he has used for favoured candidates worldwide. Trump has also used the campaign to attack De la Espriella's opponent, senator Iván Cepeda, branding him a "radical left Marxist" and suggesting that a Cepeda presidency would set back US-Colombia relations.

De la Espriella, who has built his campaign on explicit admiration for Trump, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Javier Milei of Argentina, welcomed the backing. Writing on social media, he pledged to work with Washington to combat transnational crime and what he called the "radical left", and reiterated his intention to strengthen bilateral co-operation.

An upset that reshuffled the race

The runoff pits two candidates who are separated by biography, politics and temperament in one of the sharpest ideological contests in Colombia's recent electoral history. De la Espriella finished first in the May 31 first round with approximately 43.7% of the vote, well ahead of the polling consensus that had consistently placed Cepeda in front. The leftist senator finished on around 41%, a gap of more than 650,000 votes.

Conservative senator Paloma Valencia, who had been considered a serious contender, was eliminated after taking fewer than 7% and promptly endorsed De la Espriella, as did her political mentor, former president Álvaro Uribe, a consolidation of right-wing support that gives the frontrunner a structural advantage heading into the runoff.

The first-round result triggered immediate controversy. Cepeda told supporters that irregularities may have occurred at polling stations, though he subsequently acknowledged there was no evidence of malfeasance, a conclusion affirmed by the EU's Election Observation Mission.

De la Espriella rejected any suggestion that the outcome was tainted. Speaking before thousands of supporters on the banks of the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, he told the crowd: "We will defend the homeland with reason or with force." He also invited the United States government to monitor the second round, an appeal that now takes on additional resonance given Trump's subsequent interventions.

The candidates

A criminal lawyer who only entered politics five years ago, De la Espriella has transformed what might have been liabilities — a shady client list including the head of Colombia's largest pyramid scheme and a businessman accused of acting as a frontman for the Maduro regime in Venezuela — into evidence of his credentials as a fearless outsider unbound by establishment norms.

Born in Bogotá in 1978 but raised in the coastal city of Montería, he presents as a quintessential Caribbean figure: theatrical, combative and outgoing. His campaign has leant heavily on spectacle, sporting giant tiger imagery, bulletproof lecterns, heavily publicised security details and a luxury personal brand encompassing rum, wine and fashion lines that has led detractors to portray him as a political showman. A former self-described atheist who now frequently invokes God, family and traditional values, he attributes a religious conversion to the death of a close relative and the experience of fatherhood.

His platform is a hard-right programme: an end to all negotiations with armed groups, bombing of guerrilla camps, construction of ten mega-prisons, a resumption of aerial coca fumigation, deep cuts in public spending, tax reductions for business and withdrawal from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Critics warn that such an approach risks worsening the violence it promises to end.

Cepeda, 63, embodies a different strand of Colombian political history. Born to two prominent communist leaders, his childhood was shaped by exile, first to Cuba, then to Czechoslovakia, before he returned to Colombia as a teenager. His father, also a senator, was assassinated by paramilitaries in 1994; Cepeda, who came across the scene while travelling by bus to a teaching post at Javeriana University, subsequently dedicated his career to advocacy for victims of what he calls state crimes. He later completed a master's degree in international humanitarian law in France and entered electoral politics in 2010.

As a senator, Cepeda launched a years-long legal confrontation with Uribe over alleged links to paramilitary groups, culminating in a conviction, later overturned on appeal, that cemented his position as the Colombian left's most prominent figure. He is running as the candidate of the Historic Pact, the governing coalition, and has promised to extend healthcare coverage, pursue land reform and increase taxes on the wealthiest Colombians, while pressing ahead with peace negotiations.

Cepeda's campaign has not been without vulnerabilities. His association with President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" strategy, widely criticised for failing to disarm armed groups and linked to a rise in cocaine production, drone attacks and displacement, is a gift to his opponent. His scripted campaign style and refusal to debate centrist candidates attracted criticism for failing to reach beyond a committed left-wing base, and he faces the acute challenge of winning over voters who backed centrist candidates such as former Bogotá mayor Claudia López, who has since endorsed him for the runoff, and Sergio Fajardo.

Interference row

Trump's repeated interventions have drawn criticism in both Colombia and the United States. A group of 20 Democratic members of the House of Representatives, led by Jim McGovern, argued that statements by Trump and other US officials amounted to interference in Colombia's democratic process and called for respect for the country's sovereignty.

Petro has urged the US president to stay out of the campaign, arguing that Colombian law prohibits foreign involvement in electoral contests.

Pre-election surveys by AtlasIntel give De la Espriella a lead of roughly 50% to Cepeda's 43% in the runoff, a projection consistent with the structural advantage the right-wing candidate carries from the first round. Turnout, which reached fewer than six in ten eligible voters on May 31, is expected to be a decisive variable. First-round geography also points to a competitive race: Cepeda carried coastal and border regions as well as the capital, while De la Espriella dominated in the central departments most affected by Colombia's internal conflict.

As the campaign enters its final hours, the outcome will determine whether Colombia joins the rightward shift that has already swept Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, and how Bogota navigates its relationship with Washington amid the Trump administration's renewed interest in “America's backyard.”