Colombia veered sharply to the right on Sunday after Abelardo de la Espriella, a flamboyant, US-backed lawyer with no experience in public office, narrowly captured the presidency on a pledge to confront drug-trafficking guerrilla groups head-on.
With more than 99 percent of polling centers reporting, official results showed Mr De la Espriella on 49.65 percent of the vote, holding an unassailable advantage over his opponent, left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda, who stood at 48.70 percent.
In Bogota, supporters of Mr De la Espriella waved flags and sounded horns as the outcome slowly came into focus.
Just a few hundred thousand ballots separated the candidates at the end of a bitterly divisive race marked by guerrilla bomb attacks, hundreds of threats against candidates, and the killing of a prominent conservative presidential contender.
Mr Cepeda casts his vote
“Mine will be an absolutely democratic government and a guarantor of freedom and institutional order,” he said.
“I will be president for all Colombians.”
The 47-year-old’s victory is expected to ease strained ties with Washington, which has sent billions of dollars in military aid to the South American nation, while also putting Colombia’s delicate peace process under fresh pressure.
Mr De la Espriella secured US President Donald Trump’s “complete and total endorsement”, and his win adds to a broader rightward shift that has carried conservative candidates to power across Latin America.
He said he had spoken with Mr Trump, who offered his congratulations.
Throughout the campaign, the dual US-Colombian national, who styles himself “The Tiger”, said that if elected he would immediately halt peace talks with dissident groups and begin a 90-day campaign of US-backed airstrikes against them.
