Trump-backed de la Espriella nears Colombia win as Latin America shifts right

Abelardo de la Espriella moved ahead in Colombia's presidential vote with nearly all ballots counted. His apparent victory would extend Latin America's recent swing towards conservative, hardline governments.

In Short

• Officials had not declared the winner despite nearly all votes counted
• Ivan Cepeda contested the tally, though a reversal looked highly unlikely
• De la Espriella pledged tougher security, cancelled talks and Salvador-style prisons

Trump-endorsed outsider Abelardo de la Espriella appeared set to win Colombia's presidential election on Monday, putting the country on course to join a wider shift towards conservative leadership in parts of Latin America. With nearly all votes counted, de la Espriella was ahead of rival Ivan Cepeda by about one percentage point, or around 251,000 votes.

Officials had not formally declared a winner at the time of reporting. Cepeda challenged the results, but the review was seen as unlikely to change the outcome. De la Espriella, a lawyer and business owner known as 'The Tiger', campaigned on a tough-on-crime platform and won the backing of US President Donald Trump, who described him as the candidate who could restore law and order in Colombia.

De la Espriella's campaign included proposals to cancel peace talks with Colombian rebel groups and build mega prisons similar to those in El Salvador. His apparent win comes amid a run of conservative election victories across the region in recent years.

In Argentina, libertarian economist and television commentator Javier Milei, known as 'The Lion', won the presidency in November 2023 after promising to cut government spending and tackle the country's long-running inflation crisis. He defeated the ruling Peronist movement. Since taking office, Milei has stopped the central bank from printing money to finance the government deficit and has cut spending by dismissing civil servants, halting investment in public infrastructure programmes, and reducing subsidies for utility bills. Argentina's inflation fell from 211 per cent in 2023 to 32 per cent in 2025, though some have blamed his austerity measures for lower living standards, including among public sector workers.

In Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, from one of the country's wealthiest families, was re-elected in April 2025 for a four-year term with 56 per cent of the vote. He has given the military a bigger role in security operations in coastal cities hit by drug gang violence linked to ports and trafficking routes. However, the strategy has not substantially reduced homicide rates, and the government has faced criticism over human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions. Under Noboa, Ecuador's military has also begun joint operations with the US against drug traffickers. He also backed reopening a US military base in Ecuador, but that proposal was rejected in a referendum last year.

Honduras also returned to conservative leadership when Nasry Asfura, a real estate investor and former city mayor from the National Party, narrowly won the presidential election in November by less than one percentage point. Asfura belongs to the same party as former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was pardoned by Trump for a drug trafficking conviction. Trump endorsed Asfura and threatened to cut off aid to Honduras if he was not elected. Under Asfura's administration, Honduras has received dozens of deportees from third countries under an agreement signed with the US in early 2025, most of them Guatemalan nationals.

In Chile, conservative leader Jose Antonio Kast, a devout Catholic, won the presidential election in December with 58 per cent of the vote, defeating a progressive government that had been in power for the previous four years. During his campaign, Kast focused on concerns over rising crime and said he would expel migrants from countries such as Venezuela and Haiti who were working in Chile without residency permits. After taking office, one of his first steps was to expand a trench along Chile's borders with Peru and Bolivia, which his government said was aimed at stopping drug trafficking and migration. His government has also recently faced protests over rising unemployment and budget cuts affecting public servants.

In Costa Rica, Laura Fernandez, who had served as economy minister under conservative former president Rodrigo Chaves, won the election in February with 48 per cent of the vote. She beat her closest rival by 15 percentage points and crossed the 40 per cent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. During the campaign, Fernandez proposed tough anti-crime measures, including a state of exception that would allow police to arrest suspects without warrants, and said she would build a mega prison modelled on El Salvador's CECOT penitentiary. Her government has also received several flights carrying migrants deported by the US from third countries under an agreement signed by her predecessor last year. In June, one such flight included migrants from China, Vietnam, Colombia and Azerbaijan.

With de la Espriella appearing headed for victory in Colombia, the country looked set to become the latest in Latin America to back a conservative leader, alongside recent electoral shifts seen in Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras, Chile and Costa Rica.

With PTI Inputs

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