Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer from Barranquilla backed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, is headed for a decisive win in Colombia’s presidential runoff, according to preliminary vote counts reported by both El País and The New York Times. The result marks a sharp rightward turn for the South American nation after years of political turbulence.
The election resonated well beyond Colombia’s borders. At the Colombian embassy in Costa Rica, thousands of expatriates lined up to vote. Luis Velasco, who fled Colombia 22 years ago due to “problems of subversion,” told La Nación that the family drove from Limón to San José specifically to cast their ballots. Some 11,848 Colombians were registered to vote in Costa Rica, many of them motivated by the same security concerns that originally drove them abroad.
