Trump supporter Abelardo de la Esprieya wins the Colombian election: what is known about him
Bloomberg reports this.
With 99.9 per cent of the votes counted, de Esprieylla has secured 49.65 per cent of the vote, whilst his rival Iván Cepeda trails by approximately 246,000 votes, having secured 48.70 per cent.
The final election results will be announced towards the end of the week, but the preliminary count has already been challenged by Colombia’s incumbent president, Gustavo Petro, who is an ally of Sepeda.
However, de la Esprieyu has already been congratulated by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei — on social media, he wrote that “freedom is spreading across Latin America, and there is no turning back”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also congratulated de la Esprieyu on his election victory.
“This result reflects the will of the Colombian people and their commitment to democracy,” reads a statement from the US State Department.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump promised “full support” for Colombia in the event of de la Espriey’s victory.
Officially, the winner of the 7 August election will succeed Gustavo Petro as president, who was ineligible to stand for a second term.
During his election campaign, de la Esprieylla promised to imprison criminals in ‘mega-prisons’ modelled on those in El Salvador, bomb the camps of armed groups involved in the cocaine trade, and reopen the country to oil extraction.
Meanwhile, in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, people are fearing protests following the election. At a rally organised by Cepeda’s campaign headquarters, his supporters declared that if they had to take to the streets again, they would do so.
Abelardo de la Esprieya: what is known about him
Abelardo de la Esprieya is a 47-year-old businessman and lawyer by training, who holds both Colombian and US citizenship. He gained national fame as a lawyer in some of Colombia’s most high-profile cases.
Among his most famous clients was Alex Saab — a businessman and close ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was extradited to the US last month on money-laundering charges.
He has also defended politicians accused of links to armed groups involved in the cocaine trade — the very people he is now seeking to imprison.
De la Espiella, who calls himself ‘El Tigre’ (The Tiger), has stated that he entered politics ‘to prevent the “destruction” of Colombia by the left’.
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