Far-right de la Espriella elected Colombia president: What’s next?

Far-right millionaire Abelardo de la Espriella, who was endorsed by United States President Donald Trump, has won Colombia’s presidential election , according to preliminary results. De la Espriella, 47, achieved a narrow victory against his left-wing challenger, Senator Ivan Cepeda , who was backed by outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list De la Espriella’s victory in Sunday’s run-off will set the stage for an overhaul of the economic, foreign and domestic policies pursued under Petro, who tried to address Colombia’s inequality, conducted peace talks with armed groups and severed ties with Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza. Petro also banned exports of coal to Israel and joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. De la Espriella has promised to restore ties with Israel and move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem, following along the lines of Argentinian President Javier Milei. Here is more about what the election result means and what is next: What was the election result? De la Espriella won 49.66 percent of the vote while Cepeda trailed him by about 250,000 votes at 48.7 percent support, according to the national registrar’s tally of just under 100 percent of the ballots. Cepeda, 63, had pledged to maintain the policies of Petro, a former rebel and Colombia’s first leftist president. …