Far-right millionaire Abelardo de la Espriella wins Colombia’s presidential runoff

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.65% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, de la Espriella had secured 12.91m votes, or 49.65%, just 248,310 more than Cepeda, who received 12.67m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when de la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes. De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s first and only leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, who was barred by the constitution from seeking re-election and therefore backed Cepeda as his successor. The result is also being seen as further evidence of a wave of far-right candidates sweeping presidential elections across Latin America , after recent victories by Nasry Asfura in Honduras and José Antonio Kast in Chile, while Keiko Fujimori currently leads the vote count in Peru. Like them, de la Espriella also received the endorsement of the US president, Donald Trump – although only after winning the first round. When Petro leaves office in about six weeks, only Mexico, Brazil – which will hold elections in October – Uruguay and Guatemala will remain under leftwing governments in the region. …