Anonymous12 days ago
Colombia's June 21 presidential runoff pits Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer who won a surprise first-round lead with 43.7% by channeling Trump-style punitive populism, against Ivan Cepeda, a leftist senator pledging to continue Gustavo Petro's peace negotiations and social programs. The election is a referendum on Colombia's security crisis — with 25,000+ armed combatants across three major groups, record coca cultivation, and the 2016 FARC peace accord hanging in the balance — but is complicated by De la Espriella's own documented history representing cartel-linked clients and receiving paramilitary funding through his foundation FIPAZ.