In a remarkable come from behind victory, Columbia’s nationalist presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has won the first round in the election. Mr De la Espriella is a MAGA-aligned nationalist. His opposition, Ivan Cepeda is a leftist aligned globalist.

Mr De la Espriella, a lawyer and political outsider, won nearly 44 percent of the vote while Iván Cepeda won around under 41 percent, according to Colombian media. This was a surprising victory for the upstart politician who gained support from the people in Columbia who want a strong leader to eliminate corruption, gangs and criminal cartel activity.

Mr De la Espriella (pictured left) has to make all campaign appearances behind a bulletproof shield due to criminal cartels who target him.

Espriella has aligned himself with President Trump, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei. A resurgence of nationalism and anti-corruption in the Americas. Interestingly, ever since Marco Rubio dissolved USAID there has been a return to national sovereignty throughout Latin America.

VIA NBC – […] Neither candidate had more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election Sunday. With 100% of votes tallied, de la Espriella — running as a candidate for Defensores de la Patria, a party he founded — was leading with more than 43% of the vote. Cepeda, of the incumbent party, Pacto Histórico, was trailing at just over 40%.

President Gustavo Petro, who endorsed Cepeda, said he would not accept the preliminary count released by the country’s electoral authority, claiming that some of the software private companies used to count votes was flawed and that the results were not binding.

[…] The country’s electoral body, the National Civil Registry, reveals preliminary results in advance of final, official results. The chief of the office, Hernán Penagos, said in March that the preliminary count of this year’s congressional elections reached 99.8% precision — a historic high — compared with the final results.

Juanita Goebertus, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, said Sunday on X that Colombia’s electoral system was “independent and trustworthy.”

“It is regrettable that the president is sowing unjustified doubts,” Goebertus wrote.

“De la Espriella and Cepeda will proceed to the second round. The election results must be respected,” she added, calling on the international community to rally around the National Civil Registry.

Sunday’s results set the stage for a showdown between Cepeda, a left-wing senator who helped negotiate Colombia’s historic 2016 peace deal, and de la Espriella, a lawyer and political outsider who has positioned himself as an ally to U.S. President Donald Trump and has vowed to crack down on crime. (read more)

Because neither candidate reached 50 percent, the runoff election will be held on June 21.

“For the Trump administration, a Colombia that recommits itself to security cooperation, counternarcotics efforts, and stronger democratic institutions would be a major win and an important step forward towards restoring stability across the Western Hemisphere,” Melissa Ford Maldonado of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) told Fox News Digital from Colombia.” {source}

Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is the country’s largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other urban areas include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Pereira, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Manizales. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers and has a population of around 52 million.