Abelardo De La Espriella, a criminal defense lawyer with no previous political experience, appeared headed for a narrow victory on Sunday in Colombia’s presidential election, in what would be a win for his fervent supporters, the global right and President Trump, who had endorsed him.
Mr. De La Espriella — who transformed himself from sharply dressed Miami lawyer to populist in a soccer jersey and a straw hat — had won nearly 49.7 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results from the agency overseeing the election. Iván Cepeda, a leftist senator and a longtime human rights advocate received nearly 48.7 percen with more than 99 percent of the votes counted.
His victory would return Colombia to conservative rule after four years under Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftist president. It also advances Latin America’s broader shift to the right in Mr. Trump’s second term.
Mr. De La Espriella, 47, ran a high-voltage campaign complete with machine-generated flames; A.I. videos of tigers, his mascot; and pounding anti-Petro chants that made him something like a celebrity.
He also vowed to “disembowel” the left in Colombia and has asked the Trump administration to target his political opponents, leading critics to call him an autocrat in the making.
Mr. De La Espriella ran on a platform now popular among right-wing leaders across the region: He vowed to restore security amid crime concerns, rescue the country from what he portrayed as economic ruin created by the left, and crack down on corruption.
His campaign was stridently nationalistic, claiming the flag, the Colombian national soccer jersey and the patriotic slogan “Firme por la patria!” — “Standing firm for the homeland!”
It nevertheless borrowed ideas, and a deft social media strategy, from the iron-fisted leader of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, two hugely popular figures in Latin America.
Like those leaders, Mr. De La Espriella adopted an aggressive tone. He promised to build megaprisons and to claw back the country from progressive politics and “gender ideology,” putting God and family first.
His vow to hunt down criminals and crush Colombia’s “narcoterrorists”— a term borrowed from Mr. Trump — resonated deeply with supporters while alarming those who opposed him, raising the specter of more bloodshed and authoritarianism.
“It sounds like a military regime,” said Andro Giovanny Camelo, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Bogotá.
Much of Mr. De La Espriella’s support came from the cities, not the remote rural areas where armed groups are fighting over cocaine-trafficking routes and illegal gold mines. But the candidate seized on fears of a return to the acute violence of decades past, when rebel groups laid bombs and kidnapped people even on the busy streets of the capital, Bogotá.
He also focused on widespread extortion by criminal groups, which has crippled small businesses.
Karlos Morales, a 28-year-old waiter who voted in the city of Barranquilla on Sunday, said that greater security would lead to more jobs and foreign investment, which suffered under President Petro.
“The left asked for an opportunity,” said Mr. Morales. “We haven’t seen very good results.”
Underscoring his security message, Mr. De La Espriella campaigned in a bulletproof vest, gave rally speeches from behind bulletproof glass, and denounced the violence of the campaign — including the killings of another conservative presidential hopeful and two of his own campaign workers. .
As president, Mr. De La Espriella will face formidable challenges that may test his popularity, from subduing armed groups that have drones and other sophisticated arms to tackling a major budget deficit after Mr. Petro’s runaway spending. He will also have to address a state takeover of the health system that many Colombians say has made it harder for them to get medical care and medicines.
He has projected confidence by pointing to his vice president.
While Mr. De La Espriella portrayed himself as an anti-establishment, iron-fisted outsider, he nevertheless chose a respected former commerce minister, José Manuel Restrepo, as his running mate, a move that many voters said had calmed their nerves about voting for the outsider.
“That gives him credibility,” said Brayan Emanuel Ariza, a 32-year-old business student in Bogotá. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten so many votes.”
He said that Mr. De La Espriella, who grew up in a ranching region near the Caribbean Coast, represented the energy and playful humor of “El Caribe,” while Mr. Restrepo from the high-mountain capital was “more serious.”
Mr. De La Espriella has argued that he will bring prosperity to Colombia by working more fluidly with the United States, following a contentious relationship between Mr. Petro and Mr. Trump.
Playing up his patriotism, Mr. De La Espriella did not speak at rallies about his close ties to the United States, where he lived for more than a decade in Florida and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2023. There were no American flags or MAGA hats.
But he traveled to Florida to drum up support for his run with Republican lawmakers and the Colombian diaspora. And to meet his ambitious security goals, he has said he will enlist Colombia in a new U.S. military coalition to combat drug trafficking cartels.
After he was heartily endorsed by Mr. Trump this month, and received the vocal backing of Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio and others, Mr. De La Espriella began to emphasize that the United States had his back.
He ratcheted up his threats on opponents, promising that the U.S. government would come down on anyone found to be obstructing the election by, for example, buying votes to benefit his rival.
Colombians began to take that rhetoric seriously this past week, when U.S. authorities detained a Colombian activist in Arizona who had spoken out against Mr. De La Espriella. On the same day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo claiming that the activist, Beto Coral, was deportable because his advocacy interfered with U.S. foreign policy goals, The New York Times found.
As Sunday’s election approached, Mr. De La Espriella’s threats turned feverish.
He said in an interview that he was “savoring” the prospect of protests if Mr. Petro called supporters into the street to contest election results — and promised to bury anyone who challenged his win in prisons “15 meters underground without light and without water.”
Mr. De La Espriella’s career has been characterized by audacity.
In Miami, he became known for representing high-profile clients back in Colombia, including many charged with drug trafficking and corruption or embroiled in scandals linked to right-wing paramilitaries. He has said he took only cases that gave him “vertigo.”
His client list included Alex Saab, who was later charged by the U.S. authorities with helping Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s former leader, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars meant to help the poor. Mr. De La Espriella has downplayed his relationship with Mr. Saab, who is now in U.S. custody.
Before entering politics, Mr. De La Espriella was also known as a flamboyant bon vivant. He sang opera, wore tailored suits and self-produced an album of covers of hits by artists like Andrea Bocelli and Frank Sinatra. In the video for his Spanish cover of “My Way,” he appears eating sushi on a private jet.
He started a number of businesses, from a piano bar to a luxury goods line called De La Espriella Style, and went in on a rum company. In the run-up to his campaign, he sold pricey limited edition watches to donors.
Many in Colombia recognized a familiar figure in the candidate.
“I have never seen two leaders more aligned than Donald Trump and Abelardo De La Espriella,” said Manuel José Cepeda, a prominent political scientist and former president of Colombia’s Constitutional Court, who is not related to the left-wing candidate.
Mr. De La Espriella created a groundswell by sidestepping the usual power brokers and going straight to the people — starting with their cellphones.
His online messages alternated between shouting attacks on the left, videos of sweaty workouts and A.I. videos that portrayed his rivals plotting against him or facing him in a soccer match.
He also talked about his daily routine, starting with prayer — a key plank of his campaign, which has focused on the religious right — and showed off his wife and four children.
If Mr. De La Espriella won over many Colombians seemingly overnight, he will also take over an extremely polarized country and persistent questions over his commitment to the rule of law.
But on Sunday, much of Colombia seemed to have dressed up in yellow jerseys and tiger costumes to support him. A sense of passionate optimism prevailed, along with simple curiosity.
“The left didn’t work,” said Juan Manuel Viarte, a 32-year-old engineering student in Bogotá. “I want to try something new.”
Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Barranquilla, Colombia and Lucía Cholakian Herrera contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia.
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