Colombia Runoff Opens With Iván Cepeda Facing Abelardo De la Espriella

Colombia’s presidential runoff opened Sunday with more than 41 million eligible voters choosing between lawmaker Iván Cepeda and criminal defence lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella after the pair emerged from a field of 11 candidates in a first-round vote on May 31.

“Colombians are heading to the polls to choose their next president in a run-off election, pitting a leftist heir to the country’s progressive government against a far-right outsider promising a crackdown on crime”

Al Jazeera

The contest pits a leftist heir to President Gustavo Petro’s progressive government against a far-right outsider promising a crackdown on crime, with both candidates framing their campaigns around preventing a return to car bombings, kidnappings, disappearances and forced displacements.

Al Jazeera

In the first round, Cepeda earned 41% of the vote while de la Espriella garnered 44%, according to official results, setting up the runoff after neither candidate won outright.

NBC News described the electorate as “deeply divided,” with both campaigns tapping into fears of a renewed internal conflict as they seek to prevent the “nonstop merciless violence” that Colombians lived with in previous decades.

The runoff also comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as violence has since roared back and last year authorities recorded 14,780 homicides, the most since at least 2015.

John Manrique, a lawyer in Bogota, said, “Right now, what worries me is the polarisation that exists between us: There are two very extreme sides, and the violence is concerning,” as he urged voters to accept the result and “Let’s not go out and fight.”

The BBC framed the election as being defined by Colombia’s escalating, brutal internal conflict, quoting Edilma Martinez Flores at a support centre for displaced people in Bogota saying, “My brother was murdered for not paying an extortion payment...in front of his children.”

AP News

De la Espriella’s campaign has been endorsed by Donald Trump, and the BBC reported that he has promised 10 mega-prisons and a tough military crackdown while calling himself El Tigre (The Tiger in English).

Cepeda is portrayed by the BBC as the “architect” of Petro’s “total peace” strategy, prioritising negotiation with armed groups, while critics say it has failed and let armed groups exploit ceasefires to expand their control.

The BBC also reported that Isabelita Mercado Pineda, a government advisor for peace, victims and reconciliation in Bogota, said forced displacement rose 300% between 2024 and 2025, adding, “We have not seen displacements like this for the last two decades.”

The election’s stakes are tied directly to how Colombia handles armed groups and the peace process, with Al Jazeera describing Petro’s heavily criticised strategy that began in 2022 and took until Thursday to see the first armed group—one with about 100 members—give up its weapons and begin a resettlement process.

“- Published "My brother was murdered for not paying an extortion payment”

BBC

NBC News said Cepeda wants to carry on Petro’s efforts, including attempts at establishing dialogue with multiple illegal armed groups even though those efforts have largely failed, while de la Espriella proposes a heavy-handed approach that has earned him the endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The BBC reported that illegal armed groups have roughly doubled their membership in the last five years and named Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dissident factions, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Clan del Golfo as groups that have expanded their control of rural areas key to drug trafficking and illegal mining.

In the BBC’s account, forced displacement rose 300% between 2024 and 2025, and the article linked the surge to rising cocaine production, the army failing to occupy territories left by the FARC after it demobilised in 2016, and a “failure” of the government’s strategy that provides criminal groups with “carrot but not enough stick.”

For voters, the conflict is already shaping daily life, with the BBC quoting Erin Gamboa from the Chocó region on the Pacific Coast saying his half-brother was taken by FARC guerillas and they have not heard from him since.