Colombians go to the polls this Sunday in presidential elections marked by a deeply polarising campaign.
The vote comes amid a sensitive regional and international backdrop, with the rise of new populist right-wing forces and growing political fragmentation in Latin America.
The campaign has pitted a governing camp seeking to keep the left in power after Gustavo Petro’s historic victory in 2022 against a divided opposition, in which new outsider figures have focused on security, political confrontation and rejection of the traditional elites.
“We are in an election that brings together two things: a global climate of tension, polarisation and the emergence of new, more populist strands of the right, and something very specific to Colombia, which is alternation in power – something new for Colombians,” Laura Bonilla, deputy director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation and an analyst specialising in armed conflict and political violence, said in an interview with Euronews.
Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis and a specialist in political risk and geopolitics, believes the elections are unfolding in a climate of growing public discontent, marked by concerns around “security, corruption, the economy and everything to do with the health system".
