A Trump-aligned outsider tops Colombia’s first round and the sitting president refuses to accept the count; Bolivia’s dialogue table collapses; Sheinbaum stages 130,000 in Mexico City; Lula signs the budget-freeze decree; Kast walks into his first State of the Nation address at a 53% disapproval; Peter Thiel buys into Buenos Aires.
Colombia — The Espriella Upset
Abelardo De La Espriella, the Trump-aligned candidate of Defenders of the Homeland, led Colombia’s Sunday first round with 43.74% to Iván Cepeda’s 40.90%, a 670,000-vote spread on 97.58% of polling tables counted that contradicted every major pre-vote poll showing the ruling-coalition senator as front-runner. President Gustavo Petro publicly rejected the electoral authority’s preliminary count — “As president, I do not accept the results” — questioning the counting software. Cepeda also withheld concession pending the judicial commissions. Paloma Valencia (6.9%) and Radical Change party endorsed Espriella; Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa congratulated him from Quito. Runoff: June 21.
Bolivia — The Table Collapses
Bolivia’s national labour federation, the COB, voted Sunday to reject the dialogue convened at the San Jerónimo Seminary, ratifying its blockades and rebuffing the mediation track despite the Friday lifting of Mario Argollo’s arrest order. The Vice-Presidency suspended the table indefinitely. Severo Marca of the national peasant union (CSUTCB) said no formal invitation had reached the rank and file; Jaime Solares said only humanitarian corridors would open for ambulances and medical cargo. President Rodrigo Paz now enters day 31 of blockades without an exit ramp, with the state of exception option openly considered in cabinet. El Alto’s losses are at $6.5 million daily; blood reserves are at the limit.
