MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Tuesday, June 9th 2026 - 07:44 UTC
The left, which had made unity the axis of its campaign in 2025, went through the week with internal tensions
The first of the three campaign weeks ahead of Colombia's presidential runoff, set for June 21, has been marked by a contrast: a right that had failed to unite for the first round ended up aligned behind far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, while the left of Senator Iván Cepeda and President Gustavo Petro has struggled to coordinate its effort. De la Espriella was the most-voted candidate on May 31, with 43.74% against Cepeda's 40.90%.
The right's realignment was swift. De la Espriella, a criminal lawyer with no prior electoral career, prevailed even though months earlier former President Álvaro Uribe had shut him out of the Democratic Center, whose March internal process had been won by Senator Paloma Valencia. At the polls, however, Valencia drew only about 6%. After the vote, Valencia, several rivals from that consultation and Uribe himself backed De la Espriella. “We are keeping our word, we will vote for him and we ask people to vote for him and for Colombia,” Uribe wrote on X. The candidate also received the support of US President Donald Trump.
