Trump congratulates Colombia's right-wing candidate

TT

Published 2026-06-22 22.10

 

Abelardo de la Espriella on election day. Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP/TT

US President Donald Trump congratulates Abelardo de la Espriella, who by all accounts won the presidential election in Colombia.

"It was a great pleasure for me to endorse him and I look forward to working together to build a strong relationship between Colombia and the United States," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Colombia's National Electoral Council has not yet formally declared a winner after last night's election, but right-wing candidate de la Espriella has declared himself the winner after receiving 49.7 percent of the vote compared to leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda's 48.7 with 99.9 percent of the votes counted.

Cepeda has said that he recognizes the preliminary vote count but wants to await a review of the election results.