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Anti-cartel candidate ‘The Tiger’ channels Trump and Bukele in Colombia election shocker
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Colombia’s first-round presidential election, won by tough-talking conservative Abelardo de la Espriella, signaled what analysts describe as a growing backlash across Latin America against leftist governments.
The presidential election could carry significant implications for U.S. interests in the region, including drug trafficking, migration and regional stability, as voters increasingly prioritize security, counternarcotics policies and economic stability ahead of a June 21 runoff between de la Espriella and leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda.
«For the Trump administration, a Colombia that recommits itself to security cooperation, counternarcotics efforts, and stronger democratic institutions would be a major win and an important step forward towards restoring stability across the Western Hemisphere,» Melissa Ford Maldonado of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) told Fox News Digital from Colombia.
ANTI-CARTEL HARDLINER CHANNELS TRUMP IN BID TO END COLOMBIA’S LEFTIST ERA IN PIVOTAL ELECTION
Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Sergio Acero/reuters )
«What happens in Colombia affects the flow of drugs into American communities, the strength of transnational criminal networks, migration pressures and the broader balance between democratic governments and criminalized regimes throughout the region,» she added.
The first-round winner, de la Espriella, a conservative lawyer and political outsider known as «El Tigre» («The Tiger»), has emerged as the face of Colombia’s security-focused shift.
An admirer of President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, won 43.7% of the vote Sunday, outperforming most polls and advancing to a runoff against left-wing Cepeda, the candidate backed by President Gustavo Petro.
His campaign has centered on a hardline crackdown on criminal organizations, which he argues have flourished under Petro’s «Total Peace» policy.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland react to the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Charlie Cordero/Reuters)
In an interview with the Associated Press, de la Espriella pledged to open mega-prisons and take a far more aggressive approach toward criminal groups. «Criminals will either surrender or leave the country,» he said.
The vote comes as Colombia faces rising violence, expanding criminal organizations and growing criticism of President Gustavo Petro’s «Total Peace» strategy, which sought negotiations with armed groups and criminal networks.
AT LEAST 80 PEOPLE KILLED IN NORTHEAST COLOMBIA AS PEACE TALKS FAIL, OFFICIAL SAYS
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro attends the COP16 Summit in Cali, Valle del Cauca, on Oct. 29, 2024. (Luis Acosta/AFP)
«Colombia heads into a June 21 runoff with armed groups controlling vast stretches of the country, a failed ‘Total Peace’ negotiating strategy leaving communities more exposed than when it began, and a Venezuelan refugee crisis that has overwhelmed the state’s already thin capacity to govern its own territory,» Daniel Swift, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital.
Maldonado said Colombia’s election reflects a wider political shift taking place across Latin America.
«This election is part of a broader trend across Latin America, where voters are increasingly rejecting the failed promises of the left in favor of security, sovereignty and economic opportunity,» she said.
ECUADOR’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION GOES TO RUNOFF BETWEEN CONSERVATIVE INCUMBENT, LEFTIST LAWYER
Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the Pacto Historico party speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlántico department, on May 24, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP)
«We’ve seen it in Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Costa Rica and now increasingly in Colombia.»
Swift agreed the election results reflect a broader regional trend.
He said with de la Espriella outperforming «every poll, with security at the top of every voter’s mind — confirms that Colombia is part of a broader regional reckoning: Latin Americans are losing patience with governments that cannot provide security,» Swift said.
Maldonado said the results reflected mounting frustration with the country’s direction under Petro.
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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
«Years of growing insecurity, rising coca cultivation, expanding criminal organizations, and concessions to armed groups have left many Colombian people frustrated with the direction of the country,» she added.
The June 21 runoff is expected to focus heavily on security policy, organized crime and Colombia’s future relationship with the United States under the Trump administration. Maldonado argues it «offers Colombia an opportunity to begin reversing course and reestablish a principle that should have never been up for debate: criminal organizations should be confronted, not negotiated with.»
colombia, elections, latino, national security
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Chicago resident living in shadows of Obama Presidential Center reveal chaos caused by years-long construction
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CHICAGO – A man who has lived on Chicago’s South Side for 18 years and now lives in the shadow of the newly opened Barack Obama Presidential Center described to Fox News Digital the havoc he says the years-long construction project wreaked on his housing complex.
Akoma Amanze is a local cab driver who lives in Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing community directly across the street from the 19.3 acre campus dedicated to the 44th president.
Over the weekend, while thousands of people from across the country — celebrities and ordinary folks alike — swarmed the area to visit Obama’s new campus that features a museum, library, gardens and recreational activities, Amanze and other residents took in the spectacle.
But Amanze told Fox News Digital the buzz across the street was nothing new. While he made it very clear that he supports Obama, and described living at Jackson Park Terrace as a «very good experience,» Amanze and others in his complex dealt with massive headaches caused by the construction.
OBAMA CENTER EMBEDS ‘INDIGENOUS’ LAND MESSAGE ON CONTROVERSIAL SITE
Jackson Park Terrace resident Akoma Amnaze speaks with Fox News Digital from his housing complex across the street from the Obama Presidential Center on June 19, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
He described the construction process, which began in 2021, as «sometimes very, very disturbing.»
SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS, FACE FINANCIAL RUIN, AFTER HELPING BUILD OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER
«He’s my man, and I’m excited that this site is here» said Amanze, referring to Obama, «but as a resident, there has been a lot of things [that] have stopped us here.»
The Barack Obama Presidential Center towers over Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing complex across the street, on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
«On two occasions, my apartment flooded while they were digging the lower level of that project,» he said. «Two times. And I had to deal with the ramifications of that twice. Those ramifications were that all my apartment was flooded, and I had to throw away everything on the floor. Boxes, papers, clothes, I had to throw them away.»
BUREAUCRATS HIDE TRUE PRICE OF OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER AS TAXPAYERS HIT WITH INFRASTRUCTURE BILL
He said he had to suck the water out of his home himself, and then clean the entire mess up himself. Despite the destruction, according to Amanze, neither the complex’s management nor representatives from the Obama Center offered to help deal with the fallout, financially or otherwise.
A sign outside Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing community across the street from the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Photo taken on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
Then there was the reverberation from the digging, he said.
«Sometimes, you stay in bed or in the apartment, [and] the digging — sometimes when they were digging deep— [it] would be shaking your bed,» he said. «I had that experience all through the construction.»
OBAMA’S LEGACY PROJECT OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE RESIDENTS
Across the street used to be a community park where Amanze said he «more or less raised all [his] children.»
The Barack Obama Presidential Center towers over Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing complex on Chicago’s South Side, on June 20, 2026. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
«In fact, my last child, that is 14 today, there used to be a favorite swing on that park where I took him every time he starts crying or he starts showing signs of stress,» Amanze said. «I take him there, and I put him on that swing, and I swing him up and down, and then he will fall asleep, and then I bring him back home.»
The park is gone now, but Amanze is not bitter.
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«When things are happening that you do not have the power to stop, you just have to learn to live with it,» he said. «I just learned to live with it. I’m not upset. I’m excited that my brother Obama was able to establish something this big in my neighborhood. At least in my mind, I’m a part of the history.»
barack obama, chicago, local, housing, parks, politics
INTERNACIONAL
Violencia, déficit fiscal y crisis sanitaria: los desafíos que enfrentará Abelardo de la Espriella en Colombia
De confirmarse su triunfo en el escrutinio definitivo, Abelardo de la Espriella asumirá el poder el 7 de agosto próximo en un país sacudido por el recrudecimiento de la violencia armada, una grave crisis sanitaria y un déficit fiscal que pondrá en jaque al nuevo gobierno de Colombia.
El abogado y mediático outsider ganó el balotaje de este domingo con menos de un punto de ventaja sobre su rival de izquierda, el senador Iván Cepeda, heredero del presidente Gustavo Petro, según el conteo provisorio. El escrutinio final se conocerá en los próximos días. Cepeda adelantó que pedirá la impugnación de más de 30 mil mesas por “irregularidades”.
En poco menos de dos meses, y de ratificarse el resultado, De la Espriella jurará como nuevo mandatario por los próximos cuatro años con promesas de “mano dura” contra la inseguridad. Pero ese es solo uno de los problemas urgentes que deberá afrontar en el corto plazo.
Los tres grandes desafíos del nuevo gobierno colombiano
Colombia iniciará el 7 de agosto una nueva era marcada por tres grandes desafíos:
- Violencia armada. De la Espriella ha centrado su campaña en sus planes contra la violencia armada y la inseguridad. En los últimos tiempos, el país vivió un recrudecimiento del accionar de los grupos ilegales a pesar de la política de diálogo llevada adelante por el gobierno saliente.
El asesinato del precandidato presidencial Miguel Uribe Turbay el año pasado marcó un punto de inflexión en la violencia política que sacude el país desde hace décadas.
Se estima que hay unos 27.000 hombres y mujeres en armas desparramados en 16 zonas en disputa territorial entre las disidencias de las históricas Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), el Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), grupos paramilitares, carteles del narcotráfico y otras organizaciones criminales.
Abelardo De La Espriella en campaña (Foto: REUTERS/Jair Coll)
Son zonas donde la presencia del Estado es casi nula y donde retenes de grupos armados mantienen el control territorial, a menudo sacudido por combates entre los mismos grupos ilegales. Así, en los últimos meses se reportaron enfrentamientos, atentados y hasta ataques con drones en distintas zonas asoladas por la violencia.
Pero además hay un aumento de la violencia urbana. “La criminalidad hoy es mucho más fuerte. Es un problema cada vez mas importante. Hay ciudades como Cali y Barranquilla que están experimentando tasas de homicidio muy elevadas”, dijo a TN el analista Carlos Moreno, docente de la Universidad Javieriana de Bogotá.
De la Espriella prometió un modelo de “mano dura” inspirado en el presidente salvadoreño, su admirado Nayib Bukele, que en pocos años logró pacificar su país tras décadas de dominio de distintas pandillas. Lo logró con arrestos masivos de decenas de miles de supuestos delincuentes y un tendal de denuncias de violaciones a los derechos humanos, torturas y víctimas.
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De la Espriella promete replicar el modelo con la construcción de megacárceles como el polémico Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo levantado en las afueras de San Salvador para albergar a decenas de miles de presuntos pandilleros. También prometió “bombardear” a los grupos ilegales y poner fin a las políticas de diálogo impulsadas por el presidente saliente.
Pero Bukele, según las denuncias de la oposición, avanzó también sobre la democracia con un control absoluto de los tres poderes del Estado, un escenario que, según analistas, le sería muy difícil de replicar a De la Espriella.
“En Colombia, las instituciones y los contrapesos son más fuertes. No va a poder hacer lo mismo, pero intentará imitarlo”, dijo Moreno.
- Crisis sanitaria. Este es otro de los grandes desafíos que enfrentará el nuevo gobierno.
“El sistema sanitario está al borde del abismo y el nuevo presidente va a tener que hacer algo de manera urgente para evitar que toda la estructura colapse”, dijo Moreno.
El analista afirmó, en este escenario, numerosas instituciones de salud no atienden a enfermos con cierto tipo de seguro médico. “Estas empresas no están pagando”, comentó. Así, se rompe la cadena de pagos y los colombianos están sufriendo serios inconvenientes a la hora de atenderse ante cualquier dolencia. “Hay centros que comenzaron a cerrar servicios y hay clínicas que ya no atienden partos”, dijo Moreno.
- Déficit fiscal. Otro de los problemas urgentes que afrontará de la Espriella es el frente económico.
En ese marco, Colombia sufre un pronunciado déficit fiscal del 7% del PBI. Además, la deuda pública que supera el 64% del producto bruto interno. La inflación en Colombia cerró el año 2025 en 5,10 %, en baja en relación al año anterior. En tanto, la economía registró un crecimiento interanual del 2,2% en el primer trimestre de 2026.
“El problema fiscal es serio. De la Espriella ha prometido fuertes recortes, quitando ministerios e instituciones”, dijo Moreno.
Sin embargo, el nuevo presidente no tendrá mayoría en el Congreso para aprobar sus iniciativas, por lo que estará obligado a negociar alianzas con la derecha tradicional.
“Deberá armar acuerdos con por lo menos cuatro partidos para generar una mayoría suficiente para encarar transformaciones radicales”, concluyó el analista.
Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella
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