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The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, called Abelardo de la Espriella this Sunday to congratulate him on his victory in the presidential runoff in Colombia, according to the preliminary count from the National Registry, which places him as the elected president.
Rubio posted the message on his X account just hours after the polls closed: "The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration to enhance cooperation on regional security, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen our economic ties. Colombia's best days are yet to come."
The congratulations arrive as the right prevails in Colombia with a victory closer than expected: De la Espriella garnered 12,941,992 votes, equivalent to 49.65%, compared to Iván Cepeda Castro of the Historical Pact with 48.70%, with a difference of just around 250,000 votes.
Polls anticipated a lead of between five and seven percentage points for the winner, but the final result was much closer, which intensified the election night.
De la Espriella himself spoke in a conciliatory tone: "We are going to accept the results, we are democrats, even though we could not go to several regions of the country and with a president and ministers campaigning."
Cepeda ultimately acknowledged the preliminary results that same night, while the outgoing president Gustavo Petro refused to endorse the preliminary count and denounced "many irregularities," questioning E-14 forms that lacked signatures from jurors—an attitude he had already adopted after the first round on May 31, unprecedented in Colombian democratic history.
The OAS Electoral Observation Mission, on the other hand, stated that the election day proceeded "without public order disturbances" and urged leaders to peacefully accept the results.
The official counting will begin this Monday in the counting commissions, and De la Espriella will assume the presidency on August 7, 2026, marking the end of four years of Petro's administration.
Rubio's congratulatory message underscores the strategic alignment between Washington and the newly elected Colombian president. De la Espriella, a criminal lawyer with no previous experience in public office, has proposed a "second Plan Colombia" with U.S. military support based on drones and artificial intelligence, in addition to the diplomatic isolation of the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela—countries with which Petro maintained close relations during his term.
The support from the Trump administration is not new: on June 2, Donald Trump expressed his "total and absolute support" for De la Espriella on Truth Social, describing him as a "smart, strong, and determined" leader.
The profile of the elected president has been compared to that of Javier Milei, Nayib Bukele, and Trump himself, and his rise to power represents a radical shift in Colombian foreign policy towards a closer alliance with Washington and a confrontational stance towards the leftist governments in the region.
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