Who is Abelardo de la Espriella, the far‑right Trump fan who could lead Colombia?

The first round of Colombia’s presidential election Sunday has thrown the nation’s fractures into harsh relief. Far-right criminal defence attorney and millionaire businessman Abelardo de la Espriella came in first place with just under 44 percent of votes, followed closely by leftist philosopher-turned-politician Ivan Cepeda on nearly 41 percent. 

The soft-spoken Cepeda, who represented incumbent President Gustavo Petro’s Pacto Historico party, is seen as one of the chief architects behind the leftist administration’s policy of simultaneous dialogue with the armed groups that continue to resist the 2016 peace accord.

Like his ally Petro, Cepeda champions social policies that seek to address the deep-rooted economic inequalities that drive many poorer Colombians to coca production and violent crime.

De la Espriella, on the other hand, stands for a fresh military offensive against the remaining armed groups – most of whom have left their ideological struggles by the wayside in favour of the bloody but lucrative world of drug trafficking, illegal mining and violent extortion. 

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A fervent supporter of US President Donald Trump and his deadly bombing of alleged “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean, the self-proclaimed “Tiger” has promised to open up 10 mega-prisons across the country, following the example of El Salvador’s far-right President Nayib Bukele. He has also pledged to seek US support for air strikes against armed groups. 

“I will wipe out narco-terrorism and those who I've declared a military target like cockroaches, like rats. I will unleash upon them the wrath of God never seen before,” De la Espriella said in an interview with the Associated Press in the last days of the campaign.

He has also sworn to rain down weedkiller on the coca plantations that continue to spread across Colombia’s hinterlands – a practice suspended more than a decade ago after studies found the chemicals likely caused cancer in humans.

De la Espriella’s abrupt rise seems to owe much to the collapse in support for rival right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia, who won just under 7 percent of the vote. 

William A. Booth, a lecturer in Latin American Studies at University College London’s Institute of the Americas, said that the political outsider’s ascent echoed a broader shift across the Americas.

“For about a decade now, the modern, neoliberal right has been increasingly eclipsed in Latin America – as elsewhere – by a transnational far right with important links to figures such as Trump, Bukele, [Ecuador’s President Daniel] Noboa, [Argentine President Javier] Milei, etcetera,” he said.

“To be clear, Paloma Valencia is also on the far right – she is the protégée of disgraced former president Alvaro Uribe, who I think has been an influence on Bukele in El Salvador. However, De la Espriella is closer to Trump and his Latin American allies, and was – more cynically – seen as a likelier winner, so right-wing support moved very rapidly from Valencia to him.”

Both Valencia and her patron Uribe have thrown their support behind the far-right candidate ahead of the run-off, which will take place on June 21. 

Born and educated in Bogota to a family from the Caribbean Montería region, De la Espriella has US, Colombian and Italian passports, as well as properties in Miami and Florence. 

Despite never having held public office, the 47-year-old built a national reputation through his career as a high-profile defence attorney. Some of his more polarising clients include former president Uribe, who remains a divisive figure in the country for his hardline military campaign against the leftist FARC rebels.

The former president has been accused of having ties to drug cartels and right-wing paramilitary groups believed to have killed thousands of civilians in their fight against the Marxist guerrilla group. He has consistently denied any links to these groups. 

De la Espriella also defended Colombia-born businessman Alex Saab, who went on to serve in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s cabinet. Saab was handed over to the US in May 2026 months after Maduro himself was seized by US commandos in a night-time raid, and faces charges of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The attorney's less controversial clients include Rosa Elvira Cely, a single mother whose rape and murder in 2012 led to the creation of a femicide law that bore her name and imposed harsher sentences on people who kill women and girls. 

Beyond his work as a defence attorney, De la Espriella made his fortune in part by launching a range of lifestyle brands including wines, rum and menswear. He frequently travels by private jet, wears Italian suits and sports fastidiously maintained facial hair. 

Much like the chainsaw-brandishing Milei, De la Espriella wants to cut back the size of the state, slash taxes and regulation for private corporations and double down on the oil and coal extraction that Petro has fought to phase out. 

Booth said that De la Espriella seemed to have stitched together a constituency of Colombians frustrated by the failure of Petro’s “Total Peace” policy to stem the country’s enduring insecurity, as well as moneyed interests resentful of the leftist administration’s redistributive economic programmes. 

“Trump is holding together a coalition of robber barons, racists and a large mass of others who are confused or angered by the current state of politics or the economy,” he said. “Bolsonaro did the same in Brazil, and De La Espriella seems to be putting together a similar grouping.”

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Crass and charismatic, the criminal defence attorney cuts a compelling figure on the campaign trail. If he wins the run-off – which he very well could – Colombia would find itself once again prosecuting a costly war against the country’s scattered armed groups, backed by a US administration that openly advocates for military strikes against those suspected of being involved with the drug trade.

But Booth said that De la Espriella can still expect to face fierce opposition from Colombians who continue to cast their votes for a left-wing alternative to unrestrained military force. 

“It shouldn’t be forgotten, too, that Petro is the first left-wing president in Colombian history,” he said. “This is therefore the first time a left-wing government has had a chance to be re-elected, and Cepeda outscored Petro in the first round. So whatever happens in the second round, I think it’s likely that the left are here to stay as a viable and popular electoral force.”