Trump-endorsed Miguel de la Espriella wins Colombia's presidential runoff election

Miguel de la Espriella has won Colombia's presidential runoff election, clinching victory with the high-profile backing of US President Donald Trump. The result represents a decisive turn to the right in one of South America's largest and most strategically important countries.

De la Espriella's win is a significant foreign policy moment for Trump, who has been actively trying to cultivate aligned governments across Latin America. Colombia under outgoing President Gustavo Petro had pursued a more independent and leftward foreign policy, at times clashing with Washington on issues from drug enforcement to Venezuela. A de la Espriella administration is widely expected to reverse that posture and align more closely with the United States.

The election result will also have implications for Colombia's domestic agenda — on security policy, relations with armed groups, economic management, and environmental policy in the Amazon region. De la Espriella ran on a platform broadly sympathetic to business interests and more hawkish on security.

For the wider region, the outcome adds to a pattern of electoral shifts that have produced a more ideologically mixed Latin America after a decade in which left-leaning governments dominated. With elections looming in several other countries, the Colombia result will be closely watched as a signal of whether the political wind is turning.