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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 3rd 2026 - 22:47 UTC

Tag: Colombia

  • Tuesday, June 30th 2026 - 22:19 UTC

    Cepeda threatens 'civil disobedience' unless Colombia's president-elect renounces US citizenship

    Colombian Constitution does not prohibit dual nationality for the presidency: it requires being born in the country and being over 30, requirements that De la Espriella, born in Bogotá, meets

    Left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, who lost Colombia's presidential runoff, announced on Tuesday that he will resort to “peaceful civil disobedience” against the incoming government of Abelardo de la Espriella if the president-elect does not renounce his US citizenship and clarify a series of questions before taking office on August 7. The Pacto Histórico leader, from the party of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, urged his voters to join the measure, which he described as not recognizing the new president's authority.

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  • Tuesday, June 23rd 2026 - 18:15 UTC

    Early escrutinio stages confirm Colombia's preliminary result with 99.997% coincidence

    Those figures must be confirmed or adjusted by the count process

    Colombia's National Registry reported on Tuesday that there is a 99.997% coincidence between the preliminary results of Sunday's presidential runoff, which gave the victory to Abelardo de la Espriella, and the municipal counts, one of the stages of the process that will lead to the official declaration of the new president. “The preliminary count coincides with the judges' tally by 99.997%,” the body said in a statement.

  • Tuesday, June 23rd 2026 - 18:02 UTC

    De la Espriella says Colombia will join the US-led 'Shield of the Americas' on August 7

    De la Espriella, who received Trump's electoral backing, will come to power with rhetoric aligned with the White House on an iron-fist approach to organized crime and immigration

    Colombia's president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, said on Tuesday that the country will join the “Shield of the Americas,” the US initiative against drug cartels, on August 7, when he takes office in place of Gustavo Petro. “From August 7, Colombia will be part of the Shield of the Americas. Colombia will no longer be governed by a government complacent toward narcoterrorism; we will move to combat it as it deserves,” he wrote on the social network X, in response to a congratulation from US War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 13:24 UTC

    De la Espriella gives a victory speech vowing unity as Cepeda awaits the final tally

    ”The electoral campaign is over, the divisions are over (...) and the supreme hour of service to the homeland begins,” De la Espriella said

    Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella delivered a victory speech on Sunday in Barranquilla, in which he proclaimed himself the winner of Colombia's presidential runoff according to the preliminary count and called for national unity, while the official tally remained under way and his rival, left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, conditioned recognition of the result on the definitive count.

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 04:30 UTC

    De la Espriella wins Colombia's presidency in the preliminary count as Cepeda awaits the tally

    De la Espriella addressed Colombians with a “message of unity” and promised “absolute respect” for the vote

    Right-wing criminal lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidency, according to the preliminary count by the Registraduría, defeating left-wing senator Iván Cepeda by less than a point in the closest runoff in the country's history. With about 99.9% of the tables processed, De la Espriella took 49.66% of the vote against Cepeda's 48.70%, a difference of some 250,000 ballots. The governing-coalition candidate acknowledged the preliminary count but warned that he would not accept the result until the definitive tally, and challenged 33,000 of the 120,000 polling tables; President Gustavo Petro said that “neither can proclaim himself president.”

  • Friday, June 19th 2026 - 10:47 UTC

    De la Espriella leads Colombia's runoff with contained triumphalism as Cepeda hopes for a late surge

    The first-round margin does not look comfortable heading into the runoff

    Right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella heads into Colombia's presidential runoff, set for this Sunday, June 21, as the favorite, though with contained triumphalism, while left-wing senator Iván Cepeda trusts that a late push can still overturn the result. Both campaigns sense the election is closer than the polls reflect.

  • Friday, June 12th 2026 - 21:19 UTC

    Colombia's far right eyes landslide amid fears Petro will reject runoff result

    In the first round on May 31, De la Espriella won about 10.3 million votes (43.74%) and Cepeda roughly 9.7 million (40.9%), a margin of under three points that sent both men to the runoff

    The campaign of Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the far-right Defenders of the Homeland movement, is aiming for a decisive win in the June 21 runoff to shield the outcome from possible challenges, his campaign chief said.

  • Thursday, June 11th 2026 - 22:34 UTC

    Colombia's government confirms El Niño will be among the most intense since 1950

    In Colombia, El Niño tends to be associated with a decline in rainfall, which raises the risk of drought and energy rationing in a country that relies heavily on hydroelectric generation

    Colombia's Environment Ministry confirmed on Thursday that the El Niño phenomenon arrived about three months earlier than expected and that, if projections hold, it will be one of the “most intense recorded since 1950,” according to data from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam). The agency said the conditions associated with the phenomenon —which warms ocean waters above normal— are already present in the equatorial Pacific.

  • Tuesday, June 9th 2026 - 07:44 UTC

    Colombia's runoff: a united right behind De la Espriella faces a divided left

    The left, which had made unity the axis of its campaign in 2025, went through the week with internal tensions

    The first of the three campaign weeks ahead of Colombia's presidential runoff, set for June 21, has been marked by a contrast: a right that had failed to unite for the first round ended up aligned behind far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, while the left of Senator Iván Cepeda and President Gustavo Petro has struggled to coordinate its effort. De la Espriella was the most-voted candidate on May 31, with 43.74% against Cepeda's 40.90%.

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 21:15 UTC

    Colombian judge orders De la Espriella to stop using national team jersey in campaign

    De la Espriella rejected the decision in a campaign statement and said his legal team had already requested that the measure be overturned

    A Bogotá court ordered presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and his party, Defensores de la Patria, to refrain from using the Colombian national football jersey at campaign events and in advertising, while it studies a constitutional protection action filed by a citizen. The provisional measure, issued on June 3 by the 120th Municipal Criminal Court, takes immediate effect and also covers social media and the press.

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