On May 31, the presidential elections in Colombia were held, in which the lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and Senator Iván Cepeda They will be the candidates who will contest the second round of the electoral contestby obtaining the highest number of votes among all the candidates.
Once the closing of the polls and the start of the campaign for the second round has been confirmed, Both candidates have made a series of accusations and mutual accusations, which increases tension and the political confrontation ahead of June 21.
Butwho are the candidates who aspire to the Presidency of Colombia? What are your proposals and from whom have you received support?
Ivan Cepeda
Iván Cepeda has defined himself as “a survivor of the political genocide” in Colombia. In addition to a vast political career, He has participated as an activist in defense of victims of the armed conflict, human rights and peace processes.
Cepeda is the son of Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, who belonged to the Patriotic Union party and He was murdered in 1994 by state agentsand Yira Castro Cepeda, who was a communist leader.
“My father’s death reoriented me and made me who I am today.“Cepeda said during an interview in 2019.
At 63 years old, Cepeda focuses his campaign on issues such as peace, social justice and the fight against corruption, and insists that “Colombia cannot continue trapped in violence and exclusion“.
Iván Cepeda was born in Bogotá on October 24, 1962 and grew up in a family marked by the political militancy and violence that Colombia experienced for decades.
His political career began in 2010, when he was elected representative to the Chamber for Bogotá for the Alternative Democratic Pole. Four years later he reached the Senate, a body to which he has since been re-elected.
Cepeda’s national notoriety grew especially due to the debates he promoted in Congress on paramilitarism and alleged links of politicians and businessmen with illegal armed organizations.
In this campaign, Cepeda has proposed deepening Petro’s social reforms, accelerating the implementation of the peace agreement and reinforce protection policies for social leaders and communities affected by violence.
In his government program he proposes moving towards “three peaceful revolutions: ethical, economic and political”in addition to strengthening agrarian reform, the energy transition and peace negotiations with armed groups.
Abelardo de la Espriella
Nicknamed by his followers as “El Tigre”, De la Espriella He is an admirer of Donald Trump and a donor to the Republican Party. In addition, he has been a defense attorney for several “controversial” figures, such as the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab, currently detained in the United States, and David Murcia Guzmán, protagonist of the largest pyramid scheme in Colombia.
This is the lawyer’s first political participation; For this reason, he created the Defenders of the Homeland movement from scratch, with the objective of preventing the continuity of Gustavo Petro and other related candidates.
De la Espriella, 47, proposes making Colombia “the miracle homeland,” like South Korea or Irelandand turn it into a country of entrepreneurs, for which he hopes to have the technological help of the American millionaire Elon Musk, whom he refers to colloquially as “compadre.”
In his government plan there is a decalogue of “miracles” for security, health, education, the countryside, the environment, culture, women, animal welfare, the mining-energy sector and the fight against corruption.
A good part of his electorate comes from the membership of the Catholic and evangelical churches, who see him as a family man, opposed to abortion and what he calls “gender ideology”, although lately they have circulated on social networks videos from more than a decade ago in which he declared himself an atheist. To this he responds that he regained his faith six years ago.
Born in Bogotá on July 31, 1978, De la Espriella is, however, a Caribbean man by the origin of his family, with roots in Montería, capital of the department of Córdoba, but with an Italian soul, a country of which he is a citizen, as well as the United States.
He is married to the business administrator Ana Lucía Pineda, with whom he has four children and who has recently accompanied him at some rallies.
De la Espriella chose José Manuel Restrepo, an economist from the Universidad del Rosario with a master’s degree from The London School of Economics and a doctorate in Administration from the University of Bath (United Kingdom), as his running mate for the Vice Presidency. who, due to his academic prestige, has given a touch of poise to his campaign.