Eccentric, ostentatious and artistic, Abelardo de la Espriella is also a political neophyte who is poised to become Colombia’s next president after leaning into everything that makes him different from the conventional politician to win people’s support.

The businessman and lawyer, whose ventures include a clothing line, win and rum brands, and a restaurant, earned US President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite never having run for office, and on Monday led the presidential runoff race by 1 percentage point, or nearly 251,000 votes, with all but a fraction of the votes counted.

De la Espriella’s victory, which electoral authorities are expected to declare this week, will add Colombia to a growing list of countries that have turned to political outsiders in search for solutions to complex social, security and economic challenges.

The self-proclaimed representative of “the never-before-seen” promised voters fearful of renewed internal conflict to combat violent crime with an iron fist, pledging a strategy that includes ending outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s attempts to establish dialogue with multiple armed groups.

Progressive candidate Iván Cepeda, Petro’s protégé, is challenging the results.

Petro and Cepeda are opponents of Israel, while de la Espriella has pledged to “renew a strategic alliance with the State of Israel” and “defend the Judeo-Christian principles that form the foundation of Western civilization.”

Cepeda, meanwhile, has promised to stick to Petro’s stance on Israel, with which the current president severed ties in 2024 over the war in Gaza, which he cast as a genocide — a charge vehemently denied by Israel.

De La Espriella is set to tack Colombia hard to the right by building “mega-prisons” and forging ever closer ties with the United States to combat drug trafficking.

The millionaire lawyer-turned-politician is looking to shrink the size of the state, conduct a bombing campaign against Colombia’s myriad armed groups and review the Latin American country’s involvement in international organizations including the United Nations.

He wants to build 10 mega-prisons where people would be held underground and fed only “bread and water.”

Such pledges have sounded the alarm about human rights violations, and some commentators who see authoritarian tendencies in his discourse believe such an approach will trigger escalating violence.

“There will be no off-limits areas for the State, no criminals enjoying impunity,” De la Espriella said........

© The Times of Israel