Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Colombia elects a far-right firebrand as its next president, an earthquake shakes Venezuela, and health researchers praise Uruguay’s marijuana policy.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Colombia elects a far-right firebrand as its next president, an earthquake shakes Venezuela, and health researchers praise Uruguay’s marijuana policy.

Deciphering De La Espriella

True to polls, far-right businessman and lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday. He is the latest in a string of right-wing, U.S.-aligned candidates to be elected in Latin America. U.S. President Donald Trump was vocal about Colombia’s vote, endorsing de la Espriella on social media.

Last week, U.S. immigration authorities detained a Colombian immigrant based in the United States who had publicly criticized de la Espriella. A U.S. State Department memo cited the immigrant’s political speech while laying out grounds for his deportation, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, some Democratic U.S. lawmakers published an open letter calling for an investigation into connections between the president-elect and apparent shell companies in the United States. (De la Espriella lived in Miami for years and is a U.S. and Italian citizen.)

De la Espriella has vowed to work closely with the Trump administration, joining its Shield of the Americas anti-gang initiative and saying that he will reprise the Plan Colombia security cooperation agreement. He also promised “the construction of megaprisons, an end to peace talks with armed groups, and an all-out war against criminal organizations,” Christina Noriega wrote in Foreign Policy.

There are a few uncertainties hanging over de la Espriella’s agenda, however. One is the fact that his margin of victory was some 250,000 votes, less than a percentage point ahead of left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, who conceded on Wednesday. Cepeda received more votes than outgoing left-wing President Gustavo Petro did when he was elected in 2022.

Colombia is polarized along almost exactly the same geographic breakdown that defined the 2022 election, according to Michael Weintraub, a political scientist at the University of the Andes. The country’s left wing picked up support in a handful of rural districts and lost it in some urban ones.

Perhaps perceptive........

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