Colombia’s presidential election marks more than a change of government; it reflects a profound crisis of public confidence. The victory of political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella, following years of unfulfilled promises from both the left and the traditional right, underscores a growing impatience with insecurity, economic stagnation and weak state authority

Twelve hours before Colombians cast their ballots in the 21 June presidential run-off, President Gustavo Petro announced that security forces had killed Iván Idrobo, the FARC dissident commander known as “Marlon” — second-in-command to Néstor Vera, alias Iván Mordisco, and one of the most wanted men in the country's southwest. Petro called it the heaviest blow yet against armed criminal structures in western Colombia. The timing was almost too apt: a state still fighting, region by region, to hold ground that has never fully been its own, even as the political project that promised to win that ground through negotiation was about to lose power at the ballot box.

By the next morning, Colombia had chosen its next president: Abelardo de la Espriella, a 47-year-old millionaire lawyer with no prior political experience, who narrowly defeated left-wing senator Iván Cepeda — 49.66% to 48.7%, a margin of roughly 250,000 votes out of more than 26 million cast, making him the most-voted candidate in Colombian history.

Supporters call him “El Tigre.” Donald Trump, who endorsed him, called him a fighter “just like me.” Commentators reached for the comparison Colombians were already making themselves: Javier Milei in Argentina, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador — outsiders who won less by proposing policy than by promising to demolish a political class rather than reform it. It would be a mistake, though, to read the........

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