Colombia’s De la Espriella Calls Opponent Cepeda and President Petro ‘Bandits’

Written on 06/01/2026
Josep Freixes
Abelardo De la Espriella reacted to his victory in the Colombian presidential election by calling Cepeda and President Petro “thugs.” Credit: Josep Maria Freixes / ColombiaOne.

Abelardo De la Espriella celebrated his victory in the first round of the presidential election with a harsh, unnuanced speech filled with political confrontation. From Barranquilla, the populist right-wing candidate turned election night into a frontal attack against Ivan Cepeda and President Gustavo Petro, whom he held responsible for the country’s institutional deterioration.

The candidate, who enters as the favorite heading into the June runoff following the preliminary result, avoided any gesture of moderation and raised the tone from the very beginning. Before his supporters, he insisted that the upcoming contest would be a dispute between those who defend democracy and those who, according to him, have put it at risk from power.

In response to what was said earlier that same night by President Gustavo Petro—and supported by candidate Ivan Cepeda—rejecting the election results and alleging supposed irregularities, De la Espriella—surrounded by the showmanship that has accompanied his entire campaign—turned his fire on Cepeda, something the officialist candidate had moments earlier done against De la Espriella himself.

Colombia’s De la Espriella calls opponent Cepeda and president Petro ‘bandits’

The setting chosen was a massive rally on the boardwalk of Barranquilla, where De la Espriella appeared surrounded by supporters who celebrated what they consider a historic victory for populist right-wing politics. The candidate thanked the support received at the ballot box and stated that the country has sent a clear message against the current political direction.

However, the celebratory tone lasted little. Within minutes, the speech turned into an intervention marked by direct accusations and deliberately confrontational language. The candidate claimed that his partial victory represents a forceful rejection of the political project led by President Gustavo Petro.

As the minutes passed, the message became even harsher. De la Espriella insisted that the election is not only an electoral contest, but a battle for the country’s future, in which, according to him, the institutions and democratic stability are at stake.

“Colombians have defeated at the ballot box the bandits who have sought to destroy our democracy,” he said in one of the most applauded moments by his supporters, who responded with chants of support.

The main target of his intervention was Ivan Cepeda, who will face him in the second round. De la Espriella presented him as the direct continuation of Gustavo Petro’s government and accused him of representing a political project that, in his view, seeks to consolidate a closed and exclusionary model of power.

The populist right-wing candidate at all times avoided referring to Cepeda in terms of respectful electoral competition. On the contrary, he placed him as part of the same political bloc he holds responsible for the institutional and social crisis that, he claims, the country is going through.

“Today the country has taken a first step, but the most important one is still missing: to definitively stop those who want to keep deceiving Colombia,” he said before a crowd that accompanied each intervention with applause and shouts of support.

De la Espriella’s statements immediately generated reactions among political sectors and electoral observers, who warned about the increasingly polarized tone of the presidential campaign. Some leaders questioned the use of disparaging expressions in a context of high political tension.

Call to defend democracy

One of the most controversial moments of the speech came when the candidate referred to the defense of the electoral process and the need to guarantee the result in the face of possible attempts to reject it.

At that point, De la Espriella directly appealed to his supporters and called on them to remain mobilized in the decisive stage of the presidential campaign. According to his view, Colombian democracy faces threats that require a firm response from citizens.

“We will defend democracy however necessary. And if it must be done by force, we will defend it by force,” he said, generating an immediate reaction among his supporters.

The phrase quickly became one of the most discussed elements of the night and opened a new focal point of controversy in public debate, in a country where political violence is part of a still sensitive recent memory.

While his supporters celebrated the candidate’s defiant tone, his critics warned that such statements could deepen polarization and further strain the electoral atmosphere ahead of the June runoff, which is already shaping up to be one of the most contested and tense in recent years in Colombia.