Abelardo de la Espriella, the presidential candidate for the Colombian Defensores de la Patria (Defenders of the Homeland) movement, held a virtual meeting this Wednesday, May 27, with Brazilian political leaders Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro to establish a regional right-wing alliance.
The meeting comes just four days before the Colombian presidential election on May 31, in which opinion polls place De la Espriella in a tight race against Ivan Cepeda, the candidate for the leftist Pacto Historico (Historical Pact) coalition. According to a statement De la Espriella made on his official social media accounts, the purpose of the meeting is to structure a coordinated political bloc to halt the advance of progressive projects on the continent.
The strategic objectives of the virtual meeting
The initiative seeks to capitalize on the current Latin American political landscape to coordinate a continental opposition bloc. During the meeting, the leaders agreed on the urgent need to unify their discourse based on strict security, a smaller state apparatus, and the defense of economic freedoms—pillars shared by the region’s conservative parties.
Flavio y Eduardo Bolsonaro conversan con el candidato colombiano Abelardo de la Espriella. pic.twitter.com/qbowxlWnNf
— Orlando Avendaño (@OrlvndoA) May 27, 2026
The Colombian candidate stated that conservative victories will continue to multiply in the region, arguing that bilateral cooperation between Colombia and Brazil will be fundamental to the stability of South America if their respective political projects are consolidated at the polls.
The regional political weight of the Bolsonaros
The Bolsonaro clan represents the core of Brazil’s conservative movement, maintaining a decisive influence despite the legal challenges facing its family members. The Supreme Federal Court definitively sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for the crimes of attempted coup d’état and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, after the plot to annul the 2022 elections was revealed.
Currently, the former president is serving his sentence in a cell at the Regional Superintendency of the Federal Police in Brasilia, after the court revoked his house arrest benefit for attempting to manipulate the electronic ankle monitor.
Following the imprisonment of the former head of state, his eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, assumed leadership of the party structure. He currently serves as a senator for Rio de Janeiro and is considered the leading opposition candidate against the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
For his part, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the former president’s third son, serves as a federal deputy and acts as the movement’s main international liaison, building bridges with global organizations such as the American Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The scope of the initiative and its key figures
During the meeting, De la Espriella indicated that his proposal seeks programmatic alignment with the security policies implemented by Nayib Bukele’s government in El Salvador and the fiscal adjustment model being carried out by Javier Milei in Argentina.
The main agreement reached was to establish permanent channels of technical and campaign support, projecting a bloc of allies that will act under the same political guidelines before multilateral organizations in the Americas.