Lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella will face left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in a runoff in three weeks

Trump-friendly lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella secured a narrow lead over left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in the first round of Colombia's presidential election on Sunday.

With votes counted from more than 99% of polling stations, de la Espriella received 43.72% of the vote, while Cepeda secured 40.92%. Conservative candidate Paloma Valencia came third with 6.92%.

Colombia has historically been the United States' most important ally in the region in terms of security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts. The US is Colombia's largest trading partner, and the country shares a long border with neighboring Venezuela.

Relations between Washington and Bogota deteriorated significantly in recent years under outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who criticized US President Donald Trump's mass deportation policies and military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats. The two leaders frequently traded insults on social media and in public statements.

Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president, is constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term and has endorsed Cepeda.

For his conservative policies and friendly stance toward the US, de la Espriella has been compared to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, one of Trump's closest allies in Latin America.

For his conservative policies and pro-US stance, de la Espriella has been compared to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, a vocal Trump ally in the region. The candidate has praised Trump's "cultural battle against wokeism" and vowed to uphold traditional gender norms.

De la Espriella welcomed Trump's return to the White House and backed the US commando raid in Caracas earlier this year, during which American forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"It has been revealed how USAID and woke populism fueled the leftward shift in countries like Colombia... To guarantee a fair race, it is urgent that your father's administration puts Petro in his place," de la Espriella wrote on X in January in response to a post by Donald Trump Jr.

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